The crypto market has proven its ability to allocate liquidity to various assets, ranging from projects with potential utility to purely meaningless memes. Now, the market is shifting, with traders beginning to turn their attention to traditional assets.
Despite experiencing periods of low activity, trading opportunities in the crypto market have continued to increase over time. By 2026, the once purely crypto market is transforming into a "market of everything," allowing permissionless trading of any type of asset or risk allocation.
The primary reason for the crypto market's evolution into a "market of everything" lies in the available Web3 infrastructure. Initially, Web3 activities were strictly associated with projects and protocols or closely tied to promising tokens.
However, during the recent crypto cycle, token fatigue has gradually set in, with many altcoins and tokens failing to recover. Meanwhile, the infrastructure remains intact and has become more accessible. Web3 wallets and routers have built the trading infrastructure.
The liquidity of stablecoins USDT and USDC has peaked, potentially providing high liquidity for multiple new markets.
Non-Crypto Assets Dominate Trading
HIP-3 has become the most active channel directly providing liquidity to traditional asset markets. Previously, XStocks and Ondo Finance also invited active trading and saw significant growth in open contracts and decentralized exchange (DEX) activity.
Ondo Finance recently reached a total locked value of over $674 billion. Tokenized stock platforms typically attract international interest in U.S. stocks, leveraging the permissionless crypto trading ecosystem.
However, HIP-3 builds on the user base already established by Hyperliquid, with assets accompanied by high-profile narratives, especially in oil trading.
The simplification of perpetual futures has made directional betting easier, attracting substantial liquidity. HIP-3 plans to expand its market coverage, aiming to become a major hub for multiple tradable markets and overlapping with prediction platforms.
HIP-3's permissionless perpetual contracts have set new records: open interest (OI) has surpassed $1 billion (recently reaching a historical peak of about $1.3 billion), integrating traditional financial assets like oil, silver, and stocks, challenging CME to achieve 24/7 trading.
HIP-3's daily trading volume has exceeded $2 billion, with over $1 billion coming solely from WTI brand oil CL contracts. Gold and silver remain among the major assets, while the officially authorized stock code for the S&P 500 has also entered the top ten.
Polymarket Expands Crypto Market Participation
Polymarket is also an intuitive prediction platform where users can make predictions on assets and events. With increasing geopolitical uncertainty, participation on Polymarket has risen.
The number of daily active wallets on this prediction platform has reached a historical high of over 155,000. A larger number of wallets make five or more predictions each day.