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Silver trading has exploded on decentralized derivatives platform Hyperliquid, where the SILVER USDC perpetual contract is now handling close to 1 billion dollars in daily volume. During recent Asia trading hours, the contract changed hands around 110 dollars per unit, with roughly 994 million dollars in twenty four hour volume and about 154.5 million dollars in open interest. That puts silver behind only bitcoin and ether pairs on the venue and ahead of popular crypto markets such as solana and XRP, a sharp sign that traders are using crypto rails to express views on metals. Funding on the contract is slightly negative, which points to heavy two way positioning and active hedging rather than a one sided leveraged rush.
Bitcoin, by contrast, looks stuck in place. The largest cryptocurrency is trading in a tight band near 88,000 dollars, with on chain and derivatives data showing what analysts describe as a defensive equilibrium. Spot cumulative volume delta is negative, ETF inflows have cooled, and futures open interest and funding are uneven across venues. Options markets show stronger demand for downside protection than for aggressive upside bets, which fits a picture where investors are not abandoning BTC but are also not willing to chase it higher.
The backdrop for this shift is a broader rush into hard assets. Gold has broken out to new records, gaining roughly 15 percent in the past month and more than 50 percent over six months, while silver prices have spiked alongside it. Traders appear to be repurposing crypto native infrastructure such as Hyperliquid to gain flexible exposure to these metals, using perpetual futures to hedge macro risks and trade volatility without leaving the digital asset ecosystem. The fact that silver perps can now rival or exceed the volume of major altcoins underlines how much of the current risk conversation has moved from pure crypto toward commodities.
For market structure watchers, the message is clear. Crypto venues are no longer just places to speculate on tokens, they are becoming multi asset derivatives hubs where traders can toggle between bitcoin, ether, altcoins and tokenized exposures to metals inside a single margin environment. At the same time, bitcoin’s frozen price action shows that not every asset is sharing in the renewed excitement. As long as macro nerves keep driving demand for gold and silver, silver’s near 1 billion dollar days on Hyperliquid may say more about where traders see opportunity and protection right now than any short term move in BTC’s chart.
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