Commodity Perpetual Swaps Experience Explosive Growth in First Quarter

The market for commodity perpetual swaps has seen a remarkable surge in the first quarter of 2026, with BitMEX reporting a staggering 65,463% increase in weekly volume. The jump from $38.1 million to $25.0 billion is a testament to the growing demand for these contracts, which offer 24/7 commodity exposure on crypto-native venues.

The top contributors to this growth are gold, silver, and oil, with silver accounting for 34.8% of the market share, followed by crude oil at 27.7%, and gold at 27.5%. The introduction of crude oil perpetual swaps in March added a new dimension to the market, driven by Iran-related geopolitical tensions.

According to Stephan Lutz, CEO at BitMEX, traders are turning to onchain TradFi perps as a way to speculate and hedge against weekend geopolitical events like the recent Iran conflict. However, he also expressed skepticism about tokenizing spot assets due to the complexities of the legacy financial system's legal rules.