a16z crypto: Five figures understand the rise of the 100 billion-dollar RWA market for renewal of contracts

Source:a16z crypto; compiles: Shaw, Gold Economics

Plugging into stock, gold and other traditional assets is growing rapidly, and the chain share of such transactions continues to rise.

These types of contracts are often calledReal World Assets (RWA) contract renewal，Dealers do not need to actually purchase the assets that are being purchased, i.e. have access to price exposures for traditional assetsUnlike traditional futures,They do not have a pre-set maturity period; part of the trading platform supports an uninterrupted trade of 7 x 24 hours, which can also be traded on weekends when major commodity markets and stock exchanges are off the market.

Market demand is rising rapidlyIn a platform for the integration of statistics,In August, RWA's monthly turnover of contracts for perpetuity reached $1173 billion, a 44-fold increase in one year. Unsettled contracts representing the market exposure of traders reached $4.8 billion. The vast majority of transactions took place on chain platforms, with current chain trade accounting for 86% of all RWA contracts for perpetuity.

Note: A few centralized platforms under US supervision provide United States users with durable contract products, but only one is currently authorized to trade a single type of permanent contract. All the remaining central and decentralised exchanges limit American users to engaging in real long-term contract transactions.

Trade fell in April, rebounding and rising in May, then climbing, reaching $141.5 billion in July, and $11.7 billion in August. Even so, August’s monthly turnover was 44 times the same period last year.

In the early days of the market, RWA's long-term contract deals were mostly concentrated on centralized exchanges.As of November 2025, the Centralized Exchange had taken over two thirds and more of the monthly turnover. By December of that year, market shares were roughly half equal;For most of 2026, the chain platform continued to claim market share. By August, it had handled 86 per cent of RWA sustainable contract trades of about $10.1 billion, while the centralized exchange was only about $16 billion.

The timing of this shift in market patterns largely coincides with several critical infrastructure upgrades. Hyperliquid launched HIP-3 Upgrading Program in October 2025。The upgrade allows developers to deploy their own market for sustainable contracts, relying on a network-sharing trading bottom structure, HyperCore.

RWA Market was the first deployment of a group of developersBy December, about half of the RWA-renewal contract transactions that were included in the statistics were carried over from the chain. The centralized exchange transaction peaked in March and then continued to fall back to July, while the chain trade was on the way.

The structure of the subject matter has also changed. Only a year ago, large commodities accounted for 84% of RWA’s long-term contract transactions and remained in the first asset class until June. Since then, the trading structure has begun to tilt towards equities.

RWA, the contract for eternity.Unsettled Contract Volume (Open Interest), to measure the nominal value of a contract that has not yet been combined,From $161 million in July 2025 to $4.8 billion in August 2026, the increase was nearly 30 times.Even though the trade fell, the balance continued in April and remained near historical heights in August.

The shift to stock assets ahead of the volume of transactionsIn June, the size of unsettled stock contracts exceeded that of bulk commodities, the former being $1.6 billion and the latter $1.2 billion. A month later, stock trading also surpassed large commodity volumes. In July, the gap between the two was widening further; in August, the margin was narrow, with shares not stale at $2.2 billion and commodities at $1.6 billion.

RWA is still small in terms of the volume of long-term contract transactions compared to traditional derivatives marketsOn a mature trading platform, futures and options can be traded at trillions of dollars.

However, the growth of monthly turnover in RWA contracts for a lasting period proves that users want traditional asset exposures on the chain, which is no longer merely theoretical speculation.The next core issue is:Whether RWA will continue to be a regular product of traditional bond dealers and exchanges.