Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, has presented the concept of a fundamentally new class of derivatives — quarterly futures and perpetual contracts on computational power for artificial intelligence. The Flop Network blockchain is to serve as the basis for pricing.
According to the author's design, the new instrument is capable of replicating the success of perpetual swaps and synthetic dollars. Buyers of computational power and market makers will gain the ability to hedge risks based on a single index within a single network.
One token — one price for computation
Hayes draws attention to a fundamental problem of the AI market: a single global price for computation does not exist today. Cost is diluted between chip rentals and per-model-run rates.
As a solution, the Flop Reference Compute Rate (FRCR) index is proposed — an hourly metric formed on the basis of requests from AI agents within the Flop Network. In this ecosystem, AI agents will pay miners in FLOP tokens for running computations on selected models.
Quarterly futures are planned to be settled in dollars, although the index itself is denominated in FLOP. This scheme is called a quanto: payment is made in one currency while the contract is valued in another.
Next, a perpetual contract is envisaged — a futures contract without an expiration date. Settlement will be based on the premium to the eight-hour index. Market makers will be able to replicate positions through the rollover of packages of computational resources calculated 30 days ahead.
Sellers will post FLOP bonds on top of commissions. If the obligation is not fulfilled within 24 hours, the collateral will be burned.
Will Hayes's approach work
Hayes credits himself with creating the perpetual swap on BitMEX in 2016, as well as the idea of the synthetic dollar implemented in Ethena through the USDe token. USDe is a stablecoin hedged by short positions in perpetual contracts.
The maximum supply of USDe reached almost $14.8 billion in October 2025, after which it fell below $5 billion.
There is another complication. The FLOP testnet does not yet have a launch schedule. Only a goal has been stated: to deploy the genesis block in the first quarter of 2027.
Cryptalist analysis: Hayes's initiative reflects growing demand from institutional players for risk-hedging instruments in the AI infrastructure sector, where price volatility for computation remains uncontrolled. However, the absence of a working network and the index's peg to a single token create significant concentration risks, and the success of the concept will depend directly on liquidity and market trust in Flop Network.