Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is joining forces with crypto exchange OKX to introduce perpetual crude oil futures — a move that simultaneously expands traditional commodity exposure to digital asset traders and intensifies competition with decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
The new products are perpetual futures contracts tied to ICE’s benchmark Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures. Unlike standard futures, these contracts have no expiration date, allowing traders to hold positions indefinitely while using funding rates to stay aligned with the underlying price. OKX will offer the contracts only in jurisdictions where it already holds regulatory licenses for perpetual futures trading, though it did not specify which regions will be eligible at launch.
This marks the first major outcome of ICE’s strategic investment in OKX from March, when it participated in a funding round that valued the exchange at $25 billion. Trabue Bland, ICE’s Senior Vice President for Futures, said the contracts allow OKX’s 120 million retail traders “to access energy benchmark products.” Haider Rafique, managing partner at OKX, called it “exactly the kind of bridge between traditional and digital markets that market participants have been asking for.”
However, the launch is part of a larger offensive. ICE and CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, are also pressuring U.S. lawmakers and regulators to investigate Hyperliquid for alleged market manipulation and sanctions evasion. They argue that Hyperliquid’s decentralized perpetuals market creates systemic risk for traditional finance. The Hyperliquid Policy Center dismissed the claims as “unfounded,” pointing to the protocol’s fully on-chain, immutable trade records as hostile to insider trading. Haseeb Qureshi of Dragonfly Capital noted that CME’s aggression stems from Hyperliquid’s expansion beyond crypto into commodity derivatives, a sector where CME has long enjoyed monopolistic control.
