Perp DEX rise and future: a structural revolution in derivatives on the chain

One of the most important changes in the encryption market over the past two years has been not a new public chain or a popular narrative, but rather a slow but sustained migration of derivatives from the central exchange. In the process, Perpetual DEX evolved from an experimental product to one of the most gold-bearing tracks in the DeFi system。

If the spot deal is the starting point of DeFi, then the contract is becoming its real & ldquo; the cash flow core & rdquo。

Perp DEX why rises

In the traditional system of encrypted transactions, permanent contracts are the most important source of profits for the centralized exchange. CEX monopolizes almost the entire derivative cash flow, whether it be transactional fees, financial rates or additional gains from liquidation. This is not a &ldquao for DeFi; it's a &rdquao; it's a problem; it's a problem for &ldquao; it's a problem for the capacity to do &rdquao。

Early DeFi did not have the basic conditions for the renewal of the contract. Insufficient performance on the chain leads to high transaction delays, high Gas costs, low frequency of price prognosis and rapid penetration of any leverage product by arbitragers. Even if there are attempts, it is difficult to compete with CEX at the level of user experience and control。

The real turn comes after the infrastructure has matured. The spread of Layer 2 and the emergence of a high performance public chain have led to a significant improvement in chain trade throughput and delay; a new generation of predictive machine systems can provide faster and more stable price data; and DeFi users, who experience multiple cycles of baptism, are no longer just “ mining users ” but have evolved into market participants with professional trading capabilities。

More importantly, the crisis of confidence in the centralized exchange became the last straw to overwhelm the balance. Assets freeze, misappropriation risks, regulatory uncertainty, allowing an increasing number of high-frequency traders and large funds to re-examine “ hosting ” costs. In this context, Perp DEX offers a new possibility to regain ownership of assets without sacrificing leverage and liquidity。

In essence, the rise of Perp DEX is a redistribution of derivative dividends from centralised institutions to chain users。

Why would a contract last forever be the best DeFi derivative form

Of all the derivatives, the durability contract is almost tailor-made for DeFi. It does not have maturity and does not need frequent renewal as compared to the delivery contract; it is structured in a simple manner and priced intuitively compared to options, and users need only judge direction and leverage, without understanding complex Greek values or volatility models。

more importantly, the renewal of contracts has a very high frequency of transactions. it is not a “ event-driven ” product, but an infrastructure that can generate transactional demand on a sustainable basis. this is crucial for any agreement that relies on the scale of fees and liquidity。

That is why almost all of the successful Perp DEX are designing products around the same goal: making transactions as frequent as possible, while making friction costs as low as possible. Whether by lowering the slide points, reducing delays or optimizing liquidation efficiency, the ultimate aim is to attract more professional traders to long-term chains。

Perp DEX, what really solves the problem

Many people interpret Perp DEX simply as &ldquao; decentrized CEX&rdquao; but this understates its meaning. Perp DEX is not replicating the centralization exchange, but re-engineering the underlying logic of derivatives trading。

The first is a change in the trust model. In Perp DEX, user funds are always hosted by smart contracts, which cannot by themselves divert assets at will. Risk exposures, bonds, liquidation logic are all publicly verifiable, which means that traders no longer need “ believe &rdquao; the platform's wind control, but can directly audit the rules themselves。

The second is transparency in risk pricing. Centralized exchanges are essentially a black box mechanism. In the chain, these parameters are clearly defined by contract, and anyone can see how markets are liquidated and rebalanced。

Finally, there has been a change in the way proceeds are distributed. Perp DEX does not concentrate all the proceeds of transactions at the platform level, but rather feeds the cash flows from derivatives back to the chain participants in the form of LPs, Vaults, governance tokens, etc. This allows users to be both traders and possibly agreement “ shareholders &rdquo。

From this perspective, Perp DEX is more like a chain-based risk management system than just a front-end transaction。

How the Perp DEX core mechanism works

Where the hell is Perp Dex's moat

To judge whether a Perp DEX has a long-term value, not just an interface or an incentive, but a true moat。

The level of liquidity is the first threshold, and without a steady depth, the best mechanisms will not attract significant funding. Clearing systems and the security of prophecies are the second threshold, and any serious delay or error would directly shake market confidence. The third threshold is the retention of professional traders and marketers, depending on delays, costs and the overall trading experience。

Ultimately, all moats point to the same question: whether agreements can make profits in the long term without relying on subsidies. Only by forming a positive cash flow could Perp DEX become a real infrastructure rather than a short-term narrative。

How to use data to determine whether a Perp DEX is healthy

At the investment level, Perp DEX has a relatively clear assessment framework. The relationship between the volume of the transaction and the TVL reflects the utilization of the funds, and the overall profit/loss of the transaction compared to the LP proceeds reveals whether the controls are reasonable. The stability of financial rates, the frequency and dispersion of liquidations are often more important than the volume of single-day transactions。

In addition, the number of active traders and the revenue structure of the agreement can judge whether the platform truly builds user stickyness rather than relying on short-term incentives to accumulate data。

