Investors around the world are turning to highly leveraged derivatives known as “perpetual futures” to gain exposure to Chinese technology stocks as the global hype surrounding artificial intelligence ramps up.
The derivatives, known as “perps,” are futures contracts without expiration dates, allowing investors to speculate on asset prices without directly owning them. They gained popularity in cryptocurrency markets, but are also being linked to other assets, including commodities like gold, and stocks. And lately, stock-linked perps have become a workaround for traders outside China to get a piece of the IPOs of popular Chinese tech companies like humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics.
Global trading volume for all perpetual futures hit a record USD 86.2 trillion in 2025, up 47% from the previous year, according to crypto analytics firm CoinGecko. This represents the notional value of the trades, amplified by the amount of leverage used by traders. The extent of leverage depends on the trading platform: Prediction market-focused exchange Kalshi, which is regulated in the US, allows a maximum of six times on major cryptocurrency perpetual futures such as Bitcoin, whereas major crypto derivatives platform Bybit allows a maximum of 100 times for certain bitcoin perps.
Overall trading volume has fallen off this year, amid a crypto bear market, but the figure for perps specifically tied to real-world assets (RWAs) exploded to USD 1.4 trillion in the first half, versus USD 23.6 billion in the first six months of 2025.
Equity-linked perpetual futures have taken on more popularity this year following the global stock market’s AI frenzy. Before Unitree debuted on Shanghai’s stock exchange on August 19, the pre-IPO perpetual futures of the stock surged to nearly USD 100 apiece on several trading platforms, or over four times its listing price. This heralded a strong start, before the actual shares opened up 629%.
“The perpetual market called the mania before it happened,” said Dilin Wu, a research strategist at Pepperstone. “What used to be a fringe product for crypto-native traders is now how international investors access Chinese names they can’t easily trade otherwise.”
One perpetual future contract, called xyz.UNITREE, clocked in over USD 105 million in total trading volume within 24 hours of the IPO, according to decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid. Meanwhile, the contract’s open interest—which refers to outstanding positions in derivatives that remain open—was about USD 26 million around noon on August 20, signaling sustained investor enthusiasm.
Another popular play was the IPO of Chinese memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), which recently surpassed Tencent to become China’s most valuable company. One perp contract for the stock had USD 66 million in open interest as of noon on August 20, on Hyperliquid.
Wu said savvy retail investors across the Asia Pacific region who follow Chinese tech closely make up the majority of traders of Unitree and CXMT perps. “Family offices and smaller institutional pools without direct QFII access” are also among them, he said, referring to China’s “Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor” program.
Chinese companies are not the only hot bets. Perpetual futures of South Korea’s SK Hynix have quickly become one of the most-traded equity perps. Popular stock indexes such as the S&P 500 have also seen a surge in trading activity for related perps.
“We have seen a significant increase in interest in equity perpetuals over the past several months, doubled, tripled, if not quadrupled,” said Yoyee Wang, global head of traditional finance and RWAs at crypto platform Bybit. The trading volume of equity perps sometimes surpasses that of perps tied to crypto assets, she added.
“While the category remains relatively new compared with crypto-native perpetuals, its growth indicates clear demand for a more flexible way to gain exposure to traditional assets within the digital-asset ecosystem,” Wang told Nikkei Asia.
Zhong Yang Chan, head of research at CoinGecko, identified the listing of SpaceX in June as a major event driving perp trading. Asian investors, largely shut out from the record debut by Elon Musk’s rocket company, found their way into betting on the IPO through perpetual futures.
“Perps, as with other crypto assets, trade 24/7, 365 days a year, which allows traders to position themselves when traditional financial markets are closed,” Chan said. “They are borderless, giving traders access to assets not traditionally available to them. They also allow traders access to leverage and short positions.”
For these reasons, international investors bet on CXMT or Unitree perps “not necessarily because they view them as industry leaders,” said Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group. “The fundamental driver is the high degree of scarcity these stocks possess within the A-share market amid the US-China tech rivalry,” Sun added, referring to shares traded on the Chinese mainland.
Despite their rising popularity, the perps market remains dominated by retail investors who are comfortable with crypto markets. Major institutional investors such as asset managers and insurance companies are largely absent, due to scant regulatory oversight for the instruments. In most markets, including Hong Kong and Singapore, only professional accredited investors are allowed to trade perps.
Perps come with heightened volatility, driven by speculation and high leverage. To take on leverage, investors must deposit a certain amount of cash as margin in their trading accounts. When massive price swings take place, traders could be forced to immediately liquidate their positions if there is insufficient cash. In such cases, the positions are closed by a clearing member of the exchange rather than by the traders themselves.
The liquidations act as a safety valve against steep losses for both investors and exchanges.
Perps can also trade at significant premiums or discounts to the underlying stocks outside of the bourse hours, creating a significant disconnect. “When the stock market finally opens, brutal price convergence will trigger cascading liquidations,” said Pepperstone’s Wu.
But Wu believes perpetual futures do not create bubbles. “They amplify existing ones. Unitree was 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors. That demand exists. Perpetuals just give international capital a way to participate in a mania that’s already happening.”
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.