NYSE parent partners with OKX to launch perpetual Oil contracts

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the NYSE, has partnered with OKX to roll out perpetual futures contracts for its Brent Crude and WTI Crude energy benchmarks. The collaboration, announced on Friday, highlights growing momentum to bring traditional assets into crypto-native environments.

"Oil markets are critical to the world economy. ICE's Brent and WTI futures markets provide the benchmark prices that energy traders everywhere rely on," said Haider Rafique, Global Managing Partner at OKX, in a statement.

OKX expands regulated access to energy markets via perpetual contracts

The contracts are expected to launch on OKX's platform in regions where the exchange is licensed to offer perpetual trading products. The approach ensures regulatory compliance across regions while extending access to both retail and institutional participants seeking exposure to global energy markets through digital instruments.

"Bringing them into regulated perpetual futures is exactly the kind of bridge between traditional and digital markets that market participants have been asking for. This launch gives retail traders access to the world's most important energy benchmarks in a regulated, transparent environment," Rafique continued.

By anchoring the products to ICE's established markets, the contracts are designed to deliver transparent pricing and improve price discovery for participants.

"These new OKX perpetual contracts, based on ICE's deep, liquid, transparent, and global oil markets, allow OKX's customer base of 120 million retail traders to access energy benchmark products," said Trabue Bland, Senior Vice President of Futures Exchanges at ICE.

Perpetual futures, which have gained widespread adoption in crypto markets due to their non-expiring structure and funding rate mechanisms, enable traders to maintain continuous exposure to Oil benchmarks without needing to roll over contracts.

The partnership follows a similar move by Hyperliquid, which launched commodity-based perpetual oil contracts in January through its HIP-3 upgrade, enabling permissionless markets for WTI and Brent crude.

The on-chain products gained rapid traction, particularly during the escalation of Iran–US tensions between February and March. As traditional futures markets faced limitations, Hyperliquid recorded a sharp spike in activity, with WTI-linked contracts exceeding $1.7 billion in daily volume at peak levels.

ICE, together with the CME, previously urged US regulators and lawmakers to introduce stronger oversight of Hyperliquid. The firms raised concerns over potential market manipulation risks and the platform's growing influence on global commodity markets.