In a major expansion of its derivatives offerings, cryptocurrency exchange Binance has launched perpetual futures contracts for key energy commodities—West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil, Brent crude oil, and natural gas—on its USDⓈ-M Futures platform. The rollout began on April 1, 2026, with contracts settled in the stablecoin USDT and offering leverage of up to 100x.
The three new perpetual contracts are CLUSDT for WTI crude oil, BZUSDT for Brent crude oil, and NATGASUSDT for natural gas. These contracts do not expire and use a funding payment mechanism, charged every four hours, to keep their prices aligned with the underlying reference markets. The exchange requires users to complete identity verification, activate the futures feature, and pass a trading quiz before accessing the products, which have a minimum notional value of 5 USDT.
The debut was met with explosive demand. According to data from Dune Analytics reported by Wu Blockchain, the crude oil contracts amassed over $1 billion in trading volume within their first 24 hours. The WTI pair (CLUSDT) dominated with $760 million in volume, while the Brent pair (BZUSDT) recorded $358 million. This immediate liquidity significantly outpaced the early performance of Binance's previously launched precious metals futures.
This launch marks a significant step in the convergence of cryptocurrency platforms and traditional finance (TradFi). It allows traders to use their existing crypto holdings as collateral to gain exposure to major energy benchmarks, all within a single, 24/7 trading platform. Analysts view the strong volumes as validation of demand for integrated, crypto-settled derivatives and a logical progression for the crypto derivatives market.
