Perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are gaining traction as merchants flip to blockchain-based platforms that promise decrease prices and fewer intermediaries than conventional centralized venues.
Perp DEXs are blockchain-based venues for buying and selling perpetual futures contracts, permitting merchants to guess on the underlying asset’s worth with leverage and with out an expiry date.
Crypto analysis agency Delphi Digital stated in its outlook for 2026 that perp DEXs are poised to proceed taking market share from conventional monetary merchandise. The agency argued that decentralized infrastructure is structurally extra environment friendly than legacy methods, which it described as fragmented and costly to function.
“Now Hyperliquid is constructing native lending. Perp DEXs may grow to be brokerage, trade, custodian, financial institution, and clearinghouse suddenly,” wrote Delphi Digital in a Tuesday X postincluding that rivals resembling Aster, Lighter and Paradex are “racing to catch up.”
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Perp DEXs have already taken a big share of income from centralized exchanges, as their market share rose from 2.1% in January 2023 to a brand new all-time excessive of 11.7% in November 2025, accordingly to a report by information aggregator CoinGecko.
The rising adoption of decentralized buying and selling platforms might bolster the main DEX token, Hyperliquid (HYPE), to over $200 within the subsequent 10 years, in keeping with a December analysis notice from Cantor Fitzgerald.
The corporate’s prediction assumed that the token’s worth will develop at a 15% compound annual progress charge whereas the Help Fund will repurchase about 291 million HYPE tokens, decreasing the full provide to 666 million tokens.
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Perp DEX quantity triples in 2025 amid rising onchain derivatives demand
The cumulative buying and selling quantity of perp DEXs tripled throughout 2025, reaching $12.09 trillion, up from $4.1 trillion at first of the yr, Cointelegraph reported on Dec. 31.
About $7.9 trillion, or 65% of the full perp DEX quantity, was generated in 2025, in keeping with DefiLlama datadisplaying the numerous adoption of those buying and selling platforms through the previous yr.
Nonetheless, this determine pales compared to the notional worth of excellent over-the-counter derivatives, which reached $846 trillion in June 2025, in keeping with data from the Financial institution for Worldwide Settlements.
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