Perpetual contracts, a crypto-native innovation, are reshaping global trading rules with their significant growth in both centralized and decentralized exchanges. In 2025, perpetual contract trading volumes on centralized exchanges reached $86.2 trillion, marking a 47% increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, decentralized exchanges saw a dramatic 346% rise, achieving $6.7 trillion in trading volume. This surge highlights the growing preference for perpetual contracts among global traders, driven by their ability to offer continuous, leveraged trading without expiration dates. Decentralized exchanges are rapidly closing the gap with centralized platforms, leveraging self-custody and innovative features like Hyperliquid's HIP-3, which allows users to launch their own perpetual markets. The rise of real-world asset (RWA) perpetual contracts has further expanded the market, with RWAs accounting for a significant portion of trading volumes on platforms like Hyperliquid and Ostium. As perpetual contracts evolve from niche tools to mainstream trading instruments, the focus shifts to building valuable applications and infrastructure around them, despite challenges such as regulation and liquidity depth.