derivatives

According to CoinDesk, digital asset management company Grayscale pointed out in its latest report that the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid is rapidly evolving from a cryptocurrency perpetual contract exchange into a blockchain financial infrastructure platform, and may even challenge traditional derivatives trading and exchange systems in the future, growing into a "financial services giant."The report shows that Hyperliquid is expected to achieve approximately $800 million in revenue by 2025, with an annual perpetual contract trading volume of about $2.9 trillion and an open interest size of around $7 billion, occupying a significant share of the cryptocurrency derivatives market. Grayscale believes that the platform is no longer limited to cryptocurrency trading but is expanding into tokenized stocks, commodities, and prediction markets through the HIP-3 and HIP-4 systems, gradually building an all-weather on-chain trading infrastructure.FalconX also pointed out in another report that Hyperliquid is competing with traditional derivatives exchanges such as CME Group and prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, making progress in new markets such as Pre-IPO. The report also emphasizes that regulation remains a key variable. Although Hyperliquid currently restricts access for U.S. users, as the regulatory framework becomes clearer and institutions like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Kraken explore perpetual contract products, this sector may welcome broader growth opportunities in the future.

According to an official announcement from Coinbase, Coinbase Financial Markets has become the first and only futures commission merchant (FCM) regulated by the CFTC in the United States, officially providing U.S. institutional clients with access to the global cryptocurrency derivatives market.Previously, U.S. users lacked compliant channels to access the global cryptocurrency derivatives market (which accounts for about 80% of global cryptocurrency trading volume). Currently, the open interest in Deribit Bitcoin options has exceeded $31 billion.With this launch, institutional clients can access international platforms such as Deribit through a single compliant channel, without the need to establish offshore entities. Retail user access services will also be launched soon.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has jointly issued staff guidance from its divisions of Market Oversight, Clearing, and Risk, addressing regulatory expectations and compliance requirements for the increasingly prevalent 24/7 trading, clearing, and settlement models, encouraging market innovation while ensuring compliance.The guidance emphasizes that regulated trading platforms, swap execution facilities, derivatives clearing organizations, and futures brokers must comply with the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and related regulatory rules when expanding around-the-clock trading, and must proactively assess risk management and operational arrangements.The CFTC points out that the adaptability of different asset classes to 24/7 trading varies, with derivatives related to crypto assets being more suitable for around-the-clock trading and clearing due to their digital infrastructure and global continuous trading characteristics; whereas traditional commodity derivatives like agricultural products may not be suitable for full 24/7 operation due to their regional and trading structure characteristics.CFTC staff stated that relevant institutions should ensure compliance with regulatory frameworks and risk control requirements while promoting the continuous evolution of the market to support "responsible market innovation."

The BNB ecosystem decentralized derivatives trading platform StandX officially launched the SIP-5 Universal Markets Listing framework, allowing anyone to deploy perpetual contracts, prediction markets, Pre-Market, RWA derivatives, and structured derivatives trading pairs with one click by staking DUSD or its future governance tokens.It is reported that the core formula of SIP-5 is UM = Seed + Oracle Grid + Shield. Among them, Seed refers to the staking funds of the deployer (Sponsor) for listing, which will enter the community market maker incentive pool 100%; Oracle Grid provides three layers of price source support, including integration with Pyth and Chainlink; Shield serves as an optional first-loss buffer layer to absorb extreme risks.In addition, deployers can receive up to 70% of the trading fee share and can achieve automatic fee rollback to the market-making pool by enabling Stand Mode. The protocol has previously established infrastructure such as DUSD yield stablecoins maintaining an APY of 8%-10%+, and has hinted at conducting a TGE within the year.

According to the official announcement, Bitget stock derivatives have now launched 8 underlying assets including RGTI (Rigetti Computing), QBTS (D-Wave Quantum), QUBT (Quantum Computing Inc.), ARQQ (Arqit Quantum), covering popular US stock directions such as quantum computing, advanced aviation, and cybersecurity. The aforementioned contracts support up to 20 times leverage, and more details can be found on the Bitget official platform.

