Crypto equity perpetual futures volume exploded to $250B in July, a 17x surge in three months, driven by concentrated trading in AI and semiconductor stocks.
DeFi & Yields ·
Equity perpetual futures traded on major cryptocurrency exchanges reached approximately $250 billion in monthly volume during July, representing a 17-fold surge from roughly $15 billion in April. CryptoQuant's analysis reveals that Binance captured the largest share at $193 billion, or 76% of total market volume, while Gate achieved the steepest growth rate month-over-month at 308% from June. Bybit and Bitfer also participated, though at substantially lower volumes than the leading venues.
The expansion has transformed crypto exchanges into venues offering round-the-clock access to equity contracts, bypassing traditional market hours. These products enable participants to gain exposure to traditional stocks through infrastructure native to digital asset platforms. However, activity remains highly concentrated within a narrow subset of assets, primarily technology and semiconductor stocks aligned with artificial intelligence applications. On Gate alone, SanDisk and SK Hynix represented 53% of total equity perpetual futures volume, while Micron and the leveraged semiconductor ETF SOXL dominated trading across the broader market.
The trajectory remains uncertain. While the 17-fold quarterly expansion demonstrates rapid market development, the persistent concentration in AI-memory-linked assets raises questions about whether volume will eventually disperse across a wider range of equity contracts or continue tracking the same sector focus.