Swaps Are Live: TradFi Liquidity Is Now On-Chain

We're excited to share that the first swap markets are now live on Variational: XAU and US100. Execution costs are up to 8x lower than the most liquid TradFi perps available on-chain.

Just over two months after our first TradFi perp markets went live, they already account for more than 30% of volume and OI on Variational. As outlined in "Introducing Swaps," swaps are the next step: a new on-chain instrument that reflects how traditional finance actually trades, tapping directly into TradFi dealer liquidity for deeper markets and predictable carry costs.

A swap gives exposure to an underlying, like a perp. The difference is where the liquidity comes from and what you pay to hold the position: swaps are quoted against TradFi liquidity, and volatile funding is replaced by a stable carry rate primarily benchmarked to USD borrow costs.

Like every market on Variational, swaps charge zero trading fees. They trade alongside existing TradFi perps, and we will continue listing new swap markets at a similar cadence to perp markets in the coming months.

How Do Swaps Differ from Perps?

Swaps source liquidity through TradFi venues rather than crypto-native venues. The result is deeper liquidity, higher open interest (OI) limits (our initial agreements support $1B+ in OI), and stable carry costs usually benchmarked to USD borrow rates (currently longs pay 4%-6% annually and shorts receive 2%-3% annually on the live markets) instead of volatile funding.

Swap markets are launching with conservative OI limits of around $10M per market while we validate OLP's hedging flows. We plan to raise limits to $50M+ per market in the coming days.

Swaps are only possible because of Variational's unique RFQ model with OLP acting as the intermediary. OLP can face TradFi venues directly, passing their liquidity on to traders on-chain. This is why we believe CLOBs are a mistake for RWAs: the deepest liquidity in traditional markets is aggregated from many different venues. Only a broker-like model can bring it on-chain.

Since swaps aggregate liquidity from traditional markets, they will initially have open/closed hours (trading hours for each swap are shown in Omni and in our docs). This is temporary. Swaps will also bring improved off-hours liquidity on-chain as TradFi implements 24/7 trading.

Swaps Execution Costs

We compared indicative execution costs for trades of different sizes to demonstrate how swaps offer significantly improved execution over even the most liquid TradFi perps. The advantage is most stark for larger sizes, but spreads are tighter than the equivalent perps at every order size.

Cost of $1M XAU long:

• $1,100 (11 bps) on TradeXYZ's GOLD-PERP
• $200 (2 bps) on Variational's XAU-SWAP

Cost of $3M XAU long:

• $4,800 (16 bps) on TradeXYZ's GOLD-PERP
• $600 (2 bps) on Variational's XAU-SWAP

Cost of $1M US100 long:

• $150 (1.5 bps) on TradeXYZ's XYZ100-PERP
• $20 (0.2 bps) on Variational's US100-SWAP

Cost of $3M US100 long:

• $900 (3 bps) on TradeXYZ's XYZ100-PERP
• $150 (0.5 bps) on Variational's US100-SWAP

Data was sourced from slippage estimates + fees on TradeXYZ markets on the Hyperliquid frontend and for swaps on the Variational frontend on 8/31/26 at approximately 5PM UTC.

What's Next

In the coming months, we will focus on four things:

• Further raising OI limits on swap markets
• Regularly listing many more swap and perp markets
• Launching a trading API
• Enabling 24/7 liquidity for swaps

XAU-SWAP and US100-SWAP are live now on Omni. Open either market, request a quote, and compare the execution yourself. The long-term vision for Variational remains the same: every global market, on-chain, at institutional depth, trading 24/7.

One account. Every market. Institutional liquidity. Only on Variational.