Oil and Silver Perpetuals on Hyperliquid Surpass Solana and XRP in Daily Volume

Commodity Derivatives Dominate Hyperliquid Trading

Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid has witnessed an extraordinary surge in commodity perpetual futures activity. Over the past 24 hours, silver derivatives reached $685 million in trading volume, while WTI crude oil hit $335 million and Brent crude $334 million. The combined open interest across these markets stands at $730 million.

Trading volumes on Hyperliquid. Source: Hyperliquid

By comparison, Solana managed just $181 million in daily volume, and XRP recorded only $30 million — despite both tokens ranking in the top 10 by market capitalization at $83 billion and $49 billion respectively.

Why This Matters

The explosive growth of non-crypto assets on a DeFi platform signals a fundamental shift in trader behavior. Hyperliquid offers 24/7 access to perpetual contracts on oil, gold, silver, equities, and indices — unlike traditional exchanges with limited hours. This round-the-clock availability has attracted an entirely new user base, pushing open interest to an all-time high.

The catalyst was the US-Israel military conflict with Iran, which dramatically increased demand for commodity hedging instruments on-chain.

Geopolitics Fueling the Oil Rally

The trading frenzy is directly tied to escalating tensions in the Middle East. Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Tehran: unblock the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or face American strikes on Iranian power plants.

Brent crude surged 2.4% to $109 per barrel on the news, while WTI rose 1% to $99. Goldman Sachs analysts revised their energy market forecasts upward, according to Reuters, projecting average Brent prices of $100 per barrel for March-April and WTI at $79.

Goldman Sachs specialists noted that at peak uncertainty, prices could reach $135 per barrel — a level required if the market prices in a risk premium sufficient to trigger preemptive demand destruction that compensates for supply losses. Their scenario assumes 10 weeks of minimal deliveries and a sustained production decline of 2 million barrels per day over six months.

IEA head Fatih Birol described the current energy crisis as more severe than the oil shocks of the 1970s. Markets have fully priced out any Fed rate cuts for this year.

Silver, meanwhile, dropped 6.2% in the past 24 hours and was trading at $63.4 per ounce at the time of writing.

Bitcoin Holds Ground But Faces Pressure

Bitcoin remains the most traded asset on Hyperliquid with $2.1 billion in daily volume and $1.7 billion in open interest. However, the leading cryptocurrency slipped 1% over the past day and was trading near $68,100.

BTC/USDT hourly chart on Binance. Source: TradingView

MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe believes Bitcoin is finding support within its current range. He highlighted the contrast with traditional assets — gold down 25% in two months and silver down 50% — while crypto remains relatively stable.

"Again, a state of boredom in the Crypto markets. Bitcoin remains stuck in the range, and is looking like we'll find some support here. Lower bounds of the range = the area to get interested in. On the other hand: Gold down 25% in 2 months, Silver down 50%..." — Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL), original post

Van de Poppe expressed satisfaction that Bitcoin hasn't fallen deeper and anticipates a bounce toward $70,000 levels in the near term.

Investor Ted Pillows, however, sees risk of a decline to $50,000:

"$BTC continues to form lower highs and lower lows. The next dump towards the $50,000 level is just a matter of time." — Ted (@TedPillows), original post

MEXC Research chief analyst Sean Young also leans bearish. He explained that Bitcoin will likely continue its downward trajectory until short-term holders and highly leveraged traders exit the market.

Earlier in March, an analyst known as Darkfost identified the oil rally as an unfavorable factor for the crypto market.