RWA Perps Volume Report: September 2026

Welcome to Stork Research’s monthly report on RWA perps volume. We track the largest venues, onchain and off, where perpetual futures (perps) on real-world assets (RWAs) are traded—specifically, equities, commodities, ETFs, and indices. 

‍

Here’s what you’ll find in the charts and commentary in this brief report: 

• Commodity perps are back. Perps trading rotated away from AI frenzy and back into a macro-driven cycle: every category of RWA perps is down in volume for the second month in a row, except commodities, namely gold and oil. 
• SanDisk, then everything else: the AI-driven equity perps trade continues to be heavily concentrated in SanDisk perps. And perps tracking Seoul-listed SK Hynix still outpace those on its US ADR. 
• New RWA perps listings stretch the definition of “IPO hopeful” to embrace companies that have said little or nothing publicly.
• RWA perps quoted in World Liberty Financial’s USD1 surged in volume on Aster, nearly 7X-ing volume on Binance’s onchain venue.  

‍

What are “Downstream Entitlements,” and how do they complicate onshore RWA perps?

Oil’s Back on the Menu

Commodities are the only RWA perps category that grew in volume in September, growing 29% over August to $183B, their highest-volume month since April. Equities dropped 35%, ETFs 28%, and indices 8%. Total RWA perps volume was down 21% to $579B last month. The turn back toward macro-driven trading signals more modest growth for RWA perps, and a more sober use case of 24/7 price discovery on global events—as opposed to leveraged, and double-leveraged betting on AI volatility. 

SanDisk Perps Bleed, but Still Lead

Flash memory storage giant SanDisk (SNDK) shed more than half its total RWA perps volume, month over month, but still leads all equity perps. Gold and oil were the only assets in the top 10 that grew by volume in September: gold perps up 26%, WTI oil perps up 82%, and Brent oil perps up 77%. Of gold’s $16.9B month-over-month volume increase, $10B was on one exchange, Aster, in a market quoted in Trump’s USD1 stablecoin. 

‍

Side note: We need to think about relabeling this the “Binance dominance” chart.

Yes, Polymarket IPO Perps

Oura’s IPO hopes may have dimmed, but Polymarket’s IPO hopes remain the stuff of unnamed sources. Didn’t stop BitGet from listing a perp in the pre-pre-IPO prediction market operator, which drove $6M in volume in its first 24 hours. Bybit, however, dominated the new listings table, with perps on more staid US equities Atlassian, GoPro, and Chevron, plus Chinese luxury stock Laopu Gold. 

Incentives & Aster’s USD1 RWA Perps Volume

RWA perps volume receded in September on all the largest trading venues. Notably: Hyperliquid (Trade[XYZ]) is down by nearly half, to $58.9B, since its peak at $114.2B in July; OKX, which had been pulling away from Hyperliquid, is down 40%, to $68.5B, from its recent all-time volume high in August of $114.5B.

‍

Aster is the standout, with 570% volume growth to $17.1B, after clearing $2.5B in August. RWA perps quoted in USD1. The stablecoin is issued by World Liberty Financial, the crypto company whose founders include US President Donald Trump and members of the Trump family. Gold led the growth, with an eye-watering leap over its August volume; $3.06B of the XAUUSD1 volume came in one day, on Sep 7. A volume-boosting incentives campaign by Aster and World Liberty Financial apparently bore fruit. The 121 USDT-quoted RWA markets on Aster cleared only $1.4B, combined.