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BitMEX said in a Thursday report that commodity perpetual swaps were the fastest-growing segment of TradFi perps in the first quarter of 2026, with weekly volume rising 65,463% from $38.1 million to $25.0 billion.
The report said silver, crude oil and gold drove most of that growth. By the week of March 15, Silver (XAG) accounted for 34.8% of the market share of tokenized commodities, followed by crude oil (CL) for 27.7%, gold (XAU) at 27.5% and Silver on Hyperliquid for 6%, according to a Thursday <a href="https://www.bitmex.com/blog/2026q1-derivatives-report" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">report</a>.
BitMEX said the March entry of crude oil added a new leg to the market, attributing that move to Iran-related geopolitical tensions and broader demand for 24/7 commodity exposure on crypto-native venues.
The figures point to a fast-growing niche inside crypto derivatives markets.
<figure><img alt="/home/user/workspace/image-15.jpg" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d716a-9eaa-7975-9fc9-a5b9b614c02b.jpg">
 <figcaption>Global Weekly Volume by Commodity Pair. Source: BitMEX
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Brent crude oil has risen by around 44% since the first US/Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, from around $69 to above $99 at the time of writing, <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">according</a> to data from Trading Economics.&nbsp;Oil prices peaked at around $114 on Tuesday, their highest level since the beginning of the conflict.
<figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d722d-c2cb-7033-8a46-0281b96fbe7d.png" alt="Gold, silver and oil drive 65,000% jump in commodity perpetuals">
 <figcaption>Brent Crude Oil, six-month chart. Source: Tradingeconomics
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<h2 id="weekend-dislocations-lifted-commodity-perps">Weekend dislocations lifted commodity perps</h2>
Onchain TradFi perps are driving traders to “speculate and hedge against weekend geopolitical events like the recent Iran conflict, in real time,” Stephan Lutz, CEO at BitMEX, told Cointelegraph. “While the perpetual swaps model will continue to capture significant market share in commodities trading due to its 24/7 nature, we are highly skeptical about tokenising spot assets,” he said.
However, minting physical commodities on the blockchain is complicated by the legacy financial system’s “complex, arbitrary legal rules,” Lutz said, adding that onchain derivatives will continue to eat into the trading share of traditional commodities, until “legacy giants like the CME” launch their own 24/7 trading venues.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-exchanges-global-tradfi-venues-tokenized-commodities-boom" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Crypto exchanges gain as tokenized commodity market climbs to $7.7B</a>
In the broader market, the total market capitalization of onchain commodities declined by 2.7% during the past 30 days to $7.34 billion as of Thursday, <a href="https://rwa.xyz/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">according</a> to data aggregator RWA.xyz.
<figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d716a-a043-736e-b302-0e5bb259a857.png" alt="Gold, silver and oil drive 65,000% jump in commodity perpetuals">
 <figcaption>Tokenized commodities market capitalization. Source: RWA.xyz&nbsp;
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BitMEX, which <a href="https://www.bitmex.com/blog/five-years-ago-the-perpetual-swap-was-born-everything-changed" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">says</a> it launched the first perpetual swap in 2016, now offers more than 20 TradFi contracts, according to the report.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, <a href="https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/detail/ecf7318c0d434c339e80878588e700d0" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">introduced</a> gold and silver perpetuals in January. It offers contracts spanning precious metals and tokenized equities. Its Silver (XAG) contract saw an average daily volume of $1.31 billion during the quarter, according to the report.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph-magazine.com/?p=46542&amp;preview=true&amp;_thumbnail_id=46743" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?</a>

Gold, silver and oil drive 65,000% jump in commodity perpetuals

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