Castle Labs: Variational Swaps offer 8-12x lower execution costs than major on-chain venues

Castle Labs released a report on September 10 comparing the execution costs of Variational's swap products against traditional perpetual futures. The analysis shows that Variational provides the lowest costs for most trade sizes, with a $1 million trade on the US100 market costing only $47. RWA perpetual futures volume has grown from under $1 billion in October 2025 to over $120 billion in August 2026, now accounting for 12-13% of total on-chain perpetual volume. Variational's swaps utilize RFQ execution and liquidity from traditional financial partners, charging a daily holding cost instead of market-driven funding rates. Since their launch earlier this month, the US100, US500, XAU, XAG, and USOIL markets have accumulated $3.8 billion in volume, with swaps currently contributing over 50% of Variational's daily trading volume.