Perpetual futures have become the dominant instrument in crypto because they fit the market’s native logic: continuous trading, high leverage, fast collateral rotation and capital efficiency.

Unlike dated futures, they do not expire. Unlike spot, they allow traders to express directional views, hedge exposure or run basis strategies without fully owning the underlying asset.

That structure has made perpetuals central to crypto market activity. Coinbase Institutional noted that perpetual futures had become the most actively traded crypto product, with Bitcoin perpetual futures reaching roughly three times the average daily volume of spot products in Q1 2024. 

The question is whether this dominance makes crypto…