# Introduction

On December 30, 2025, Lighter's TGE once again brought the Perp DEX track into the spotlight, marking the end of the competition for on-chain perpetual contracts in 2025: at the beginning of the year, Hyperliquid dominated with over 70% market share; in the second half of the year, with the rise of new Perp DEXs like Aster, Lighter, and EdgeX, each with unique features, Hyperliquid's market share dropped to around 20%, entering a new phase of competition involving technology, capital, incentives, and real demand.

This article will analyze the background and development of the rise of the Perp DEX track, the market landscape and key data performance in 2025, and provide a comprehensive analysis of five representative Perp DEX protocols: Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter, EdgeX, and Paradex. We will examine these five Perp DEX representative protocols from different dimensions, including background teams, technical architecture and functions, token economics, market data, and performance. Furthermore, we will explore the potential risks and opportunities in the track and look ahead to the trends in 2026.

# 1. Background and Development of Perp DEX

The early on-chain derivatives market was quite small. Centralized exchanges (CEX) long dominated derivatives trading, providing excellent user experience, deep liquidity, and one-stop services, but their centralization also buried risks: the industry turmoil from 2022 to 2023, especially the collapse of giants like FTX, made users increasingly aware of custody risks and opaque operations, prompting funds and traders to seek decentralized alternatives, laying the demand foundation for the explosion of the Perp DEX track.

However, performance bottlenecks have always been a constraint on the development of on-chain perpetual contracts: on-chain matching and settlement are often limited by blockchain throughput and latency, leading to high slippage and insufficient depth. To overcome this, early projects explored various paths: for example, dYdX used an order book but relied on off-chain matching (now migrated to an independent chain), while GMX adopted an on-chain multi-asset pool market-making model, providing perpetual trading but with liquidity constrained by pool size. Although these pioneers proved the feasibility of on-chain perpetuals, they did not truly shake CEX in terms of trading experience and scale.

In recent years, the development of Ethereum Layer 2 and application chains has provided a foundation for high-performance contract exchanges, elevating latency and throughput to unprecedented levels. Hyperliquid built an independent Layer 1 public chain specifically designed for derivatives, while EdgeX and Paradex leveraged Layer 2 technologies like StarkWare to achieve second-level or even sub-second on-chain trading experiences. Coupled with incentive mechanisms like trading mining and airdrop points to attract users,

the Perp DEX track entered a period of rapid iteration in 2024-25. In 2024, Hyperliquid first gained popularity, with its HYPE token airdrop and buyback plan driving a surge in locked positions and trading volume, at one point capturing 80% of the on-chain perpetual market. In 2025, as multiple new platforms launched and adopted aggressive market strategies, Hyperliquid's monopoly in the Perp DEX track was broken, officially entering a stage of fierce competition.

# 2. Current Status and Data Performance of the Track in 2025

In 2025, the overall scale of on-chain perpetual contract trading achieved a significant leap. Monthly perpetual contract trading volume exceeded $1 trillion, rapidly increasing its share of the crypto derivatives market, with on-chain perpetual contract trading volume at one point accounting for 1/10 of centralized exchanges, beginning to pose a substantial challenge to centralized giants. Notably, during the extreme market conditions on October 11, on-chain DEXs managed to handle $19 billion in position liquidations while maintaining overall stability. These data indicate that Perp DEXs have grown from niche experimental grounds to an indispensable part of the derivatives market.

Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/derivatives-market/

In terms of market landscape, Hyperliquid maintained its lead in the first half of the year, capturing about 70% of on-chain perpetual trading volume. However, in the second half of the year, as emerging players entered the market, its share continuously declined. According to analysis data from Dune, by the end of December, Hyperliquid's trading volume had dropped to 17% of the total network share. In its place emerged a new competitive landscape: Lighter quickly attracted a large number of high-frequency traders with its zero-fee strategy, achieving a traffic share of 20% in December; Aster gained a 15% market share through continuous incentives and support from Binance; and the robust and professional EdgeX captured about 10% of the share. Additionally, newcomers like Paradex, GRVT, and Pacifica divided the remaining share, further weakening the dominance of the leader. It can be said that in the second half of 2025, the competition among new and old platforms in the Perp DEX track around users and liquidity intensified.

