Author: FintechFrank

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Introduction: This article captures a structural change that is taking place: Trump is accustomed to making market-impacting statements after the market closes, which coincides perfectly with the rise of 24/7 trading infrastructure. The S&P 500 proxy product on Hyperliquid experienced three significant fluctuations due to Trump’s tweets over the same weekend, which is not a coincidence, but rather a preview of a new normal.

The full text is as follows:

Trump calls himself the "crypto president," but in many ways, he is also the "perpetual contract president."

It is well-known that Trump does not sleep, and he has no hesitation in making statements that shake the market outside of traditional trading hours. This is a peculiar yet fitting backdrop: the market is evolving towards all-weather trading, and we happen to have a president who is best described as "spontaneous and sometimes chaotic."

This dynamic was fully demonstrated over the weekend.

Just days after S&P Global announced it would authorize trading of the S&P 500 on Hyperliquid, Trump stated after the market closed Friday afternoon that the U.S. was "very close to achieving our goal." The S&P 500 proxy product on Hyperliquid surged immediately.

Then, on Saturday at 7:44 PM Eastern Time, Trump escalated his threats, declaring that he would strike Iranian power facilities if the Strait of Hormuz did not reopen. The reaction was immediate: the S&P 500 on Hyperliquid then dropped.

But it was not over yet. On Monday morning, Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran held talks for a "comprehensive and complete resolution of hostilities." S&P 500 futures then spiked more than 3.5%. Then Iran denied Trump’s statement.

Trump’s term may not have propelled the arrival of 24/7 markets, but it has made it impossible for people to ignore this matter any longer.

It remains unclear which perpetual contract product will dominate, or whether perpetual contracts will become the main structure of all-weather markets. Futures have historically been far less familiar to U.S. retail investors than options, and it remains an open question whether traditional brokers can successfully promote these products to their client base. I am skeptical. What works in the crypto market may not translate cleanly to traditional financial users.

Nonetheless, the growth is undeniable.

The open interest of perpetual contract DEX platforms has significantly increased. In January 2026, the trading volume of perpetual contract DEX reached $739 billion, with decentralized venues accounting for 10.2% of total crypto perpetual contract trading volume—up from only 2.0% two years ago.

As shown in the charts by Carlos Guzman and Slater Santer from GSR Research, since the HYPE TGE, the news flow of centralized and decentralized perpetual contract markets has also accelerated:

This morning, new momentum emerged within the GSR ecosystem:

Katana acquired the early decentralized exchange IDEX and launched Katana Perps, a platform aimed at unifying spot and derivatives trading on-chain. This is the first significant move made by CEO Matthew Fisher since taking office, reflecting a pursuit of greater control over the trading stack and capturing more economic value.

This move also highlights a broader shift: the growth environment for perpetual contracts is becoming increasingly favorable. Here is Katana's statement:

"This move coincides with U.S. regulators sending clear signals regarding the allowance of crypto perpetual contracts, marking a potential turning point for on-chain derivatives. At the same time, trading activity continues to migrate towards all-weather markets, with price discovery increasingly occurring in real-time rather than during fixed trading hours. As global markets adapt to this new reality, macro risks no longer wait for trading hours, reinforcing the importance of a continuous all-weather trading environment."