24/7 Markets
Perpetual futures for commodities, indices, and bonds that trade around the clock on Hyperliquid.
What Are 24/7 Markets?
Traditional commodity and index markets shut down every evening and don't trade over weekends or holidays. That creates gaps where prices can move sharply on the open without any chance to react. Perpetual futures solve this by running on decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid, where trading never stops.
These contracts cover gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas, stock indices like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, and government bonds. They use a funding rate mechanism to stay anchored to spot prices, and they settle in USDC rather than physical delivery.
Hyperliquid: The Exchange Behind These Markets
Hyperliquid is a high-performance decentralized exchange built on its own L1 blockchain. It processes thousands of orders per second with sub-second finality, making it competitive with centralized exchanges on speed while maintaining on-chain transparency.
For real-world asset (RWA) perpetuals, Hyperliquid uses oracle price feeds from trusted data providers to mark positions and calculate funding rates. This lets traders get exposure to gold, oil, or the S&P 500 without needing a brokerage account, futures commission merchant, or exchange membership.
How Perpetual Funding Rates Work
Every 8 hours, perpetual contracts go through a funding settlement. If the perp price is above the oracle (spot) price, longs pay shorts. If it is below, shorts pay longs. The rate scales with the premium or discount, which naturally pulls the perp back toward the spot price.
For traders holding positions overnight or over a weekend, funding rates are a real cost or income source. Checking the current funding rate before entering a position tells you whether the market is skewed bullish or bearish and how much it will cost to hold that position over time.
Comparing Perps to Traditional Futures and Spot
If you already track gold on our metals page or oil on our commodities page, the perp prices here will look similar but not identical. The difference is the basis, which reflects funding rates and market sentiment.
A positive basis (perp above spot) suggests traders are willing to pay a premium for leveraged long exposure. A negative basis (perp below spot) means bears are in control. Watching the basis across commodity perps can give you an edge in understanding short-term directional bias before it shows up in traditional markets.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are perpetual futures?
- Perpetual futures (perps) are derivative contracts that track the price of an underlying asset without an expiration date. Unlike traditional futures that settle on a fixed date, perps use a funding rate mechanism to keep the contract price tethered to the spot price. Longs pay shorts (or vice versa) every 8 hours based on whether the perp trades above or below spot. This makes them popular for continuous exposure to commodities, indices, and bonds.
- Why would I trade commodity perps instead of traditional futures?
- Traditional commodity futures on CME or NYMEX only trade during exchange hours and expire monthly or quarterly, requiring rollovers that cost money and create tracking error. Perpetual futures trade 24/7, have no expiry, and offer exposure to the same underlying assets. They are especially useful for managing weekend or holiday risk that traditional markets cannot hedge against.
- How accurate are Hyperliquid perp prices compared to spot markets?
- Hyperliquid perps typically track within a fraction of a percent of the underlying spot price. The funding rate mechanism incentivizes arbitrageurs to correct any deviation. During high volatility or low liquidity periods (weekends, holidays), spreads can widen temporarily, but they tend to revert quickly as market makers step in.
- What assets can I trade 24/7 on Hyperliquid?
- Hyperliquid offers perpetual contracts on a growing list of real-world assets including precious metals (gold, silver, platinum), energy (crude oil, natural gas), equity indices (S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow Jones), government bonds (US 10-year, 30-year), and agricultural commodities. All markets trade around the clock, including weekends and holidays.
- What happens to commodity perps over the weekend?
- Unlike CME or NYMEX, Hyperliquid perps continue trading through weekends. Weekend liquidity is typically thinner, so spreads may be wider and volatility can spike on unexpected news. Funding rates continue to accrue as normal. This continuous trading is one of the main advantages for traders who want to react to geopolitical events or economic data releases that occur outside traditional market hours.
- Are these prices the same as spot gold, spot oil, etc.?
- Perpetual futures prices closely track spot prices but are not identical. The perp price reflects the spot price plus or minus a premium or discount driven by market sentiment and funding rates. On MetalCharts, we display the perp price as-is, and you can compare it to our spot metal and commodity pages to see the current basis (difference between perp and spot).
