Arthur Hayes forecasts that crypto-style Equity Perps will displace traditional stock exchanges. Price discovery will shift to 24/7 crypto platforms.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has predicted that crypto-style perpetual futures will displace traditional stock exchanges. He said equity price discovery will be moved to 24/7 perpetual markets. This is what will happen on crypto platforms. These are according to the recent public statements.
Arthur Hayes Forecasts Equity Perpetual Dominance
Arthur Hayes, who is the co-founder of BitMEX, gave a strong outlook. Crypto-style perpetual futures will eventually replace traditional stock exchange instruments. He argued that perpetual swaps provide greater liquidity and trading. They also offer high leverage. This makes them more structurally superior to dated futures. These come into play with traditional finance.
According to Hayes, these benefits will lead to equity price discovery. This will separate it from conventional exchanges. It will move towards 24*7 crypto platforms in the next few years.
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Hayes explained that perpetual swaps can be used to consolidate liquidity. This is into a one non-expiring contract. It reflects the spot market prices. It also allows high leverage. He emphasized that socialized systems of loss and insurance funds protect traders. They restrict legal liability for initial margin deposits. Because of these features, he believes that perpetuals will have appeal to both retail and institutional traders. They want flexible and continuous market access.
As proof, Hayes cited Hyperliquid’s HIP-3. This is a permissionless protocol. It facilitates the launch of the equity perpetuals on-chain. One such product is a Nasdaq 100 perpetual. It is listed by a firm that is identified as XYZ. It has already started recording notable daily trading volume.
Hayes said this early traction is a demonstration of the scalability of equity perpetuals. This is on decentralized infrastructures. They can also be in competition with traditional financial products. He predicted that equity perpetuals will be trading widely by 2026. Centralized and decentralized platforms will rush to do so by the end of the year.
Regulatory Shift to Accelerate Perpetual Market Expansion
Hayes associated the expected growth of perpetual markets. This is to a change in the regulatory sentiment in the U.S. Next came a period of significant relaxation after the collapse of FTX, according to him, the regulatory climate changed in 2025.
This was under Trump’s administration. This environment, he said, encouraged experimentation. It also created the environment for sandbox programs and more widespread testing of derivatives. He suggested that this new flexibility shaped regulators around the world. It gave the incentive to major exchanges to consider perpetual listings.
Major exchanges, such as CBOE in America and SGX in Singapore, are reportedly looking to launch perpetual products by late 2025. Hayes called this moment an “adapt or die” turning point for traditional finance. He said that established exchanges are at risk of losing liquidity and relevance. This is if they fail to adopt the perpetual model.
He expects S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 perpetual futures to inspire the transition by the late 2020s. This will spur the movement of equity trading into the crypto-native markets at an accelerated rate.
Hayes’s prediction is a challenge to the status quo of conventional finance. His argument focuses on the structural efficiencies of perpetual futures. These are superior to ordinary instruments. The fact that trading is continuous 24/7 is a big attraction. It provides flexibility like no other traditional market.
The role and use of decentralized protocols, such as Hyperliquid’s HIP-3, is important. They prove the power of on-chain equity perpetuals. This decentralized approach could be a revolution in the way equity markets are accessed. It encourages more financial inclusion.