Deng Tong, Golden Finance

On March 18, 2026, S&P Dow Jones Indices authorized the S&P 500 Index for perpetual contract trading on Hyperliquid.

Affected by this good news, the price of HYPE rose to $43.51 for a short period of time, and then fell back. As of press time, it was trading at $39.95, an increase of 5% on the 7th.

1. The S&P 500 Index can be traded on Hyperliquid

S&P Dow Jones Indices has authorized Trade[XYZ] ("XYZ") to use the S&P 500 Index, launching the first and only officially authorized perpetual derivatives contract based on the S&P 500 Index.

Perpetual contracts are a highly speculative derivative that never expires and have no exercise price (that is, the execution point of the contract). Perpetual futures also allow traders to obtain extremely high leverage, thereby magnifying profits, but may also result in the entire investment being lost. Like other crypto-native assets, perpetual contracts are traded 24/7.

XYZ is the first and largest real-world asset market on the Hyperliquid platform, providing perpetual derivatives trading services through the Hyperliquid platform. Since October 2025, the XYZ market trading volume has exceeded US$100 billion, and the current annualized trading volume exceeds US$600 billion. XYZ is committed to introducing traditional financial assets (such as bonds, commodities, real estate or structured products) into the blockchain ecosystem to achieve more efficient, transparent and composable financial services. According to Trade[XYZ], the maximum leverage traders can use with this contract is 50x.

Hyperliquid allows traders to trade with leverage via perpetual futures contracts collateralized by stablecoins, primarily USDC, allowing them to trade without opening a brokerage account or visiting a regulated commodity futures trading venue such as CME Group.

Hyperliquid's system is divided into two parts: HyperCore and HyperEVM. HyperCore operates entirely on-chain, with spot and perpetual futures order books recording every order, trade and liquidation almost instantaneously and supporting a processing capacity of up to approximately 200,000 orders per second. HyperEVM, meanwhile, provides an Ethereum-compatible environment where developers can deploy smart contracts and build applications that interact with exchange liquidity.

Unlike many decentralized exchanges that rely on automated market makers, platforms like Hyperliquid use on-chain priced order books, which provides professional traders with more precise pricing, tighter spreads, and familiar order types. Hyperliquid also provides sub-second transaction final confirmation, allowing for faster execution speeds, which is more in line with the needs of algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading strategies. Additionally, portfolio margining allows traders to manage risk across an entire portfolio rather than individual positions, thereby increasing capital efficiency.

Hyperliquid has thus become a professional exchange connecting traditional financial markets and crypto markets.

2. What does the listing of the S&P 500 perpetual contract mean?

1. Integration of DeFi and traditional finance

The S&P 500 Perpetual Contract connects DeFi to core traditional financial benchmarks in an unprecedented way. For the first time, eligible non-U.S. investors can gain leveraged exposure to the S&P 500 Index on a decentralized platform through an officially licensed, natively digital product that supports 24/7 trading. Previously, retail and institutional traders have relied on ETFs and centralized futures markets to invest in the S&P 500.

2.Crypto investors gain 24x7 index leveraged exposure

The move opens the door for non-U.S. investors to gain leveraged exposure to the S&P 500 by trading 24/7 via a blockchain-based platform.

In the past, major macro news was released when markets were closed on the weekends, and traders usually had to guess where the S&P 500 would be when the market opened on Monday. However, with these new perpetual contracts, traders can trade news accurately as soon as it is released. When the first missile hit Iran and traditional oil markets were closed, cryptocurrency traders were able to trade oil futures on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.

Hyperliquid positions itself as an exchange where traders can react immediately to macroeconomic developments without having to wait for market hours by offering licensed perpetual contracts available 24/7. From now on, it will be possible to trade the S&P 500 Index using on-chain leverage around the clock.

3. Provide more arbitrage space for professional traders

When the same index appears in both traditional exchanges and on-chain perpetual contracts, professional traders can conduct arbitrage between different markets, cross-market hedging, etc., which will help improve price discovery efficiency, attract more market makers and quantitative funds to enter the crypto market, and further increase market liquidity.

4. Pave the way for other traditional financial benchmarks to enter the crypto market

The actions of the S&P 500 Index are the first for traditional core financial indexes to enter the on-chain sustainable derivatives market in the form of official authorization.

