Did RWA futures really overtake crypto? Only if you ignore 90% of the market

A new report from OKX and Token Terminal says real-world-asset (RWA) futures on trade.xyz edged past crypto futures on Hyperliquid in July. The headline numbers were $107.6 billion of RWA-contract volume against $105.7 billion of crypto-contract volume.

That was a selected-venue crossover, not an industry-wide change in market leadership. The underlying report treats trade.xyz and Hyperliquid as category-leading onchain venues. Broader datasets confirm that RWA perpetuals are growing quickly, but they do not show a comparable takeover of crypto derivatives as a whole.

RWA futures crossed crypto inside the report's sample

The report tracked July 1 through July 30 and found that RWA volume on trade.xyz reached $107.6 billion, slightly above $105.7 billion of crypto-perpetual volume on Hyperliquid. Its selected RWA series had climbed from $760 million in October 2025.

That is a significant change inside the measured sample. It is also narrower than the OKX summary suggests when it says RWA futures surpassed crypto futures by volume.

A category-leading venue is a proxy, not the whole market. Its data can show what is happening on that platform, but it cannot establish the size of every competing venue and contract outside the sample.