Source: https://dune.com/uwusanauwu/perps

However, from the perspective of the Open Interest (OI) indicator, data as of the end of December indicated that Hyperliquid remained the undisputed leader in terms of OI, with an open interest scale of approximately $7.5 billion, accounting for 49% of the total OI across the four major platforms, indicating that nearly half of the on-chain real positions still resided in Hyperliquid. This shows that Hyperliquid still holds a structural leading position in trading depth and capital accumulation, while the substantial trading volume of newcomers like Aster and Lighter is largely driven by incentives and frequent wash trading, rather than long-term capital investment.

Source: https://dune.com/kooroot/top5-perpdex-comparison

In terms of revenue and profitability, the differentiation within the track is also evident. Many new platforms have adopted zero-fee or significant rebate strategies, making actual fee income a better reflection of their "self-sustaining" capabilities. Aside from Hyperliquid, EdgeX is one of the few projects that have achieved sustainable high revenue: its monthly fee income exceeded $20 million, annualized at about $250 million, second only to Hyperliquid. Platforms like Paradex and Extended also demonstrated certain revenue potential. In contrast, models like Lighter's zero-fee strategy have almost no fee income; while its short-term trading volume peaked, the protocol's revenue was zero, and its profitability model remains to be validated after the airdrop. It is evident that some new platforms are exchanging capital for market share, and whether they can truly establish commercial sustainability remains in question.

# 3. Overview of Representative Perp DEX Protocols

Based on trading volume and open interest rankings, the current top five protocols in the Perp DEX track include Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter, EdgeX, and Paradex. Below, we will analyze the performance of these five representative Perp DEX protocols from different dimensions, including background teams, technical architecture and functions, token economics, market data, and performance.

1. Hyperliquid --- The King of On-Chain Derivatives

Source: https://wrapped.hyperscreener.asxn.xyz/summary

Background and Team: Hyperliquid was founded in 2023 by Jeff Yan, with an initial team of only 11 people, yet it built a "phenomenal" on-chain derivatives platform in less than two years. Hyperliquid was entirely self-funded and adhered to a community-driven approach. This self-reliant development model is rare in the crypto space but has earned Hyperliquid a reputation as "decentralization native." The project did not engage in much market hype when it launched in July 2023, gradually entering the public eye in 2024 through large-scale airdrops and impressive data.

Product Features and Technology: Hyperliquid's biggest differentiation lies in its self-developed dedicated blockchain, theoretically capable of achieving 200,000 transactions per second, with order confirmation delays at sub-second levels. Hyperliquid deploys all core modules such as central limit order book (CLOB) matching and settlement on this high-performance chain, allowing users to experience an interface and matching efficiency similar to Binance, while the underlying settlement is completely decentralized and does not require KYC. Additionally, Hyperliquid plans to launch a general-purpose smart contract platform, HyperEVM, to support more applications. The officially promoted HLP treasury plays a market-making role for the platform: participating as a counterparty in a large number of transactions and earning a portion of fees, funding costs, and liquidation profits, with a current TVL exceeding $390 million. This model effectively enhances platform liquidity and user stickiness, creating a win-win cycle between retail and market-making funds.

Token Economics and Incentives: Hyperliquid's governance token HYPE was airdropped in early 2024, with a distribution highly tilted towards the community, with 70% of tokens allocated to the community (airdrops, mining, etc.), and the platform committed to using all fee income for buybacks and burning HYPE, thereby directly converting protocol growth into token value support. This model caused HYPE's market capitalization to rapidly expand after its launch, reaching approximately $8.2 billion by the end of 2025, ranking 15th among cryptocurrencies.

