CoinGecko reports: a sharp increase of 346% vs. 20.8%, and the crazy rise of DEX

Original title: The Rise of Perp DEXs

Source: CoinGecko

Original language: Deep tide TechFlow

Introduction:Core data from CoinGecko ' s annual report are already adequate: DEX is moving systematically from centralization to centralization, with the turnover of DEX renewal contracts increasing sharply throughout the year by 346 per cent compared to the previous year, while CEX has a 20.8 per cent decline in warehouse holdings over the same period。

This article is not just a pile of numbers; it clearly explains why this migration happens, how Hyperliquid can go beyond Coinbase International, and what these platforms are becoming after HIP-3。

The text reads as follows:

In 2025, the platform for lasting contractual transactions — particularly the decentrization platform — erupted, totalling $92.9 trillion (64.6 per cent over the same period), fundamentally shifting the encrypted market from spot trading to price discovery mechanisms dominated by derivatives。

Core elements:

• DEX perps grew by 346 per cent to $6.7 trillion; at the same time, CEX hold fell by 20.8 per cent. This represents a massive capital migration from central to decentralised infrastructure driven by platforms such as Hyperliquid (seventh in global ranking, $2.9 trillion in trade)。

• Capital efficiency promotes adoption: Perps allows traders to access less capital with leverage, which is essential in the fourth quarter of 2025 and avoids friction in physical settlement。

• HIP-3 has achieved unlicensed listing of any asset with a price source, transforming platforms such as Hyperliquid from a “encrypted trading platform” to a 7x24-hour global financial infrastructure that allows trading of all assets from bulk commodities to pre-IPO equity。

Why is Perps growing faster than a spot deal

Figure: As of 2 March 2026, CoinGecko ranked top 5 of the 24-hour trading volume for decentrization of permanent contract trading platform

Capital efficiency: more with less money

The fundamental advantage of a sustainable contract lies in capital efficiency。In the spot market, the purchase of a bitcoin valued at $10,000 requires $10,000 and is locked in during the holding period. In sustainable markets, leverage can provide equal exposure with only a small fraction of the capital, thus releasing liquidity for other warehouses or strategies。

In addition to speculation, lasting contracts allow market participants to:

Scratch existing warehouse slots without selling bottom assets (and thus triggering tax events); arbitrage spreads across trading spaces; frictions that express orientation without physical settlement; and deployment of funds in multiple opportunities。

each dollar in the sustainable market plays a greater role than the dollar in the present. the scales are tilting towards perps for traders, funds and agencies that optimize capital returns。

Market maturity: following the path of traditional finance

The explosive growth of encrypted derivatives is a mirror of the pattern experienced in every mature financial market. In traditional finance, derivatives markets are much larger than bottom spot markets, often 10 to 50 times. In the interest rate swap market, for example, the nominal value exceeds $40 trillion, while the global bond market is about $13 trillion。

The encryption market is just chasing. As markets mature and more experienced participants arrive, the ratio of derivatives to ready-to-off trade continues to expand. The top 10 trading platforms alone have generated $92.9 trillion in future contracts, far more than the sum of all encrypted trading platforms' spot transactions。

Counterpart factor: persistence in decline

Perhaps the most compelling evidence of the value proposition for a lasting contract was in the fall of the fourth quarter of 2025. When the spot market contracted and investor sentiment worsened, the turnover of the top 10 permanent contract trading platforms increased by 64.6 per cent。

What's the reason? Because a permanent contract allows traders to make a profit in both directions. When prices fell, empty silos were profitable and hedge activities intensified. The ability of markets to express empty views keeps funds active and transactions high, even when spot purchases are depleted。

IN THE TRADITIONAL NET SPOT MARKET, FALLING PRICES MEAN REDUCED ACTIVITY. THIS CAN BE SEEN IN THE FALL OF CEX SPOT TRANSACTIONS FROM $221 TRILLION IN JANUARY 2025 TO A LOW OF $95 TRILLION IN DECEMBER。

