Equity Perp Volume Surges 17x as Chip Stocks Draw Crypto Traders

Perpetual futures, also known as equity perps, are experiencing a surge in trading activity, with a staggering 17-fold increase in volume on both centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges between April and July 2026, according to CryptoQuant. This growth in the equity perp market is primarily driven by semiconductor and memory chip stocks. SanDisk (SNDK) emerged as the most-traded equity across various venues, making up around 57% of the equity perpetual volume on HTX, 29% on Gate, and 27% on Binance.

The decentralized exchanges (DEXs) demonstrated a more diversified mix, encompassing equities, commodities, and index contracts in their top ten ranked markets by 90-day volume. While centralized exchanges saw a rapid rise in activity, decentralized exchanges are evolving into a universal trading platform for a broader range of liquid assets.

CryptoRank's latest market report highlighted that non-crypto assets, such as SpaceX (SPCX), now account for a significant portion of trading activity. SPCI led with $84.6 billion in trading volume over 90 days, followed by Bitcoin (BTC) at $543 billion and Ethereum (ETH) at $246 billion. While Bitcoin and Ethereum remain dominant players, the overall trading volume across non-crypto markets accounted for approximately 17% of the total activity in the ten largest contracts.