According to analyst Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) in a social media post, since the event on October 10 last year, Bitcoin has undergone a long de-leveraging phase in the derivatives market. When open interest falls below the 180-day moving average, it usually indicates a decline in futures activity, and investors' risk-off behavior leads to a reduction in open interest. Affected by the deterioration of the global macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop, traders generally choose to reduce their risk exposure.This de-leveraging phase on Binance has lasted for about 8 months, with the last similar occurrence dating back to the previous bear market in 2022, just before the FTX collapse. However, since early May, the trend seems to be changing. Open interest on Binance has risen from $6.4 billion in March to about $8.96 billion currently, re-establishing itself above the current 180-day moving average of approximately $8.75 billion. This effectively marks the end of the de-leveraging cycle.The return of investors to the derivatives market has clearly driven the current upward rebound, but it is still too early to call it a true recovery. Despite the continued deterioration of the macro environment, Bitcoin's significant pullback has attracted more speculative traders seeking rebound opportunities. It should be noted that this trend remains highly fragile; once Bitcoin resumes the adjustment trend that began last October, these traders may exit as quickly as they entered.

MY Group announced the completion of a $3 million strategic round investment in the AI-driven decentralized derivatives infrastructure ClawMax, and both parties have officially reached a deep cooperation.It is reported that ClawMax is a platform focusing on core technological directions such as AI market making, intelligent strategy execution, decentralized copy trading, and on-chain risk management. After this round of investment is completed, ClawMax will continue to operate independently, while MY Group will provide support in areas such as ecological traffic, capital resources, and compliance layout.In addition, the official revealed that MY Group has currently initiated a global capitalization process and is simultaneously advancing its Nasdaq IPO listing. In the future, ClawMax will participate as a key technology partner in the subsequent ecological collaborative construction.

According to Fortune, the decentralized derivatives trading platform Variational announced the completion of a $50 million Series A funding round, led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto and Coinbase Ventures.The company is headquartered in the Cayman Islands and is dedicated to building an on-chain derivatives protocol for institutional and traditional financial traders. By aggregating liquidity from traditional finance and the crypto market, it aims to provide an on-chain market for real assets such as oil and commodities that can be traded instantly. Its core product, the Omni platform, adopts a zero-fee model and combines a liquidity pool mechanism to enhance market depth and execution efficiency.Variational stated that its goal is not to compete directly with centralized exchanges but to connect multi-source liquidity through a "brokerage-style" model, including traditional financial market makers and mainstream crypto trading platforms, to address the "liquidity cold start" problem in on-chain markets.

According to CoinDesk, K33 Research stated in a report that this round of the Bitcoin bear market is different, as exceptionally pessimistic traders have limited the downside. Bitcoin traders remain in a defensive stance, reducing the risk of a leveraged-driven collapse. Research director Vetle Lunde pointed out that the current slow bottoming process has not replicated the rapid reversals seen after bear market rebounds in previous cycles, and derivative data instead points to extreme pessimism.The 30-day average funding rate for Bitcoin has been negative for 81 consecutive days, nearing the longest historical record. The annualized basis for CME Bitcoin futures has dropped below 2.5%, which is an extremely cautious level. However, Bitcoin derivative open interest remains high, and further price weakness could trigger volatility. K33 maintains its fundamental judgment, believing that Bitcoin falling to $60,000 in February could be the largest pullback of this round.

According to CoinGlass data, gold (XAUT) is currently priced at $4548.96, up 0.46% in the last 24 hours, with a total contract trading volume of approximately $3.59 billion. Among them, the XAUT contract position on the Gate platform is about $147 million, ranking among the top three in the entire network. Meanwhile, silver (XAG) is currently priced at $76.48, up 1.43% in the last 24 hours, with a total position size of approximately $392 million. The XAG contract position on the Gate platform is about $120 million, ranking second in the entire network, further reflecting the platform's liquidity and product advantages in the metal derivatives market.Currently, Gate has fully deepened its TradFi layout, with the spot section supporting stock and metal trading, and the contract section covering diversified assets such as gold, silver, foreign exchange, indices, and commodities. With a flexible USDT settlement mechanism and leverage of up to 100 times, Gate continues to assist global investors in achieving cross-market, round-the-clock asset allocation and risk management.

