Stock Perps Jump $15B to $250B in 3 Months: CryptoQuant

Who would have believed it! In three months, a new segment of the crypto market multiplied its volume by 17. According to CryptoQuant, the monthly volume of crypto perpetual stock actions on exchanges has indeed exploded from 15 to 250 billion dollars between April and July 2026. Binance dominates with 76% of the market, while Gate records the strongest growth (+308%). AI and semiconductor stocks concentrate most of the volumes.

An unprecedented volume explosion in the history of crypto assets

According to a report published on August 13, 2026 by the analytics company CryptoQuant, the monthly volume of perpetual stock actions on the major crypto exchanges rose from about 15 billion dollars in April to nearly 250 billion dollars in July. A 17-fold increase in only three months and a 56% rise just between June and July.

These derivatives allow traders to gain exposure to publicly traded stocks without adhering to the traditional Wall Street trading hours. But there’s more! Unlike a traditional future, a crypto perpetual contract also has no expiration date. It is maintained through a periodic funding mechanism that aligns its price with that of the underlying asset.

As a result, crypto exchanges become 24/7 trading floors, even when U.S. stock markets are closed.

The CryptoQuant research team summarizes the facts well in their August 13 report:

This expansion transforms crypto exchanges into permanent marketplaces for contracts linked to traditional stocks.

This reinforces the ambition expressed by several crypto platforms: to become “everything exchanges,” capable of hosting cryptocurrencies, stocks, and commodities in a single account.

Binance already controls 76% of trades

In this new segment of the crypto market, one player largely dominates the scene: Binance. The platform processed about 193 billion dollars in volume in July. This represents 76% of the total perpetual stock actions market. A concentration level reminiscent of Binance’s dominant position in the broader crypto derivatives market!

Behind the leader, the hierarchy tightens. Bitfer, Bybit, and Gate follow at a fair distance, but their growth dynamics attract more attention than their absolute market shares.

• Gate sees its volume of perpetual stock actions increase by 308% between June and July.
• Those of Bybit and Binance respectively total 176% and only 59%.

The crypto exchange Gate has thus recorded continuous monthly growth since May. An indicator closely monitored by analysts. But that’s not all! Concentration there also reaches peaks. SanDisk and SK Hynix alone represent 53% of the total volume of perpetual stock actions processed by the crypto platform last month. This figure illustrates how much this young market remains dependent on a handful of technology stocks.

It’s a fact! AI and semiconductors dominate crypto trading

Beyond the overall figures, the market composition deserves close examination. Trades indeed remain concentrated on a limited number of technology and semiconductor-related assets. SanDisk, SK Hynix, Micron, and the leveraged ETF SOXL form what analysts call the “AI-memory complex”. This set consists of securities directly exposed to the demand for chips for artificial intelligence.

Additional data published by CryptoRank provides further insight:

• SpaceX generated 84.6 billion dollars in volume over 90 days. It even surpasses Solana (SOL), which totals 77 billion dollars over the same period.
• SK Hynix records 31.1 billion dollars.

Bitcoin remains however the dominant crypto asset with 543 billion dollars in volume. It sits ahead of Ethereum (246 billion dollars) and Hyperliquid (93.6 billion dollars).

Decoding: the non-crypto assets represent about 17% of the combined volume of the top ten perpetual contracts in the market.

A phenomenon to put into perspective with the global crypto market

To properly assess the extent of this growth, it needs to be placed in a broader context. According to CoinGecko data, crypto exchanges processed 1,320 billion dollars in perpetuals backed by traditional assets during the first five months of 2026, compared to only 104.21 billion dollars for the entire year of 2025. Monthly volume thus rose from 230 million dollars in January 2025 to 347.17 billion dollars in May 2026.

Another indicator to watch: open interest, meaning the outstanding value on these contracts. According to another CryptoQuant report, open interest on perpetuals backed by traditional assets doubled to exceed 2 billion dollars in July, compared to 350 to 500 million dollars in spring.

This figure remains small, though. The fact is that this segment represents only about 3% of the 65 billion dollars of total open interest in the crypto derivatives market. Moreover, these volumes (however spectacular) remain tiny on the scale of traditional stock markets.

In any case, the explosion of perpetual stock actions marks a turning point in the convergence between traditional finance and crypto. The question remains whether it will withstand a market shock or if it will be limited to a few trendy tech stocks.