Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX, has thrown out another heavyweight opinion. What did he say this time? The pricing power of U.S. stocks may be about to change.

In his latest blog, he predicts that by the end of 2026, the price discovery of major indices like the S&P 500 may no longer be dictated by the NYSE or NASDAQ, but rather shift to the global retail-focused perpetual contract market. Sounds a bit crazy? But the reasons he provides are indeed intriguing.

What is the strength of perpetual contracts? First of all, they do not stop trading. What happens when major news breaks after the US stock market closes on Friday? Traditional markets can only wait until Monday, but perpetual contracts can be traded 24 hours a day, allowing for risk hedging at any time. Secondly, there is no need for complicated tokenization; they can run directly using existing cryptocurrency infrastructure.

The daily trading volume in the market has now exceeded 100 million USD, and Hayes believes it will soon rise to billions in daily trading. What would happen if it really reached that point?

In the future, financial media may report the S&P 500 index not based on the quotes from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, but rather on data from a certain crypto-native perpetual contract platform. The power of pricing has thus shifted.

What does this mean for traditional finance? Established players like the NYSE and NASDAQ may have to launch their own 24/7 trading systems to compete. A financial market that never closes and is globally connected is rapidly taking shape.