According to CoinDesk, Kraken's parent company Payward announced its Q1 2026 performance, showing adjusted revenue of $507 million, a year-on-year increase of 3%, achieving growth despite the overall downturn in the cryptocurrency market.The report indicated that Payward's futures business performed strongly during the period, with daily average revenue trades (DARTs) increasing by 51% year-on-year, mainly benefiting from the expansion of NinjaTrader, Breakout, and derivatives business.However, the company's adjusted EBITDA fell to $18 million. Payward stated that it continues to invest in mergers and acquisitions, product development, and regulatory infrastructure construction, rather than prioritizing short-term profits.Additionally, the company disclosed that Kraken's spot market share has increased from about 3.5% in mid-2025 to 5.2% in March 2026; the number of funded accounts on the platform grew by 47% year-on-year to 6.1 million, and the platform's asset scale rose to $40 billion.

Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff posted on the X platform, stating that he recently met with several policymakers in Washington, D.C. to discuss the ongoing "Clarity Act" and the cryptocurrency regulatory framework, focusing on promoting the compliance of on-chain derivatives trading markets in the United States.He mentioned that the discussions were divided into two levels: one part was more technical, involving Hyperliquid's on-chain trading architecture, global user demand, and its positioning as a financial innovation infrastructure; the other part was an introduction to the "first principles" of DeFi and on-chain markets, aimed at helping policymakers understand the relevant mechanisms and potential impacts.Jeff expressed that during these discussions, he sensed a "cautious but open" regulatory attitude towards the cryptocurrency industry from both parties in the U.S. and believes that the market is forming a policy window to promote the entry of on-chain derivatives into the U.S. system. He also emphasized that he will continue to advance relevant communications in Washington to strive for U.S. users to access Hyperliquid's on-chain trading market.

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini released its Q1 financial report, with revenue reaching $50.3 million, a 42% increase from $35.3 million in the same period last year, which led to a 30% rise in its stock price during after-hours trading. The company stated that the growth mainly came from service business, OTC trading, and cryptocurrency-related credit card businesses such as the Gemini Credit Card. Among these, the credit card segment's revenue grew by approximately 300% year-over-year, nearing half of the total revenue.Gemini also disclosed data on its prediction market business for the first time. Since its launch in December last year, this business has attracted over 20,000 users trading contracts, with a total of over 100 million contracts traded, contributing approximately $400,000 in revenue. The company noted that trading volume in April further increased by 78% compared to the previous month. Gemini CEO Tyler Winklevoss stated that the company is gradually transforming from a cryptocurrency trading platform into a broader "market company." Previously, Gemini obtained a CFTC derivatives clearing organization license to support its expansion into derivatives and prediction market businesses.

Digital asset infrastructure company BitGo Holdings (NYSE: BTGO) recently released its first quarterly report since going public. In the first quarter of 2026, the company reported total revenue of $3.77 billion, a year-on-year increase of 112.6%, mainly driven by the expansion of its digital asset business and growth in stablecoin-as-a-service revenue.However, GAAP net loss widened from $25.7 million in the same period last year to $60.7 million, due to a non-cash market value adjustment of approximately $53.7 million on Bitcoin holdings and increased equity incentive expenses related to the IPO. Adjusted EBITDA recorded a loss of $1.7 million, compared to a profit of $3.9 million in the same period last year.During the quarter, BitGo launched its derivatives business in January, generating approximately $3 billion in nominal trading volume. Since derivatives revenue is recognized on a net basis while spot trading is recognized on a gross basis, revenue decreased by 38.7% quarter-on-quarter. The number of customers increased by 42% year-on-year to 5,569. As of the end of the quarter, the company held 2,449 Bitcoins and $186.6 million in cash.

According to the Korea Economic Daily, Jeong Eun-bo, the chairman of the Korea Exchange, announced at the 30th anniversary ceremony of the Busan derivatives market that they plan to launch digital asset derivatives to make Busan a global hub for the derivatives market.He stated that the exchange will actively promote the introduction of related products and attract international conferences to solidify Busan's position as South Korea's leading derivatives financial center.