BitMEX said in a report on Thursday that commodity perpetual swaps were the fastest growing segment within TradFi purp in Q1 2026, with weekly trading volume increasing 65,463% from $38.1 million to $25 billion.
Silver, oil and gold drove most of the increase, the report said. By the week of March 15, silver (XAG) accounted for 34.8% of the tokenized products market share, followed by crude oil (CL) at 27.7%, gold (XAU) at 27.5% and hyperliquid silver at 6%, according to Thursday’s report.
BitMEX said the entry of crude oil in March added new footfall to the market, and attributed the move to Iran-related geopolitical tensions and widespread demand for 24/7 commodity exposure in the crypto-native arena.
This number shows that the niche market within the crypto derivatives market is growing rapidly.
Weekend turmoil clears commodity problems
BitMEX CEO Stefan Lutz told Cointelegraph that on-chain TradFi criminals are encouraging traders to “speculate and hedge on weekend geopolitical events, such as the recent Iran conflict, in real time.” “While the perpetual swap model will continue to gain significant market share in commodity trading due to its 24/7 nature, we remain highly skeptical about the tokenization of spot assets,” he said.
However, the minting of physical products on blockchain is complicated by the “complicated and arbitrary legal rules” of the traditional financial system, Lutz said, adding that on-chain derivatives will continue to erode the trading share of traditional products until “traditional giants like CME” launch their own 24/7 trading venues.
Related: Tokenized goods market rises to $7.7 billion, crypto exchanges rise
In the broader market, on-chain commodity market capitalization fell 2.7% over the past 30 days to $7.34 billion as of Thursday, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz.
BitMEX, which claims to have launched its first perpetual swap in 2016, currently offers more than 20 TradFi contracts, according to the report.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, introduced gold and silver permanent currencies in January. We offer contracts across precious metals and tokenized stocks. The company’s Silver (XAG) contracts had an average daily trading volume of $1.31 billion during the quarter, the report said.
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