Data and Performance: Although Hyperliquid faced challenges in trading volume share in the second half of 2025, it still maintained its position in the top tier based on key quality indicators. The platform's 24-hour trading volume consistently ranged between $3-10 billion; its open interest scale long occupied more than half of the total network. In terms of trading depth and liquidity, Hyperliquid's BTC perpetual can accommodate approximately $5 million positions within a ±0.01% price difference. In terms of stability, Hyperliquid has not experienced any major technical incidents to date, and even during the liquidation peak in October, it did not suffer any downtime. Overall, Hyperliquid demonstrated deep-rooted dominance in 2025: although its trading volume was surpassed by newcomers, its solid technology, real liquidity, and healthy economic model kept its kingly status unshaken.

2. Aster --- The Surging Dark Horse and Trust Crisis

Source: https://www.asterdex.com/

Background and Team: Aster is a multi-chain perpetual contract exchange that launched in early 2025, formed from the merger of Asterus and APX Finance. YZi Labs provided early support, and CZ has repeatedly promoted Aster on social media. This has given Aster a halo since its inception. Its goal is to create a high-speed derivatives platform supporting multi-chain deployments on BNB Chain, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Solana, etc., allowing users to trade different on-chain assets without cumbersome cross-chain processes.

Product Features and Technology: Aster indeed has notable features. Firstly, its multi-chain deployment: it provides trading ports on BNB Chain, Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Solana, allowing users to trade across chains through a unified account without cumbersome chain transfers. Secondly, Aster offers an astonishing leverage of up to 1001 times and advanced features like hidden orders to meet the needs of high-risk preference users. Additionally, its planned Aster Chain is a dedicated chain based on zero-knowledge proofs, which enhances transaction privacy and efficiency. At the same time, Aster allows users to participate in yield with some collateral assets, and margin positions can also earn interest, improving capital efficiency.

Token Economics and Incentives: The total supply of the ASTER token is 8 billion, with a high airdrop ratio of 53.5%, 30% for ecology and community, and 5% for the team. Originally designed for monthly ecological unlocks, this led to a continuous increase in circulating supply, creating ongoing selling pressure. In October, the Aster team announced a revision of the token economics, delaying a large number of tokens originally scheduled for unlocking in 2025 until the summer of 2026 or even 2035, but the market seems unconvinced. Currently, the ASTER token price fluctuates around $0.7, significantly down from its peak.

Data Performance and Controversy: In September 2025, Aster launched its mainnet and the ASTER token. Its token price surged from the issuance price of $0.08 to $2.42 within a week, a staggering increase of 2800%. The platform's daily trading volume also quickly climbed to $70 billion. From late September to early October, Aster briefly captured over 50% of the market share due to frenzied trading activity, becoming a true dark horse. Many investors viewed Aster as the next Hyperliquid, hoping it would replicate the latter's myth. However, on October 5, the authoritative data aggregation platform DeFiLlama announced the delisting of Aster data, citing "discovery of its trading volume being almost perfectly synchronized with Binance, indicating serious anomalies." Furthermore, Aster refused to provide backend trading data to DeFiLlama to prove its innocence. On-chain tracking revealed that 96% of ASTER tokens were concentrated in six wallets, and its trading volume/OI ratio was as high as 58, clearly resulting from frequent wash trading. Following the exposure of this news, the ASTER token price plummeted over 10% that day, raising questions about its brand credibility.

3. Lighter --- The Zero-Fee Technical Disruptor

Source: https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/lighter

Background and Financing: Lighter is a dark horse that entered the on-chain perpetual track in 2025. The core team was created by former engineers from Citadel hedge fund, backed by top-tier investment institutions such as Peter Thiel, a16z, and Lightspeed, raising $68 million in the seed round, with a post-investment valuation of $1.5 billion. The strong capital backing also provided Lighter with ample development resources in its early stages. On October 2, 2025, Lighter officially launched, with the name "Lighter" symbolizing a "lighter and faster trading experience," reflecting the team's technical strength and ambition.

