BitMEX, the pioneering crypto derivatives exchange, has selected Chainlink's Data Streams oracle service to provide price feeds for its new suite of Equity Perpetual Futures ("Equity Perps"). The partnership, announced via social media, aims to offer traders 24/7 exposure to traditional equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) using crypto-native collateral and settlement.
The move places Chainlink's low-latency, high-throughput oracle infrastructure at the core of BitMEX's expansion into tokenized real-world assets (RWA). Chainlink's Data Streams product is designed to deliver continuous, sub-second pricing data from multiple market sources, which is considered essential for running liquid and fair perpetual contracts tied to off-chain assets like stocks.
"BitMEX, the inventor of crypto perps, has selected Chainlink to power its new Equity Perps. Data Streams delivers fast, reliable data, unlocking a new generation of markets across stocks, ETFs, & much more," Chainlink stated in the announcement.
Industry observers see this as a logical step for both companies. For BitMEX, reliable, high-frequency data is the technical foundation for any perpetual product tracking traditional assets. For Chainlink, the deal highlights its ongoing push to extend oracle coverage beyond crypto and into real-world financial instruments.
The development is part of a broader trend of derivatives platforms leveraging established oracle networks to power RWA markets. However, the product also raises familiar questions around market structure, including how index and mark prices are constructed, funding-rate mechanics, and how exchanges will handle liquidity and settlement when U.S. equity markets are closed.
The announcement follows a surge in activity in the on-chain equity perps space. Separately, Ethereum-based perpetuals exchange Lighter has launched 24/5 weekday trading for equity perpetuals, covering stocks like Coinbase and Robinhood, with plans to move to a full 24/7 schedule. Lighter recently completed a $68 million funding round and introduced its native token, LIT.
This competitive landscape underscores a blurring line between traditional finance and crypto derivatives, as infrastructure providers race to bridge the two worlds. The success of these products will hinge on their ability to deliver tight spreads and predictable funding for traders.