However, in sustainable markets, fluctuations in any direction mean opportunities。The 2025 data confirm that this dynamic has fundamentally changed the encryption market structure。

FIGURE CEX VS. DEX SPOT AND DURABILITY CONTRACT TRANSACTIONS

Major migration: DEX vs CEX

Figure: Previous 10 Perp CEX and Perp DEX transactions Volume

Source: CoinGecko 2025 encryption industry report

Although centralized trading platforms still dominate on an absolute scale, the true story of 2025 is the rapid rise of decentralised permanent contract trading platforms. Perp DEX turnover surged by 346 per cent, reaching a record $6.7 trillion throughout the year。

To visualize this leap: in 2025 alone, at the peak of October alone, Perp DEX processed $1.18 trillion in trade, four times more than in January 2025。

DEX'S BUSTER

By 2025, Perp DEX had resolved the fundamental availability of previously placing users on a centralized platform:

1. User experience equivalence:The term "DEX operation clumsy" ended in 2025. Hyperliquid and Lighter provide almost indistinguishable interfaces with Binance or Coinbase. The order book is deep enough to be close to instantaneous and ordinary traders are no longer able to feel they are using the decentrized platform。

2. Competitive tariff structure:Early DEX premiums for decentrization. By 2025, competition and technological advances have kept Perp DEX fees even lower than CEX. platforms such as Hyperliquid even started to provide up to 90% taker home workers, compared to the most competitive CEX rate structure。

3. Scale Yes: Early DEX based on block chains is unable to handle the trade-off required for a serious derivative trading platform. The problem was solved by the emergence of a dedicated Layer 1 chain and optimization rollup. For example, Hyperliquid's custom L1 allows thousands of transactions to be processed per second for less than one second - performance is comparable to centralized infrastructure。

Division of holding volumes

According to CoinGecko's Annual Report on the Encryption Industry 2025, CEX held a 20.8 per cent decline in 2025, while DEX held a 229.6 per cent surge。

THE TOTAL VALUE OF WAREHOUSE HOLDINGS — CONTRACTS FOR UNSETTLED DERIVATIVES — REPRESENTS COMMITTED FUNDS AND FAITH. THIS DIVISION TELLS US THAT TRADERS ARE NOT JUST "TESTING" DEX FAST TRADING; THEY'RE CREATING CONSIDERABLE LONG-TERM POSITIONS ON THE CHAIN。

This shift represents the reallocation of funds from centralized to decentralised infrastructure. Once this migration begins, the network effect accelerates it. More liquidity attracts more traders, which in turn attracts more marketers and further deepens liquidity。

The Rise of Hyperliquid and Lighter

The ranking of the permanent contract trading platform in 2025 revealed significant changes in the market structure. Two of the go-to-centre platforms entered the top 10 and replaced the old central players:

• @HyperliquidX: seventh in global ranking, $2.9 trillion in annual turnover
• @Lighter xyz: The world ranks tenth, with an annual turnover of US$ 1.3 trillion。

In 2025, Hyperliquid exceeded Coinbase International. This decentrized platform, which has been in place for less than two years, goes beyond the trading platform of a publicly listed institution with billions of dollars in capital and a multi-year business history。

Coinbase International processed about US$ 1.4 trillion in 2025. Hyperliquid reached 2.9 trillion -- twice as much as the former。

Infrastructure victory

The secret to Hyperliquid's success is not smart marketing or token incentives, but infrastructure. The platform has built its own Lyer 1 block chain (HyperCore) dedicated to the optimization of long-term contract transactions。

This structural decision put an end to the "DEX slow" expression. By controlling the complete technology warehouse from the consensus mechanism to the blending engine, Hyperliquid achieved: less than one second of transaction confirmation; zero gas fees for market vendors; 20,000 + order throughput per second; 100% online throughout 2025。

By contrast, DEX, based on the Ether Workshop, suffers from network congestion and variable gas costs, and other L2 programmes are dependent on external infrastructure. The vertical integration of Hyperliquid achieves a user experience that is no different from that of a centralized trading platform, while retaining completely decentrized security。

