Key Takeaways
- VALR and Hyperliquid debut 200+ markets as on‑chain perps volume tops hundreds of billions daily.
- Gianluca Sacco says VALR’s 24/7 access to FX, equities and crypto expands South Africa’s regulated perp trading.
- Hyperliquid’s rise and 2023–2026 perp growth push multi‑asset contracts like BTC, S&P 500 and WTI into mainstream.
Evolution of the Perpetuals Market
Cryptocurrency exchange VALR announced it is preparing to roll out a major expansion of its derivatives offering with the launch of “Perps,” a cross-asset perpetual futures product that will introduce more than 200 new markets.
The upgrade allows customers to take leveraged long or short positions across global equities, commodities, precious metals, stock indices, foreign exchange pairs and crypto assets within the VALR app.
According to a company announcement, the move builds on VALR’s initial perpetuals launch in 2023 and arrives during a period of rapid evolution in the global perpetuals market. Over the past several months, perpetual futures have surged in scale and diversity, with decentralized venues gaining ground and traditional-asset perpetuals accelerating in adoption.
Industry data shows that perpetual futures now dominate derivatives activity, regularly exceeding hundreds of billions of dollars in daily volume and expanding into tokenized equities, commodities and forex. Decentralized perpetual exchanges — led by Hyperliquid — have grown into sophisticated competitors, capturing rising market share as on-chain liquidity deepens.
VALR’s new product is powered by an integration with Hyperliquid. It allows users to open and manage positions directly on VALR while trades execute via Hyperliquid’s permissionless infrastructure. According to the company, this marks the first time a major regulated exchange has natively integrated an on-chain protocol to source liquidity for cross-asset perpetuals.
The expanded suite includes perpetual contracts on global equities such as SpaceX, NVIDIA, Tesla, Apple, SK Hynix, Samsung and Palantir Technologies, as well as benchmarks such as the S&P 500. Also included are Brent and WTI crude oil, natural gas, gold, silver, platinum and copper. Forex pairs such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY, alongside digital currencies, round out the offerings.
VALR representatives said the breadth of markets will allow traders to express macro views and capitalize on volatility across sectors, ranging from energy shocks to equity earnings cycles and crypto-native catalysts.
The launch comes as perpetual futures undergo a structural shift. Centralized exchanges have historically dominated liquidity, but decentralized perpetuals have grown sharply, with Hyperliquid helping push decentralized exchange market share to new highs. At the same time, traditional-asset perpetuals — including commodities and equities — have expanded rapidly, moving from niche experiments to multibillion-dollar weekly markets as traders seek 24/7 access to real-world assets.
Gianluca Sacco, VALR’s chief operating officer, said the launch places “over 200 perpetuals markets directly inside the VALR app,” offering round-the-clock access to crypto, commodities, currencies and equities — including pre-IPO companies — through a regulated platform.
“Perps are how crypto traders take a view on price — a market now exceeding hundreds of billions of dollars in daily volume,” Sacco said. “We believe they will become how people trade every market. Our integration of Hyperliquid will give our users the deepest on-chain liquidity available anywhere.”
