Crypto market infrastructure absorbs traditional asset liquidity, trading demand
The crypto market has shown it can allocate liquidity to anything, from perceived utility to pure senseless memes. Now, the market is shifting, and traders are focusing on traditional assets.
The crypto market has gone through periods of slow activity. Yet the opportunities to trade only increased over the years. In 2026, the former purely crypto market is turning into an ‘everything market’, allowing permissionless trading for any type of asset or risk profile.
The crypto market turned into an ‘everything market’ mostly due to the available Web3 infrastructure. Initially, Web3 activity was strictly linked to projects and protocols, or tied to promising tokens.
During the latest crypto cycle, token fatigue set in, and most altcoins and tokens never recovered. At the same time, the infrastructure remained, and access became even easier. Web3 wallets and routers created the trading infrastructure.
The available stablecoin liquidity in USDT and USDC reached peak levels, potentially ensuring high liquidity for multiple new markets.
Hyperliquid taken over by non-crypto assets
In less than a month, Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 was taken over by non-crypto assets. Initially, only one of the top 10 perpetual futures was for a traditional asset. As of March 19, six out of the top 10 perpetual futures pairs on HIP-3 are tied to commodities.
The top 10 futures on HIP-3 now contain six non-crypto asset classes, as traders shifted their focus on oil, precious metals, and equities. | Source: Dune Analytics
HIP-3 was the most active gateway to direct liquidity to markets for traditional assets. Previously, XStocks and Ondo Finance also invited active trading, with significant growth in open interest and DEX activity.
Ondo Finance recently reached peak total value locked at over $674B. The tokenized stock platforms generally tapped international interest in US equities, using the permissionless crypto trading ecosystem.
However, HIP-3 was built upon Hyperliquid’s already established user base. The assets also arrived with high-profile narratives, especially in the case of oil trading.
Perpetual futures were also simpler for making directional bets, and already invited significant liquidity levels. HIP-3 has plans to broaden its market reach in a bid to become the main hub for multiple tradable markets, overlapping with prediction platforms.
HIP-3 broke above $2B in daily total volumes, with over $1B coming just from the CL contract for WTI brand oil. Gold and silver remain among the top assets, while the S&P500 officially licensed ticker also entered the top 10.
Polymarket expands crypto market with current issues
Polymarket is also an intuitive entry point for predictions on assets and events. As geopolitical uncertainty grew, so did Polymarket participation.
The prediction platform reached a new peak of over 155K daily active wallets. An even larger number of wallets are making five or more daily predictions.
In March, oil was also the hottest topic with 152 prediction markets. Polymarket allows any user to make a directional bet, further simplifying the process in comparison to perpetual futures.
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