BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes is once again shaking up the conversation around traditional finance. His latest prediction? The future of stock price discovery won’t happen on Wall Street — it will take place on crypto exchanges that operate around the clock.
In recent public remarks, Hayes argued that perpetual futures — the trading product he helped pioneer at BitMEX — are on track to replace outdated stock futures and even the traditional equity markets that rely on limited trading hours and slow-moving systems.
Why Hayes Thinks Perps Win the Liquidity War
Perpetual swaps, or “perps,” are futures contracts with no expiry date. Hayes explained that this design keeps liquidity concentrated in a single market instead of splitting it across multiple expiration timelines like traditional futures.
Because perps track underlying spot prices so closely and offer high leverage with limited collateral requirements, Hayes believes they give traders a more efficient and global tool for price discovery — including for major market indexes like the S&P 500 or Nasdaq 100.
He added that the crypto model’s insurance funds and socialized loss systems keep legal and financial exposure limited to a trader’s margin deposit, appealing particularly to retail participants.
Real-World Signals: Crypto Already Testing Equity Perps
Hayes pointed to Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 as a leading example. Earlier this year, the permissionless platform enabled the launch of a Nasdaq 100 perpetual contract, which has already seen meaningful daily trading volume. To him, that’s proof the market is ready.
Meanwhile, major legacy exchanges aren’t standing still. Hayes says players such as CBOE and SGX are preparing their own perpetual products by the end of 2025 — a clear sign they recognize the shift and don’t want to be left behind.
Regulation May Drive the Shift Faster
A big part of Hayes’ confidence comes from what he sees as a friendlier regulatory turn in the United States. After years of crackdowns following events like the FTX collapse, he claims the climate has eased significantly in 2025 under the Trump administration.
According to Hayes, regulators are now allowing more experimentation with crypto derivatives, encouraging global markets to follow the U.S. lead. That means more opportunities for both centralized and decentralized platforms to introduce equity perps in the coming years.
Late 2020s: Crypto Exchanges Dominate Major Benchmarks?
Hayes expects perpetuals tied to top U.S. indexes — especially the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 — to become the biggest derivatives contracts globally by the end of the decade.
He believes traditional clearinghouses can’t keep up due to strict leverage limits, limited operating hours, and heavy capital requirements. Crypto exchanges, on the other hand, run 24/7 and can offer lower collateral demands — a key selling point for traders wary of locking up funds after years of high-profile exchange failures.
Hayes Still Active in the Market
Even as he makes bold predictions, Hayes remains a major crypto participant. Recent blockchain data revealed he liquidated several altcoin positions following market volatility, though he has previously said he intends to hold his ETH long-term. He also drew attention after praising a privacy-focused token that surged triple digits in a month.
If Hayes is right, the battle between legacy finance and crypto-native derivatives is just getting started — and the next phase of stock trading might unfold where markets never sleep.
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