Once the market verifies the feasibility of this model in terms of compliance, liquidity and user needs, the Nasdaq Index, Treasury Yield Index, etc. may enter the decentralized derivatives market through similar methods. The global capital market has begun to transform from traditional centralized exchanges to on-chain decentralized exchanges.

5. The S&P 500 Index has an advantage

The S&P 500 Index is the core of the global trading ecosystem, with daily trading volume of its associated futures, options, ETFs and structured products exceeding US$1 trillion.

The main advantages of the expanded S&P 500 ecosystem include: an all-weather market, not restricted by traditional trading hours; expanded channels for qualified participants outside traditional exchanges to participate in the S&P 500 Index; a transparent, high-performance on-chain environment; driven by institutional-grade index data.

Cameron Drinkwater, chief product and operating officer of S&P Dow Jones Indices, said: "This partnership expands the accessibility and utility of our flagship benchmark indexes in the digital trading environment. We believe that digitally native investors should demand access to the institutional-grade quality standards that define our indexes, and we are excited to partner with Trade[XYZ] to make this happen."

3. Other recent developments of Hyperliquid

1. Crypto traders turn to Hyperliquid to trade oil

Cryptocurrency traders are increasingly using Hyperliquid to trade oil, with around-the-clock crypto markets absorbing trades related to global macro shocks.

Earlier this month, as the war with Iran escalated over the weekend, trading volume in the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contract (CL-USDC) on the Hyperliquid platform surged, while traditional trading venues such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) were not operating, a team of JPMorgan analysts noted on Wednesday.

Geopolitical shocks may continue to drive intermittent surges in trading on around-the-clock cryptocurrency trading platforms, analysts say, as traders try to get ahead of global events. If this dynamic continues, platforms like Hyperliquid could become an early channel for traders to price global risks ahead of traditional markets.

2. Giant whale builds a position in HYPE

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, multiple whales are building positions in HYPE through the Hyperliquid platform. Whale "0x96d" deposited 4.44 million USDC and increased HYPE holdings to 253,442 HYPE (valued at US$10.55 million), with an average price of US$32.57, and a buy order of US$1.3 million that has not yet been completed; whale "0x780" deposited 2.67 million USDC and bought 63,547 HYPE at US$42.06; Whale "0x50b" spent US$1.98 million to buy 47,076 HYPE at US$42.14. The total amount of positions opened exceeds US$9 million.

Currently, the market is generally optimistic about the future price trend of HYPE. In Polymarket's prediction of "What will the price of Hyperliquid be in March?", 45% of the participants believed it would reach more than $44.

Attachment: S&P Crypto Ecological Path

• May 2021: S&P Dow Jones Indices launches its first cryptocurrency index series, the S&P Digital Markets Index, which includes Bitcoin and Ethereum indices.

• May 2022: Established dedicated DeFi team, led by Chuck Mounts, Chief DeFi Officer of S&P Global.

• January 2023: Launch of the S&P Cryptocurrency DeFi Index, a DeFi-focused cryptocurrency benchmark tracking the performance of selected DeFi tokens/protocols.

• December 2023: S&P Global Ratings launches stablecoin stability assessment framework covering leading stablecoins.

• February-September 2025: S&P Global Ratings rates Janus Henderson’s Anemoy Tokenized Treasury Fund, Delta Wellington’s Ultra Short Treasury On-Chain Fund and OpenEden Group Ltd.’s Tokenized TBILL Fund for the first time.

• July 2025: S&P DJI cooperated with Centrifuge to enter the field of fund tokenization by obtaining authorization from the S&P 500 Index.

• August 2025: DeFi protocol receives credit rating for the first time (Sky Protocol, B- stable outlook).

• September 2025: Centrifuge launches SPXA, the first licensed S&P 500 index fund token.

• October 2025: S&P DJI announces plans to launch the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, an innovative crypto ecosystem index combining cryptocurrencies and crypto-related stocks.

• October 2025: S&P Global Ratings puts its SSA on-chain via Chainlink.

• February 2026: S&P Global Ratings releases its first-ever ratings for Bitcoin-backed structured finance transactions.