24/7 trading is creating a second price view for stocks, oil, and market indices after traditional exchanges close. Crypto-based perpetual contracts continue changing hands during weekends, when the underlying benchmarks often remain unavailable.
New research suggests that these prices can anticipate reopening moves, although shrinking liquidity weakens their reliability. The findings arrive as regulators weigh whether established futures exchanges should adopt similar round-the-clock schedules.
24/7 Trading Expands Into Traditional Assets
Perpetual futures have no expiration date, while funding arrangements help keep contract prices aligned with reference assets. Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 structure allows qualified market operators to create contracts, establish price references, and set leverage limits. In addition, traders can speculate on price movements without holding the shares or physical commodities that support those contracts.
Trade[XYZ], a Hyperliquid-based venue, processed $58.47 billion in perpetual turnover over 30 days, according to Loris Tools. Its October 13 report covered 114 markets, including stock benchmarks, company shares, and energy contracts. The XYZ100 contract accounted for $6.20 billion, while SP500 generated $5.79 billion. The report listed crude oil volume at 45.58 billion, followed by Brent oil at $3.90 billion. The crude oil figure requires confirmation of its currency and unit before the two values can be compared reliably.
Those figures measure trading volume, not capital invested or ownership of underlying assets. They show high activity but cannot, by themselves, establish whether derivative prices lead traditional benchmarks.
Weekend Price Discovery Meets a Liquidity Test
Researchers Xiaojian Li and Jian Yuan studied perpetual prices across seven asset classes during benchmark market closures. Their September 30 paper associated each 1% weekend perpetual move with a subsequent 0.7%–0.9% move in the benchmark.
However, holiday closures halved top-of-book depth and reduced order-book trading by 78%. The researchers also found that relatively few large accounts supplied much of the information. These findings suggest that weekend prices can contain useful signals, but their reliability depends on market conditions and the concentration of trading activity.
Separate research by Himanshu Ludhwani analyzed roughly 17,000 hourly observations across 11 assets. It reported 77% weekend directional accuracy, rising to 89% for large movements. These are historical results from the study’s sample, not a guarantee that future signals will achieve the same accuracy.
A test of 24/7 trading emerged during March oil market volatility. Castle Labs examined Hyperliquid’s oil perpetual against CME’s April 2026 West Texas Intermediate futures contract. During March 7–8, CME’s contract closed at $91.27 before reopening near $98. Hyperliquid’s contract reached approximately $95.83, capturing about 68% of the reopening gap, based on the prices cited.
That comparison shows how a continuously traded contract can move toward a benchmark’s subsequent reopening price. However, the percentage depends on the selected prices and does not establish that traders could execute large orders at those levels.
Pricing limits constrained the contract’s movement while the external reference remained frozen. Castle Labs calculated $152,000 of executed liquidity within two basis points, versus $19 million on CME. Those figures refer to historical executed liquidity, rather than orders available for immediate execution, and therefore should not be treated as a direct measure of current market depth.
Regulators Examine Leverage and Longer Market Hours
These gaps matter because thinner order books can magnify price movements when live benchmark pricing is unavailable. Leverage and liquidations can add pressure, while funding mechanisms cannot replace an active underlying reference market.
Regulators have also examined 24/7 trading in conventional commodity futures. In June, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission requested comments on continuous futures trading and commodity-linked perpetual contracts. On July 9, it stayed CME’s proposed round-the-clock crude oil contract pending further review. The agency raised questions about reference prices, market oversight, and risks involving physically delivered commodities.
Meanwhile, Nasdaq has targeted December 6 for 23-hour weekday trading, subject to remaining conditions. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said extended-hours trading represented less than 1% of U.S. listed-stock volume in September.
Together, these developments highlight the central challenge of continuous trading: prices can provide useful signals when traditional markets are closed, but limited liquidity and unavailable reference prices can make those signals less reliable. The value of 24/7 trading therefore depends not only on whether a market remains open, but also on how accurately its prices reflect conditions in the underlying asset market.