Lighter followed a similar path, albeit with different technological realizations. The conclusions are clear:TO COMPETE WITH A CENTRALISED TRADING PLATFORM, DEX MUST CONTROL ITS OWN INFRASTRUCTURE。

Beyond encryption: Hyperliquid HIP-3 Revolution

At the end of 2025, Hyperliquid implemented HIP-3 (Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal 3) which fundamentally changed its market structure。

Unlicensed listing

PREVIOUSLY, THE OPENING OF A NEW SUSTAINABLE MARKET REQUIRED THE APPROVAL OF THE CERTIFYING OFFICER — A SEMI-CENTRALIZED PROCESS. HIP-3 INTRODUCED AN UNLICENSED AND SUSTAINABLE MARKET DEPLOYMENT MECHANISM。

Any builder can now create a permanent market for any asset with a reliable price source. No token currency, no permit, no listing fee。

Immediate effects are explosive. Within a few weeks, there was a permanent market on the platform for assets that had never been traded in the chain before。

Bridges to traditional finance

In February 2026, the impact of HIP-3 became clearer. Such platforms as Hyperliquid are no longer merely "encrypted derivatives trading platforms" but are becoming a global financial market infrastructure。

The sustainable market on Hyperliquid now covers:

• Major commodities:FOLLOW-UP OF COMEX FUTURES GOLD AND SILVER-FOR-LIFE CONTRACTS; CRUDE OIL AND GAS; AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS (WHEAT, MAIZE, SOYBEANS)。

• Equity category:Pre-IPO companies such as SpaceX and OpenAI; synthetic openings for major technology units; and stock-holding contracts (Standard 500, NASDAQ 100)。

• Alternative assets:Projected markets (election results, economic indicators); sports lottery derivatives; weather derivatives。

This expansion means that Perp DEX is becoming a 7x24 hour global price discovery infrastructure。

The market never closes

THE TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL MARKETS WILL BE CLOSED — THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE PLATFORM CLOSES AT 4 P.M. AMERICAN EASTERN TIME, AND THE CME FUTURES MARKET STOPS TRADING ON SUNDAY NIGHT. THIS CAN LEAD TO FRICTION, INFORMATION GAPS AND OPPORTUNITY COSTS。

The market for sustainability based on block chains will never be closed. When traditional markets are offline, the chain continues to operate, incorporating new information in real time。

Imagine: a big story on Sunday night — geopolitical crisis, corporate bankruptcy, central bank surprises. The traditional market does not price this information until Monday morning, resulting in potential jumps and errors。

The permanent contracts on platforms such as Hyperliquid immediately price information. As these markets become more liquid, they may begin to influence open prices in traditional markets - the 7x24-hour price on the chain is becoming a reference point for the Monday morning catch-up in traditional markets。

Conclusion: the new boundary of a lasting contract

The data for 2025 tell a clear story:The renewal of contracts has become the dominant force in encryption transactions, and the decentrization platform is rapidly closing the gap with its central rivals。

THE FIGURES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES: 92.9 TRILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS IN EXCHANGE FOR THE TOP 10 SUSTAINABLE CONTRACT TRADING PLATFORMS; 346 PER CENT GROWTH IN DEX LASTING TRANSACTIONS; 229.6 PER CENT SURGE IN DEX HOLDINGS; AND THE LEADING DEX HAS REPLACED THE MAIN CEX IN THE RANKING。

As the creation of unlicensed markets becomes possible, the boundaries between the "encrypted trading platform" and the "global financial market" are disappearing, with the equivalent of the performance of the block chain infrastructure and the centralization of systems. These platforms are moving towards "link financial markets" - any asset with a price source can be traded here for 7 x 24 hours, fully self-cussed and transparent。

The spot trading model — buying and physically clearing assets — will persist。But durable contracts will dominate price discovery, hedges and high-efficiency speculation。

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