Hyperliquid just made it possible to trade perpetual contracts on crypto indices directly from its layer-1 blockchain. The product, called S&P 2.0, went live on July 8, giving traders a new way to get leveraged exposure to baskets of crypto assets without touching any of the underlying tokens.
What S&P 2.0 actually does
While Hyperliquid did launch S&P 500 perpetuals back on March 18 through a licensing deal with Trade[XYZ], the S&P 2.0 is a different beast entirely. It focuses on crypto index perpetual contracts rather than traditional equity indices.
One technical detail worth noting is how the funding rates work. Most perpetual contract platforms rely on spot price oracles to keep perp prices tethered to reality. Hyperliquid takes a different approach. Its index perps use validator-published median index values for funding rate calculations. This means the network’s own validators are publishing the reference prices, which in theory reduces the risk of oracle manipulation.
The platform currently supports over 300 trading markets spanning indices, equities, and commodities.
