Crypto exchanges are rapidly expanding their perpetual futures infrastructure into traditional financial markets, with open interest in TradFi (traditional finance) contracts surging past $2 billion by late July, according to data from CryptoQuant. This marks a doubling since late May, following months of stagnation between $350 million and $500 million. The open interest measures outstanding derivative contracts tied to equities, metals, oil, and indexes, which are now traded around the clock on major crypto platforms.
Binance, Bybit, and Gate dominate this emerging market. Binance alone holds approximately $720 million in TradFi perpetual open interest, while Bybit and Gate also command significant shares. However, despite the rapid expansion, TradFi perps still represent only about 3% of total crypto derivatives open interest.
Binance CEO Richard Teng highlighted the explosive growth in a tweet, noting that ETF TradFi-Perps cumulative volume has surpassed $116 billion. July alone accounted for 19% of that total volume. The segment has averaged a staggering 170% month-over-month growth for seven consecutive months, signaling a structural shift in trading dynamics and increasing institutional engagement.
This trend underscores how crypto-native platforms are blending traditional and digital asset markets, potentially reshaping investment strategies and liquidity flows across both spheres.
