The Craze for ‘Stocks Traded with Crypto’... The Real Profits Go to [Weekend Money]

Perpetual futures in virtual assets reach 35 times spot trading volume
Rising trading volumes boost DEXs like Hyperliquid

As the tokenized stock market based on real world asset (RWA) structures experiences rapid growth, some analysts suggest that decentralized exchanges (DEX), where liquidity and fees concentrate rather than the blockchains issuing the assets, stand to benefit the most.

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On August 8, Lightwoods stated in its report, “The Era of Tokenized Stocks: The Real Beneficiary May Be Decentralized Exchanges,” that the core market growth is focused on derivatives that allow 24-hour trading, rather than simply on the issuance of ownership rights.

According to the report, the market value of on-chain tokenized stocks reached 2.73 trillion won as of last month. Trading volumes for perpetual futures were higher than for spot trades. In the first quarter of this year, the trading volume for tokenized stock spot products amounted to 21.5 trillion won, while the volume for perpetual futures—which track equities, commodities, indexes, and more—reached 745 trillion won, 35 times that of spot trading.

As a result, asset issuers receive one-off profits, but exchanges collect fees every time trades are repeated. A leading example of this is Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange that has grown through virtual asset perpetual futures trading.

On July 27, the perpetual futures trading volume for SK hynix on Hyperliquid was 607 billion won, amounting to 8.5% of the domestic spot trading volume of SK hynix shares (7.15 trillion won) on the same day. Combined with other overseas platform-linked products, the trading volume climbed to 5.47 trillion won, or 76.5% of the domestic spot trading value.

The expansion of trading also brings operational risks. On July 28, in the Nextrade (NXT) pre-market, a single SK hynix share was traded at 1,272,000 won—about 30% lower than the previous day’s closing price. This execution affected overseas perpetual futures prices, causing Hyperliquid’s SK hynix product to drop sharply by 17.9%, and triggering the forced liquidation of buy positions amounting to 81.5 billion won across 960 accounts. On the same day, the spot stock also declined by 14.6%.

The report highlighted that transactions amounting to several trillion won occur during the periods when the domestic stock market is closed. Although the liquidation event on Hyperliquid cannot be seen as the sole reason behind the drop in SK hynix’s spot price, it is possible that the decline in overseas futures prices affected investor sentiment, resulting in greater volatility. In other words, the formation of the SK hynix price is expanding beyond the official Korean market hours, and Hyperliquid has started to make an impact.

Ricky Sohn, a researcher at Blue Lake, commented, “In the era of tokenized stocks, the direct benefit does not go to the platforms that issue the most tokens, but rather to the infrastructure that secures trading volume and liquidity and connects fee revenue to token value. We need to closely monitor where the trading activity actually concentrates.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.