Product Features and Technology: Lighter chose to build on ZK Rollup, fully utilizing the security of the Ethereum mainnet while achieving scalability through Layer 2. The key technical highlight is that each transaction uses zero-knowledge proofs for encrypted verification, ensuring the privacy and validity of transaction data. The solution provided by StarkWare is used to accelerate proof generation, allowing the platform to achieve high-frequency matching while ensuring security. Additionally, Lighter designed a unique "escape pod" mechanism: if the L2 platform itself experiences a failure, users can use pre-deployed smart contracts to withdraw funds from Layer 2 back to the mainnet, avoiding prolonged fund entrapment. Overall, Lighter's choice of technical route is quite bold, aiming for a significant leap in performance while uncompromising on security and decentralization.

Token Economics and Incentives: The $LIT token will have its TGE on December 30, 2025, with 50% allocated to the ecosystem (25% of which has been directly airdropped, redeemable at a ratio of 1:20), and the other 50% to the team and investors (with vesting periods). Protocol income will be used for buybacks of LIT or ecosystem incentives, aiming to align community and project interests in the long term. As of January 3, 2026, the latest price is $2.50, with a circulating market cap of $650 million and an FDV of $2.6 billion.

Market Performance and Controversy: Lighter adopts an aggressive zero-fee strategy to compete for users, with trading fees set to 0% for both limit and market orders, and protocol income coming entirely from HFT and market makers. As a result, Lighter's zero-fee strategy has indeed been effective; within just a few weeks of launch, the user count surged to over 56,000, with daily trading volume stabilizing at $7-8 billion. A large number of arbitrageurs and quantitative teams flooded in to wash trades, making it the top on-chain DEX by trading volume. However, Lighter's Vol/OI ratio once exceeded 8, indicating that a significant portion of funds was being frequently opened and closed rather than held long-term. Once the airdrop ends, this speculative flow may quickly recede. The highly aggressive expansion also tests Lighter's system stability. In mid-October, the platform experienced about four hours of downtime, during which users were unable to place orders or withdraw funds, leading to a roughly 10% loss in Lighter's LLP fund pool, exposing shortcomings in Lighter's system stability and risk control under extreme market conditions. Additionally, the platform experienced UI lag and minor bug feedback during peak times, somewhat affecting user experience.

4. EdgeX --- An Institution-Level Robust Exchange

Source: https://www.edgex.exchange/

Background and Team: EdgeX is a specialized perpetual contract platform incubated by Amber Group, a leading crypto financial institution in Asia, launched in September 2024. EdgeX carries a TradFi gene, built by a team of experts proficient in institutional services. As a veteran market maker managing around $5 billion, Amber Group not only provided seed funding but also injected deep liquidity support and market operation capabilities into EdgeX, attracting attention from the institutional circle and Asian market upon its launch.

Product Features and Technology: EdgeX is built on StarkWare's StarkEx engine, adopting a hybrid model of centralized matching + decentralized settlement: order matching is executed on StarkEx, and trading results are packaged on-chain. EdgeX emphasizes low fees + deep liquidity as its selling points, with its fee rates slightly lower than Hyperliquid: maker fee at 0.012% (HL at 0.015%), taker fee at 0.038% (HL at 0.045%). In terms of liquidity, thanks to Amber Group's support, EdgeX's order book depth and spreads are exceptionally good. Data shows that within a ±0.01% range, EdgeX's BTC perpetual can accommodate $6 million positions (better than HL's $5 million), and slippage for various mainstream trading pairs is generally lower than competitors. Additionally, EdgeX places great importance on mobile experience: the official app for iOS/Android integrates MPC wallet technology, allowing users to use it without memorizing seed phrases, significantly lowering the entry barrier.

Token Economics and Incentives: EdgeX has not yet issued its platform token EGX. To compensate for the lack of a token, EdgeX has designed a trading points reward mechanism, but it is relatively transparent and restrained. The sources of its points distribution are clear: 60% from trading volume, 20% from referrals, 10% from TVL/LP, and 10% from liquidation/OI, with a public statement that it will never reward wash trading. Users' expectations for a future EGX token are also relatively rational. The community predicts that EdgeX will allocate about 20-35% of tokens to points holders at TGE.

