Backpack Exchange Launches Four Equity Perpetuals and Real US Shares as Cross-Asset Collateral

Backpack launched four equity perpetual futures markets on September 1 alongside a cross-asset collateral system that accepts real Micron and SanDisk shares as margin. The combination of a licensed brokerage holding actual stock shares and a 24/7 derivatives exchange on Solana SOL$97.89-3.7% addresses a gap that traditional brokerages and pure-crypto exchanges have each left open.

The new markets are MU-PERP, SNDK-PERP, SPY-PERP, and QQQ-PERP, per Backpack's official announcement. They track Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU), SanDisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK), the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) without conveying ownership, shareholder rights, or dividend entitlements.

Four New Markets: Specs and Mechanics

All four contracts share the same core parameters:

Minimum trade size is 0.001 contracts for MU-PERP and SNDK-PERP, and 0.01 contracts for SPY-PERP and QQQ-PERP, with a $0.01 tick size across all four markets. Pricing uses a mark price mechanism deliberately decoupled from the last traded price, to reduce single-trade liquidation risk, as Backpack's equity perpetuals explainer describes.

The hourly funding interval is shorter than the eight-hour window standard on most crypto perpetuals exchanges. More frequent resets keep the contract price closer to the reference equity price, which matters most during the roughly 17 hours per weekday when US equity markets are closed. When the underlying exchange is not open, the mark price is maintained within a band around the last close, with funding pulling it back toward the reference when markets reopen on the next session.

The Equity Collateral System

The more structurally significant part of the September 1 launch is what Backpack calls unified portfolio margin. Users who hold real Micron or SanDisk shares through Backpack Securities, the exchange's regulated brokerage arm, can now deploy those holdings in three ways: as margin for perpetual futures positions, as collateral to borrow USD, or to trade spot on margin. The shares are held as security entitlements by the licensed broker. They do not convert into tokenized representations to cross into the trading account.

Only MU and SNDK are eligible as collateral at launch. Both are among Backpack's highest-volume equity listings. In Q2 2026, Backpack Securities held 95% of cumulative on-chain volume for Micron and led six of nine shared tokenized stocks against xStocks, making them a natural choice for the first collateral-enabled assets.

The Micron holder base on Solana has grown steadily since the July equity launch: from 229 holders in late June to 1,906 on September 1 per Solana Compass data, the day the collateral feature went live. SanDisk holds 968 holders as of the same date. These are the wallets that now have access to the cross-asset margin system.

Trading Crypto Against Stock Collateral: The Infrastructure Gap

A traditional brokerage account accepts your equity portfolio as margin, but it will not give you access to 24/7 crypto derivatives. A crypto exchange provides that round-the-clock derivatives infrastructure, but it will not accept stock certificates as collateral; it requires stablecoins or crypto assets.

Backpack's account sits at the intersection of both requirements. Stock positions are held as real security entitlements under a licensed broker framework, not wrapped tokens. The crypto and derivatives infrastructure runs on Solana, enabling execution any hour of any day. A user can deploy MU shares to margin a BTC position or an SPY perpetual without any asset conversion step in between.

The practical comparison worth drawing is to Kraken Pro, which enabled xStocks (tokenized representations of equities) as margin collateral in June 2026. That model converts equities into on-chain tokens first, then uses those tokens as collateral. Backpack's approach keeps the underlying shares in the brokerage layer and makes the cross-margin account read both the brokerage and the exchange simultaneously, a different structural arrangement even if the surface result looks similar.

How Backpack's Real-Stock Collateral Compares to Coinbase and Hyperliquid

Equity perpetuals are not new on Solana or across the broader crypto market. Phoenix Trade listed approximately 29 equity perp markets as of late August 2026. Coinbase has offered equity perpetual futures for non-US eligible traders since earlier in 2026. Hyperliquid operates one of the largest perp venues by notional volume globally, though as a decentralized order book it has no brokerage layer to accept real stock certificates.

Backpack's edge comes from the combination: a licensed brokerage holding real shares, a 24/7 derivatives venue on Solana, and a unified margin account that treats brokerage and exchange positions as a single collateral pool.

From 24/7 Spot Trading to Perpetuals: Backpack's Equity Arc on Solana

This launch extends the milestone Backpack reached in July 2026, when it opened the first 24/7 market for real US equities for international investors, allowing them to buy, hold, and sell actual US securities around the clock. That launch introduced spot holding of real shares. September 1 adds the derivatives layer and the collateral bridge on top, with SpaceX (SPCX), Micron, SanDisk, and the Roundhill Memory ETF ($DRAM) among the equities Backpack and its partner SunriseDeFi have listed on Solana to date.

Armani Ferrante, the CEO of Backpack, co-created Anchor, the smart contract framework that underpins the majority of programs deployed on Solana. The exchange recorded $1.06 billion in July 2026 monthly volume as its equity and derivatives product lines have expanded through the year.

Product and service availability for both the new perpetuals and the equity collateral feature varies by jurisdiction, per the official announcement.