Hyperliquid's RWA desk just out-traded its entire crypto side 🍞

Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have become the largest trading category on perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid, according to Blockworks data. From July 13 to July 19, RWAs generated $25.1 billion in trading volume, accounting for 52% of the platform's total weekly volume of $48.2 billion. ARK Invest's research director for digital assets, Lorenzo Valente, wrote on X on Thursday that "Hyperliquid's RWA market alone was larger than the combined crypto perpetual volume of every other DEX."

The shift has been accompanied by steady user growth on the protocol. According to data aggregator RWA.xyz, the number of RWA holders on Hyperliquid increased by 32% over the past month to 1.25 million users, while the total value of tokenized RWAs rose by 3.5% to $36.7 billion. Hyperliquid generated $7.6 million in revenue over the past week, according to DefiLlama, ranking third among crypto applications by weekly revenue behind stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, which posted $112 million and $45 million, respectively.

Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire described the milestone as a "major structural shift" in crypto markets, moving "away from speculating on endogenous digital commodities," in a Friday X post. The tokenization trend has drawn participation from both crypto-native and traditional financial firms. In March, the NYSE partnered with tokenization platform Securitize to develop blockchain-based stock trading infrastructure with 24/7 trading and settlement. Earlier in July, Pantera Capital said perpetual futures could become a dominant trading instrument beyond crypto, citing structural advantages such as 24/7 trading, no contract expiries, simpler position management and continuous price discovery.

Hyperliquid's growth has also drawn attention from Wall Street. NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) CEO Jeffrey Sprecher has urged regulators to create a "level playing field" for launching 24/7 onchain perpetual futures contracts.