Perp DEX most easily neglected risks

Many risks do not arise from leverage per se, but from system details. Delays in prognosis may be magnified in extreme conditions, liquidity may quickly dry up during high fluctuations, and failure to adjust governance parameters may trigger a chain reaction。

These risks do not occur on a daily basis, but are often fatal when they occur. Understand these “ low frequency high impact ” risks are prerequisites for using Perp DEX。

If the starting point for most Perp DEX is still & ldquo; how to repeat CEX experience & rdquo in the DeFi environment; then the Hiperliquid approach is different from the beginning. It is not on the existing public chain & ldquo; a perp” but, conversely, a whole set of bottom infrastructure has been redesigned for the highly specialized scenario of long-term contract transactions。

Hyperliquid chooses high-performance L1 / Appchain, which is essentially a very radical but logical trade-off: In order to reconcile efficiency, delay and certainty of wind control, generality is abandoned in exchange for professionalism. This also determines that its target users are not general DeFi users, but high- and medium-frequency traders who are extremely sensitive to the quality of implementation, slide points and financial efficiency。

On the transaction mechanism, Hyperliquid uses the full chain of Orderbook, not the vaAM or half-chain. This is crucial. Orderbook means that the price discovery process is closer to the traditional derivatives exchange and that there is a significant increase in the demand for systemic energy, clearing engines and wind control models. Hyperliquid places liquidation and wind control ahead of the system level, rather than ex post remedies, making its behaviour more predictable in extreme situations。

From the point of view of chain data, it is not a single indicator that Hyperliquid is the single indicator that is most worthy of study, but rather a combination of “ &rdquo。

On DefiLlama, you can observe that Hyperliquid maintains a very high daily turnover/TVL ratio for a long time. This is not just “ brush ” it is the result of a clear signal that mobility into the system is being used at high frequency and intensity rather than lying in the pool waiting for subsidy. Capital efficiency often means that traders are of high quality。

A further dismantling of the active trader structure on Dune reveals that the daily and weekly life of Hyperliquid is not a brief outbreak during airdrops or activities, but a relatively smooth and continuous state. These curves usually correspond to “ tool types use ” not “ mining participation ” This is a very important watershed for research。

When combined with Nansen's observation of large-value account behaviour, it is easier to understand the true moat of Hyperliquid: there are professional accounts within the system that are stable and involved, and their transactions are strategically consistent rather than a one-off game. This means that what is happening in Hyperliquid is not &ldquao; it attracts users to try &rdquao; it is the traders moving their main trading places。

From a long-term perspective, the Hyperliquid risk is not in product form, but rather in the difficulty of the route itself & mdash; & mdash; high performance chains, Orderbook, professional traders, which are extremely demanding for mobility, wind control and system stability. But once the wheel runs, its user viscosity and migration costs are much higher than the average Perp DEX。

Who's fit to use Perp DEX, who's not

Perp DEX is better suited to a trader with a clear risk management awareness than a person dependent on emotional manipulation. Trade on the chain means you have to be responsible for your own positions, no customer service, no manual intervention. Low to medium leverage, clear strategies to stop losses are the basic survival rule for chain transactions。

For LP, this is also not “ risk-free ” but rather a passive marketing strategy. You get the fees while bearing the other side of market volatility。

Perp DEX next step

Over the past year, changes in the ecology of the DEX sustainable contract have become more difficult to use in simple “ growth ” more accurately, it should be a systemic reshuffle of trading structures and market shares. If 2021 & ndash; Perp DEX in 2023 is still at product feasibility and user education stage, 2024 & ndash; 2025 is the period when efficiency begins to dominate. Market focus is no longer in “ whether decentrization is viable ” rather, it is rapidly moving to “ which structure can carry professional-level transactions &rdquo over time。

From the most intuitive data, this round of change presents a clear centralization. According to DefiLlama’s latest statistics, Hyperliquid’s turnover of contract renewals within the last 30 days has reached $15.6 billion, which has created an overwhelming advantage in volume over similar agreements. By contrast, dYdX v4 traded about $8.7 billion over the same period, GMX about $3.7 billion, while Aevo, which covers both options and durability contracts, stabilized its monthly turnover at over $15 billion. Extending the time dimension to almost a year, this gap is not an occasional event, but rather the result of an ongoing accumulation, indicating that users and mobility are concentrating on better agreements in a few structures。

This concentration trend is more evident at the income end. The last 30 days of Hyperliquid generated some $61.4 million in transaction income, while GMX was approximately $2.66 million for the same period, and dYdX was only $320,000. For the first time, the DEX track has been the subject of positive feedback on the three curves of turnover, active users and real income, which means that the track is no longer just & ldquo; transaction data are good & rdquo; but it is truly sustainable cash flow。

