Sygnum linked that spike to traders rotating into traditional asset-linked instruments as the broader altcoin market continues to lose ground.
Hyperliquid News
Crypto-native traders are moving away from altcoins and toward commodity-linked instruments, according to a Thursday report from digital asset bank Sygnum. The shift is visible in trading data from the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange, where on-chain perpetual futures tied to oil and precious metals have taken over as the dominant product category.
Oil and precious metals perps now make up more than 67% of HIP-3 trading volume on Hyperliquid in Q1 2026. HIP-3 contracts, also called Builder-Deployed Perpetuals, previously skewed heavily toward index products. Indexes accounted for roughly 90% of HIP-3 activity earlier in the year but have since dropped to around 17%.
Weekend trading volume for HIP-3 contracts has risen approximately 9x since January 2026. Sygnum linked that spike to traders rotating into traditional asset-linked instruments as the broader altcoin market continues to lose ground.
Lucas Schweiger, Sygnum's digital asset ecosystem research lead, said the rotation is consistent with a wider trend. The market cap of tokenized real-world assets has risen 250% year-over-year. Approximately $23 billion in tokenized RWAs are currently traded across permissionless blockchain networks.
Schweiger told Cointelegraph that many traders now treat altcoins as leveraged Bitcoin proxies. That framing pushes capital toward commodity perps that can be accessed through the same wallet and margin as any other crypto trade.
Escalating geopolitical tensions have pushed oil to a high of around $120 per barrel. Meanwhile, many altcoins are sitting 80% to 90% below their all-time highs. That combination has made commodity-linked perps a more attractive destination for active traders.
Recession risk is adding to the pressure. The probability of a U.S. recession has climbed to 36% on Polymarket since late February. Ratings agency Moody's has placed the odds closer to 50% for 2026. Coinbureau founder and market analyst Nic Puckrin said that if oil stays above $100 per barrel, inflation could rise sharply and eliminate the case for further interest rate cuts this year.
The data points to a structural rotation rather than short-term repositioning. The Hyperliquid DEX is processing a disproportionate share of the new volume. Commodity-linked perpetuals are filling the space left behind by a stalled altcoin market, while the broader tokenized RWA sector continues to grow.
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