Coinbase introduces perpetual contracts to the Base App through Hyperliquid, supporting up to 50x leverage

Coinbase announced the introduction of perpetual contract trading to the Base App through Hyperliquid, allowing eligible users to trade over 290 perpetual contract markets with a maximum leverage of 50 times, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum, and markets related to stocks and commodities. Coinbase's engineering lead Chintan Turakhia stated that perpetual contracts currently account for about 75% of the total trading volume in the crypto market and are the feature that high-frequency users of the Base App most want to see added.

Related trades will be executed within the Base App, but Hyperliquid will be responsible for the actual execution, allowing users to stay within their existing wallets. Coinbase stated that the maximum leverage ratio available for different assets varies, and positions may be liquidated when losses exceed a certain threshold. This product is currently not available to jurisdictions such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other areas that restrict leveraged crypto derivatives trading. This launch also reflects a shift in the product focus of the Base App from previously emphasizing social and creator features to trading, payments, and AI Agents. Base founder Jesse Pollak previously acknowledged that social and creator tokens did not bring the expected user growth, while prediction markets, perpetual contracts, and stablecoins have become stronger drivers of adoption.