This change is not isolated if the perspective is extended to the entire DeFi market. In contrast to the fact that DeFi’s ecology as a whole entered a more mature phase, with a contract of durability, DEX added about $7.35 trillion in new transactions throughout the year, an increase of more than 170 per cent over the same period and a record high; the real DEX growth was more dependent on cross-chain wheeling and the overall net expansion was relatively limited. The funding structure is undergoing a clear migration, with high-frequency, more capital-efficient derivative transactions becoming one of the most central value capture scenarios in the chain. In terms of income-to-income ratio, Hyperliquid, EdgeX, Lighter, Axiom and others, DEX together contributed about 7% & ndash in 2025; and 8% of DeFi's total fee revenue, which has exceeded the sum of agreements on many mature tracks, such as borrowing, pledge, etc。

At the same time, the user structure is changing. The large number of short-term speculative transactions driven by Meme currency has gradually cooled down, and markets have begun to return to professional demand, dominated by hedge, arbitrage and high-frequency transactions. The data published by Aevo show that the number of active traders on its platform is close to 250,000, significantly higher than most of these agreements, while the number of DYDX currency holders in the dYdX ecology has increased from 37,000 to 6.86 million in one year, reflecting the gradual restoration of user stickiness following the migration of the dedicated chain. As can be seen, Perp DEX is competing from “ attracting traffic ” moving to “ retaining professional users &rdquo。

At this stage, performance indicators are beginning to become a hidden threshold for success. The difference between Perp DEX in the early years is more evident in product design and incentive mechanisms, and today, the speed of transaction execution, system stability and extreme performance directly determine the willingness of high-frequency traders to deploy funds over the long term. Hyperliquid, using a dedicated L1 plus CLOB architecture, has achieved millisecond-scale coupling and extremely low state delays; Aevo on custom L2 claims that the transaction is delayed by less than 10 m; and dYdX v4 has reduced its API response by about 98 per cent compared to the earlier version after moving to Cosmos. By contrast, GMX, still operating on Arbitrum and Avalanche, is more vulnerable to network loads and delays in extreme situations。

These differences are not just “ experience is good & rdquo; but they directly affect the ability of the platform to carry real HF-level transactions. It is clear from the trend figure for trade volumes for the last 12 months that the monthly trade in Hyperliquid continues to rise and to lead in absolute terms; that dYdX has recovered significantly after the second quarter, reaching $34.3 billion in the fourth quarter; that Aevo shows an accelerated upward trend; and that GMX growth has been relatively stable. This structural fragmentation is further amplified by the column figure for income distribution, which indicates that markets are pricing efficiency and performance with real handling fees。

Against this background, the next stage of Perp DEX evolution is becoming clearer. On the one hand, the platform will continue to evolve to a more high-frequency and less delayed trading pattern, attempting to re-emerge the chain and even to go beyond the conglomerate of the central exchange. Combination models, state compressions and more chain-based combinations of calculations and chain-based settlements could all be future infrastructure designs. On the other hand, the proliferation of exclusive Appchain or custom Rollup is almost certain trends, and dYdX practice has demonstrated that the advantages of dedicated chains in terms of throughput, governance flexibility and controllability of parameters are particularly critical for high-frequency products such as sustainable contracts。

Meanwhile, the boundary between CeFi and DeFi is being redefined. The launch of DYDX TP by dYdX in collaboration with 21 Shares sends a clear signal that the flow of chain-lasting contracts is penetrating the traditional financial system through compliance products. In the future, ETPs, structured products and hedge strategies built around Perp DEX may become important bridges between institutional finance and the market on the chain. Parallel to this is the further integration of the derivatives of the chain. The model of multi-product sharing winds and bonds that Aevo has supported both options and durability under the Unified Guarantee Account has significantly improved financial efficiency and bodes well for the next stage of evolution of the front platform into an integrated chain derivative hub。

Of course, expansion does not mean risk disappears. In November 2025, Hyperliquid had a bad debt event of approximately $4.9 million in extreme circumstances, followed by rapid adjustment of rates and risk parameters, which reminded the market that liquidation mechanisms, insurance funds and dynamic wind control capabilities would be key to carrying larger amounts of funds. As the regulatory environment changes, part of the DEX will also proactively consider compliance frameworks and risk disclosure mechanisms to reduce systemic uncertainty。

Taken together, Perp DEX is in the phase from “ is there a human use ” enters the phase from “ who can carry professional transactions ” Post-competition is no longer just a match for the volume ranking, but rather a combination of implementation efficiency, liquidity quality, product integrity and risk management capabilities. The winners in the first half, relying more on subsidies and narratives, and the agreements that can truly emerge in the second half must be those that can run fast enough, remain robust in extreme conditions and have the capacity to interface with the larger financial system. And that's where Perp DEX, as DeFi's core infrastructure, deserves the most attention in the long term。

Perp DEX is not a short-term hotspot, but a core component inherent in DeFi ' s maturity. It allows derivatives transactions to operate for the first time in an environment that does not require trust and allows for a real opening of proceeds and risks to users。

The real importance of the future is not “ is there Perp DEX” but which Perp DEX can survive and become the bottom of the chain of financial systems