About this episode

This episode provides a comprehensive explainer on perpetual contracts, featuring insights from leading experts in the field.

Over a trillion dollars worth of perps are traded every month, yet 99% people have never heard of them. Fewer understand how they work. This podcast is a multi-hour deep dive on perps, starting from the history of grain futures in Chicago to a historic CFTC announcement on Friday, May 29, 2026. My goal: The internet's most comprehensive explainer on perps. In this episode, you'll hear from the world's leading experts on the legal layer of perps: Hyperliquid Policy Center CEO Jake Chervinsky and policy counsel Brad Bourque BrettHarrison, CEO of Architect Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, general counsel of StarkWare Ryne Miller, partner at Morrison Foerster Mike Frisch, partner at Croke Fairchild David Shafer, lawyer at Coinbase By the end of this episode, I promise you'll be in the top percentile for understanding perps, regardless of where you're starting from. (You just might need to listen twice. There's a lot here.) Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:04 What is a perp? 7:18 Why futures contracts exist 8:15 Liquidity fragmentation 11:01 History of U.S. futures 17:08 Richard Nixon, the gold standard and financial futures 21:27 Birth of the CFTC 24:27 Robert Shiller's 1992 paper 30:09 Price…

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