The Strait of Hormuz market on perp.city is a perpetual futures contract on live maritime traffic through the strait - the world's most important oil chokepoint, carrying roughly a fifth of global seaborne crude between Iran and Oman. The index counts cargo ships and tankers within a 35-nautical-mile radius of the strait in real time, updated every 15 minutes from AIS transponder data.
Traders can go long or short on Hormuz shipping activity with leverage, settling in USDC on Arbitrum. When Gulf tensions trigger reroutes, convoys, or blockade fears, the vessel count moves - and the perpetual future lets you take a position on it directly, without touching oil futures or freight derivatives.
Yes. perp.city lists a Strait of Hormuz perpetual futures market where you can go long or short on live vessel traffic through the strait, settled in USDC on Arbitrum. It tracks real-time cargo and tanker counts rather than a physically-settled oil contract.
The number of cargo ships and tankers within a 35-nautical-mile radius of the Strait of Hormuz, updated every 15 minutes from live AIS transponder data. Passenger, fishing, and military vessels are excluded.
Around 20% of the world's seaborne oil passes through Hormuz. Geopolitical events - sanctions, convoys, reroutes, blockade threats - move the vessel count, making it a direct, liquid way to express a view on Gulf shipping risk.
Yes. The perp.city Strait of Hormuz market lets you go long or short on live vessel traffic through the strait - the count of cargo ships and tankers moving through it, updated every 15 minutes - settled in USDC on Arbitrum. It is a continuous, always-open market, not a fixed-date bet.
It is a perpetual future, a continuous cousin of a prediction market. Instead of a one-off Yes/No that resolves on a fixed date, you can go long or short on the live Strait of Hormuz vessel-traffic index at any time, with leverage, and close whenever you want - all settled in USDC on Arbitrum.
This market's index
Tracks number of cargo ships and tankers inside Strait of Hormuz.
How it updates
The index is a live count of the cargo ships and tankers currently inside a fixed zone over the Strait of Hormuz, published every 15 minutes as a fresh snapshot. There is no rolling window or time-averaging: a ship counts while it is inside the zone and stops counting as soon as it leaves.
What it measures
The number of distinct cargo and tanker vessels (AIS ship types 70-89, deduplicated by MMSI, a vessel's permanent radio identity) currently inside the zone: a circular area with a 35 nautical mile radius centered on the strait (26.6 N, 56.5 E), sized to capture vessels transiting the choke point while excluding in-port traffic at Bandar Abbas and Khasab.
Methodology
Each cycle queries the AIS vendor for every matching vessel inside the zone, combining terrestrial-radar and satellite reception for higher coverage than raw AIS broadcasts alone. The count is a direct census of that snapshot, not a model.
Source
AIS via Datalastic.
Know the limits
Vessels can disable or spoof AIS ("going dark"), historically common in sanctioned cargo flows around Iran. The index measures the observable population, so ships going dark lower the count even when real traffic has not changed.
How prices are quoted
Prices are quoted in index points: 1 point = 1 vessel = $1.00, which is how position value, fees, and PnL stay in dollars. The traded price moves in fractions of a point even though the index itself is always a whole number.
Price, index, and funding
The traded price and the index are different numbers: the index is the measured value, while the price is set by trading and moves freely around it. Funding is what ties them together — positions pay or earn a rate set by the gap between the mark price and a 1-hour average of the index (price above index: longs pay shorts; below: shorts pay longs), which pulls the price back toward the index. A new index value is published about every 15 minutes.
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