Although 2025 didn’t provide the adrenaline rush that the crypto investors might have been used to in the previous years, there was one clear winner among the several verticals of the industry – perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEX).
While spot trading volume across the industry remained lukewarm throughout the year, trading volume on perp DEXs such as Hyperliquid and Aster hit successive new highs. This shows changing preference among users, who are embracing perp DEXs due to their benefits over their centralized counterparts.
Perp DEXs come of age in 2025
Perpetual futures have remained one of the most used crypto trading products since the industry’s birth. Early adopters of the product include centralized exchanges like BitMEX, Binance, OKX, and others, which made a name for themselves while catering to the rising demand for platforms that allow users to trade in futures.
However, over the last year, the industry has seen a steady shift of preference from centralized exchanges to decentralized alternatives like Hyperliquid and Aster.
These perp DEXs have addressed some of the major pain points that functioned as a barrier for crypto traders who wanted to trade on decentralized platforms but could not due to issues like poor user experience, lack of liquidity, and others.
The following chart from DefiLlama shows the total revenue generated by various perp DEX protocols across different blockchain networks. The highest revenue was seen in the months of November and October, as both months saw revenue of more than $180 million. August ranked third with total revenue slightly above $150 million.
The rise and rise of Hyperliquid
If there was one crypto project that dominated most conversations in 2025, it was Hyperliquid. The leading perp DEX’s token saw strong growth, rising from around $10 in April to an all-time high of $59.30 in September.
Besides the bullish price action, several other metrics point toward rising adoption of Hyperliquid. The following chart from Blockworks shows Hyperliquid’s perpetual futures trading volume on a monthly basis. The metric peaked in August, hitting an ATH of $406.87 billion.
With all that being said, the last few months have not been as good for Hyperliquid. The HYPE token has collapsed by 45.6% over the past three months, trading at $25.85 at the time of writing.
Aster cements itself as a leading perp DEX
Besides the hype surrounding Hyperliquid, another perp DEX that took the industry by storm is Aster. The chain-agnostic perpetual futures DEX offers trading and access to liquidity across several leading blockchains, such as Ethereum, Solana, and even layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum.
According to the following chart from DefiLlama, Aster’s adoption witnessed a parabolic surge in October, skyrocketing its total value locked from $370.11 million in September to a high of $2.39 billion in October.
Further, the following chart shows Aster’s high DEX trading volume, which peaked at $5.63 billion in September. However, the metric has been on a continual decline since then, currently hovering around $3.53 billion.
Reasons for DEXs rising popularity
There are several factors contributing to the increasing popularity of DEXs. While the metrics might show that the increase in the rate of adoption has been abrupt, the signs were visible from much earlier.
Following Donald Trump’s victory in November 2024 in the US presidential elections and the administration’s relatively friendly stance towards digital assets, the industry has come under regulatory scrutiny – both to the elation and disappointment of crypto traders.
Perp DEXs have become a major part of crypto, with Hyperliquid leading the way – even to the point of consistently being in the top 3 for exchange mindshare, competing at the top with Binance and Coinbase.
Yu Hu, Founder and CEO, Kaito AI
While landmark bills like CLARITY, GENIUS, and others are being hailed as revolutionary, they inadvertently, also increase the regulatory scope of digital assets, leading to crypto perp futures traders to look for platforms that allow them to remain anonymous.
In addition, factors such as custody have only increased in significance, following several exchange hacks over the past few years. Accessibility is another key reason, which enables users to access perp DEXs from anywhere in the world without having to KYC.
Some challenges still remain
Despite perp DEXs unprecedented success this year, some hurdles still remain that may derail their encouraging momentum. For example, liquidity fragmentation remains a key concern.
Although user experience has arguably improved tremendously compared to previous years, it might sometimes still lag compared to centralized counterparts, especially for relatively new traders.
Finally, regulatory uncertainties remain a big concern. As mentioned earlier, the current US administration has been friendlier toward digital assets compared to the Joe Biden regime. However, that doesn’t mean regulators will not scrutinize perp DEXs in the future, especially as trading volumes and user participation continue to grow.
