Perpetual futures are reshaping how traders express onchain risk. A glance at major DeFi protocols like Yearn, Morpho, Euler, and Beefy shows the ecosystem is primed for exponential growth in this space.

Here's the thesis: Onchain perpetual open interest will likely breach $50B at its peak by 2026. The catalyst? Perps are no longer confined to crypto majors. The narrative is shifting toward RWAs—equities, indices, commodities—all settling onchain.

Why does this matter? Capital efficiency. Onchain perpetuals offer leverage and operational flexibility that traditional markets can't match. As liquidity deepens and infrastructure matures, perps will become the default wrapper for expressing directional bets across multiple asset classes. The boundary between crypto trading and traditional derivatives is collapsing. What we're watching is the financialization of onchain rails.