Market Data and Performance: EdgeX's performance in 2025 can be described as "steady with growth." According to CoinGecko data, EdgeX's 24-hour trading volume is about $2.5 billion, with OI around $1.3 billion, ranking fourth among Perp DEX platforms. Although its trading volume market share is only 5-6%, EdgeX's annualized revenue is about $500 million, second only to Hyperliquid. In summary, EdgeX excels in stability and professionalism, performing well across the board but lacking absolute standout features. Its late token issuance raises questions about how to attract attention after missing the airdrop frenzy.

5. Paradex --- A Full-Featured On-Chain Derivatives "Super DEX"

Source: https://www.paradex.trade/

Background and Team: Paradex was incubated by the crypto institutional trading network Paradigm. Established in 2019, it focuses on serving hedge funds, market makers, and other institutions, initially providing over-the-counter options matching services, once capturing 30% of the global crypto options market. In early 2025, Paradex launched its testing phase, gradually opening public access by mid-year, positioning itself as a high-performance decentralized trading and asset management platform.

Product Features and Technology: Paradex has built its dedicated Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain, Paradex Network, based on the Starknet framework, supporting highly customizable on-chain parameters. Trading on the Paradex web platform is fee-free for all markets except BTC/ETH, and professional users accessing via API are charged only a 0.02% taker fee, with no maker fee. Paradex plans to launch various products, including perpetual futures, perpetual options, and spot trading, with all transactions settled through a unified account, supporting isolated, cross-margin, and even combined margin modes. Paradex also embeds a series of DeFi asset management features, allowing direct lending within the same account to enhance capital efficiency. Additionally, Paradex may introduce privacy trading modes in the future to meet the needs of some institutional users who do not wish to disclose their positions. In summary, while other perpetual DEXs compete on incentives and performance, Paradex seeks product innovation to create a comprehensive and diversified on-chain exchange.

Token Plans and Incentives: Paradex has not yet issued a token, but the official token economics have been announced: community rewards account for 26.6%, foundation budget 6%, core team 25.1%, future contributors 3.8%, and Paradigm shareholders 13.5%. The platform token is named DIME, with multiple uses: as gas fees for Paradex Chain, trading fee discounts, staking rewards, liquidity mining, and governance voting, serving as a value carrier throughout the ecosystem. Paradex announced that it will launch DIME in 2025 and allocate 20% of tokens for the genesis airdrop. Paradex's incentive structure is relatively moderate and transparent, with no outrageous wash trading phenomena; its Vol/OI ratio typically hovers around 1-2, close to normal levels like Hyperliquid, with officials repeatedly emphasizing a focus on long-term value rather than short-term speculation.

Market Data and Performance: Paradex's platform has a TVL of about $170 million, daily trading volume of around $2 billion, and OI of approximately $770 million. These figures are relatively small compared to giants like Hyperliquid, but the growth rate is steady, with no significant fluctuations. Paradex has a good reputation among professional derivatives traders, especially favored by those looking to explore on-chain options and advanced strategies. Currently, its product line is rapidly expanding: according to the official X account, spot trading will launch in mid to late January 2026, followed by meme token trading and the DIME token issuance, among other significant developments. If its "unified account, multi-in-one trading" model operates successfully, it will create differentiated competitive advantages in the track.

# 4. Opportunities and Risks Analysis of the Perp DEX Track

1. Opportunities Facing the Perp DEX Track

1) Significant room for market penetration: Despite the explosive growth of on-chain perpetual trading volume in 2025, its share of the overall crypto derivatives market remains low, around 5-10%. The vast majority of contract trading still occurs on centralized platforms, with Binance's single-day futures volume reaching trillions of dollars. As the decentralized trading experience approaches that of CEXs, the demand for users to avoid centralized risks and enjoy self-custody freedom will continue to grow. In the coming years, on-chain derivatives are expected to capture more market share; even an increase to 20-30% would provide several times the growth potential for current DEXs.

