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Ethena Sees Equity Perpetuals Outpacing Robinhood in Next Market Boom
Equity Perpetuals Could Surpass Robinhood’s Market Cap – The perpetuals revolution in crypto may be on the verge of expanding into equities, potentially unlocking a market opportunity over 30 times larger than the crypto sector, according to Ethena [ENA] founder Guy Young. As on-chain derivatives continue to gain traction in the digital asset world, the move into traditional equities could mark a transformative moment for both decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional markets.
What Are Equity Perpetuals?
Perpetuals, or perpetual contracts, are leveraged derivatives that traders can hold indefinitely, provided they pay funding rates. While they’ve been a staple of crypto trading—offered by major exchanges like Binance [BNB]—the concept is now extending into equities. This development allows traders to speculate on stocks without expiry dates, effectively bringing the high-octane world of crypto derivatives to the traditional financial market.
Massive Upside Potential
Guy Young believes the equity perps market could far outstrip crypto’s previous growth. He pointed out that crypto perpetuals helped create a >$200 billion business, along with multiple $10–100 billion ventures, all on a $4 trillion crypto market. By comparison, global equities represent a market more than 30 times larger, suggesting enormous potential for perpetual-based products.
Young went further, asserting that the upside from equity perps could surpass the current market cap of Robinhood ($129 billion). “In my view, the potential upside for this product is larger than the current market cap of Robinhood,” he said, hinting that Ethena may position itself strategically as the market matures.
Key Beneficiaries
The first movers in this space are likely to be perps DEXes like Hyperliquid and delta-neutral players such as Ethena. The latter has already seen success with its synthetic USDe stablecoin, which leverages yield from delta-neutral strategies and perpetual funding rates. By buying the spot and opening a corresponding short on futures, Ethena captures the price difference or yield, which underpins USDe—now the third-largest stablecoin by market cap at $10 billion.
Expanding the Market Opportunity
Analysts echo Young’s bullish view. Jose Macedo, co-founder of analytics firm Delphi Research, noted that equity perps could expand Ethena’s yield total addressable market (TAM) from the $3 trillion crypto market to the $120 trillion global equities market, an opportunity that remains largely unpriced in.
With the crypto perpetuals market already demonstrating explosive growth—$1.2 trillion in volume in October alone, nearly doubling September’s $739 billion—the appetite for leveraged, perpetual trading is clear. Scaling these strategies into equities could replicate, if not surpass, the success of crypto-based derivatives.
