The obvious objection is that this is leveraged speculation in new language, and that traditional markets keep their frictions for good reasons. Both points have force. A funding rate is not a substitute for the price discovery that settlement enforces, and continuous leverage on volatile assets concentrates risk in ways periodic markets do not. But those are arguments for building the structure carefully, not for assuming it will not be built. The demand is already here, and it moves toward the venue that offers universal access to global assets, whether stocks, crypto or FX.

There is one place crypto’s progress this cycle has not yet reached. Over the past year, tokens acquired real economic rights, revenue shares, buybacks and votes,…