2) New technological dividends empowering the track: The continuous maturation of new technologies such as ZK proofs, sharding, and notary networks will drive on-chain performance to new heights, reducing costs and expanding product boundaries. For example, Paradex's planned perpetual options and other innovations are achieved through breakthroughs in underlying technology. There is reason to believe that the compounding effect of technology will continue to help decentralized exchanges narrow the gap with centralized giants and even create new product forms that the latter cannot offer.

3) Changes in user education and habits: After experiencing events like FTX, the new generation of crypto users is more receptive to DeFi products. Many users who previously only traded contracts on Binance began trying Hyperliquid, EdgeX, and others in 2025, leaving positive feedback. With word-of-mouth spread and KOL influence, on-chain trading is moving from a small circle to the mainstream. This means that the potential user base for Perp DEXs is expanding, and the unique attractions of DeFi, such as community autonomy and airdrop incentives, will also translate into retention rates.

4) Capital and institutional entry: In 2025, several top institutional funds began to enter the Perp DEX space: 21Shares launched an ETP product for HYPE; Amber and other traditional institutions directly incubated EdgeX; and Paradigm personally engaged in Paradex. These signals indicate that compliant capital is optimistic about the future prospects of on-chain derivatives and is willing to provide liquidity and infrastructure support. With clearer regulations, more Wall Street or crypto funds are expected to participate through DAO investments, liquidity market-making, and other means, injecting new vitality into the track.

5) Ecological synergy effects: Perp DEXs have strong synergies with other areas of DeFi (lending, yield strategies, stablecoins, etc.). Paradex has begun exploring the integration of perpetual contracts with other DeFi Lego blocks to create new use cases. This foreshadows richer opportunities for cross-protocol collaboration and ecological integration. For example, perpetual DEXs can provide hedging tools for on-chain assets, and interest rate derivatives from lending protocols can also be priced through perpetual markets.

2. Potential Risks in the Perp DEX Track

The apparent prosperity of the Perp DEX track's explosion in 2025 actually conceals multiple risks that investors should be wary of.

1) Wash trading and excessive incentives: Aster's alleged data fraud led to a collapse of trust, while Lighter's excessive incentives buried bubble risks. These remind us that while short-term trading data can be packaged, only positions and income are hard indicators; investors should avoid being misled by exaggerated trading volumes.

2) Technical and security risks: New platforms often adopt complex architectures or self-developed chains to achieve high performance, increasing the likelihood of vulnerabilities and failures. Lighter's mainnet experienced a database crash just 10 days after launch, and self-developed chains like Hyperliquid have also faced scrutiny regarding their consensus and security being untested over the long term. Additionally, risks from smart contract vulnerabilities, matching failures, and oracle malfunctions cannot be ignored.

3) Token economic risks: Many Perp DEX platforms view token prices as the lifeline of their ecosystems, stimulating token prices through buybacks, dividends, and other means. However, the secondary market is volatile; if a platform's token crashes, it may dampen user enthusiasm and even trigger a run. For example, if Lighter's LITER price does not meet expectations after listing, a large number of wash traders may sell off and exit.

4) Risks of extreme market volatility: The current scale of the on-chain contract market is still relatively small compared to CEXs, and during extraordinary volatility, liquidity depletion and sudden increases in slippage can still occur. If an event similar to the "10.11 crash" of 2025 happens, with hundreds of billions in liquidations, some platforms with poor risk tolerance may collapse or even become insolvent.

5) Compliance policy risks: As on-chain derivatives trading volume surges, regulatory attention increases. Many countries and regions prohibit unauthorized platforms from offering high-leverage contract trading to their residents; even decentralized platforms may face restrictions. Although decentralized protocols themselves are hard to shut down completely, regulatory risks may undermine user confidence and affect the scale of capital inflow.

