Wall Street trading firms are reassessing the traditional idea of a market shutdown over the weekend as crypto’s around-the-clock trading model continues to expand.
According to CoinDesk, perpetual contracts on crypto trading platforms are giving traditional financial markets a new risk-management tool and could alter the way commodities and other markets trade.
Weekend shutdown norms are being tested
For years, Wall Street traders typically cut exposure before Friday’s close to avoid being stuck with positions they could not adjust if unexpected events broke over the weekend. That pattern has started to shift as crypto markets offer 24/7 trading, allowing traders to use perpetual contracts for weekend hedging and price discovery.
March tensions drove activity toward crypto venues
When tensions between Iran and Israel escalated in March, traditional energy markets were closed. Traders turned to crypto platforms to trade crude oil-related perpetual contracts instead.
On Sunday, March 8, decentralized exchange Hyperliquid recorded a record $1.2 billion in open interest for its crude oil perpetual contract.
Weekend share is rising, but scale remains limited
Data show that over the past three months, weekday trading volume in Hyperliquid’s crude oil perpetual averaged roughly two to three times weekend volume. Even so, weekend trading as a share of total activity increased by about 25% after the March conflict.
Traditional financial institutions still have not entered the crypto perpetuals market on a large scale. The reasons cited include limited liquidity, incomplete infrastructure, and the fact that banking and clearing systems do not yet run 24/7.
From March to April, crude oil perpetual volume amounted to only about 2% to 4% of the size of the traditional crude oil futures market. Centralized exchanges recorded $62 trillion in total perpetual trading volume in 2025, but that remains small compared with the scale of Wall Street markets.
Perpetuals are becoming a pre-open price signal
Industry participants said perpetual contracts are still mainly traded by crypto-native firms, quantitative trading companies, and sophisticated retail traders. Even so, they are increasingly serving as an important source of price signals before traditional markets open.
As more always-on financial infrastructure is built, stock and commodity markets could gradually move toward a 24/7 trading model.