Is Wall Street Going 24/7? Crypto Markets Are Redefining Traditional Trading Rules

BlockBeats news, July 27 — With the rise of 24/7 trading in the crypto market, Wall Street trading institutions are re-evaluating the traditional "weekend market closure" rules. According to CoinDesk, perpetual contracts on crypto trading platforms are providing new risk management tools for traditional financial markets and may change how markets like commodities are traded.

Previously, Wall Street traders would usually reduce risk exposure before the Friday closing to avoid being unable to adjust positions due to sudden events over the weekend. In recent years, as the crypto market offers a 7×24 hour trading environment, traders have started to use perpetual contracts on crypto platforms for hedging and price discovery during weekends.

During the escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel this March, the traditional energy market was closed, but traders turned to crypto trading platforms for perpetual contracts related to crude oil. The decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid reached a record open interest of 1.2 billion dollars in crude oil perpetual contracts on Sunday, March 8.

Data shows that in the past three months, Hyperliquid’s weekday trading volume for crude oil perpetual contracts averaged about 2 to 3 times that of weekends, but the weekend share of trades grew by approximately 25% after the March conflict. However, traditional financial institutions have not yet entered the crypto perpetual contract market on a large scale, mainly due to insufficient liquidity, incomplete infrastructure, and banking and clearing systems not yet operating around the clock.

Data indicates that from March to April, crude oil perpetual contract trading volume accounted for only about 2%-4% of the traditional crude oil futures market. While the total perpetual contract trading volume on centralized exchanges reached 62 trillion dollars in 2025, the scale is still relatively limited compared to Wall Street markets.

Industry insiders believe perpetual contracts are currently mostly traded by crypto-native institutions, quantitative trading firms, and professional retail traders, but they are becoming an important source of price signals before the traditional market opens. With more round-the-clock financial infrastructure being developed, markets for stocks and commodities may gradually shift to a 7×24 hour trading model in the future.