# 5. Outlook for 2026: A New Era of Competition and Upgrades

Looking ahead to 2026, the on-chain perpetual contract market is expected to enter a more mature and competitive new phase. Based on the current landscape and development trends, the following trends can be anticipated:

1. Evolution of the landscape and continued reshuffling: Hyperliquid, as a seasoned leader, is expected to continue solidifying its position in the top tier due to its deep OI and community foundation. If Lighter can maintain user activity, it will become the strongest challenger in terms of trading volume; Aster, with Binance's support, may see its market share rebound; and EdgeX is likely to capture the institutional and stable user market. Paradex, with its product differentiation, has the opportunity to rise from the second tier in 2026. The overall track landscape will present a "one strong, many strong" scenario: Hyperliquid remains dominant, while several others occupy niche segments, narrowing the market share gap among leading platforms. Meanwhile, reshuffling will continue, with intensified competition among small and medium platforms.

2. Rational return, emphasizing quality growth: After the frenzied arms race of trading volume in 2025, market participants will become more rational, realizing that competing for trading volume rankings is of little significance, and will shift their focus to open interest, revenue, user retention, and other indicators that better reflect real health. It is expected that the Vol/OI ratios of various platforms will generally fall back to reasonable ranges in 2026, with new user growth tending to be organic, and vicious incentive wars may come to an end. Of course, marketing will continue, with various platforms likely launching trading competitions, limited-time zero-fee promotions, etc., but this competition will focus more on enhancing user experience rather than merely inflating data. At the same time, with a large number of airdrops landing, the number of speculators will decrease, and the proportion of genuinely needed traders will rise. Quality-first and stable operations will become the new consensus in the track.

3. Emergence of diversified product models: In 2026, we may see Perp DEXs expand beyond just "perpetual contracts" to a full product line. Paradex's planned launch of perpetual options and spot trading will serve as a litmus test: if it operates successfully, other platforms will inevitably follow suit in developing options, futures (fixed-date futures), and other new contract types, providing richer derivative tools. Additionally, real-world asset (RWA) contracts may emerge, allowing users to trade contracts for traditional markets like gold and stock indices on-chain. At the same time, social trading and algorithmic strategies may be integrated into platforms, deepening the trend of merging exchanges with wealth management.

4. Regulatory and compliance explorations: 2026 may become a year where the regulatory framework for DeFi derivatives gradually takes shape. Some major jurisdictions may issue guidelines or regulations for decentralized derivatives. There are rumors that EdgeX is considering launching a regulated version for institutional access, similar to dYdX's earlier establishment of a custodial version. If Hyperliquid wants to further penetrate the U.S. market, it may also evaluate the possibility of registering as a derivatives trading platform (SEF). Overall, the gray areas in the DeFi field will gradually be standardized in 2026, presenting both challenges and opportunities for the Perp DEX track, which primarily consists of anonymous retail users. Standardization will help attract more mainstream capital, but it may also conflict with the principles of decentralization. Each platform will likely adopt a "dual approach": retaining anonymous open access while establishing compliance windows to meet regulatory requirements.

5. Collision of old and new forces: 2026 may also witness a direct confrontation between traditional giants and on-chain newcomers. On one hand, established centralized exchanges are unlikely to sit idly by as their market share is taken; entering the DeFi derivatives space will be a logical strategy. Binance, OKX, and others are already deploying decentralized products, and Binance's prior investment in Aster may just be the beginning; in the future, it is not ruled out that they will launch their own decentralized contract trading functions, providing "centralized + decentralized" dual-track services in conjunction with their CEX. Similarly, rising platforms like Bitget may also incubate their own DEXs. The entry of centralized platforms will bring more resources and user traffic to the track, but it also means intensified competition. On the other hand, new on-chain projects will continue to emerge, attempting to challenge existing leaders with newer concepts or mechanisms.

Conclusion: From Hyperliquid's Dominance to a Competitive Landscape in 2025

The Perp DEX track has seen a remarkable journey from Hyperliquid's overwhelming lead to a competitive landscape. The Perp DEX track in 2026 will transition from "wild growth" to "meticulous cultivation." The overall market will become more mature and stable, moving away from rough volume inflation towards high-quality competition; product forms will become richer and more diverse, evolving into comprehensive derivative platforms. Looking to the future, the battle for on-chain derivatives will continue to be exciting, and we await the emergence of new patterns and legends.

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