What big things have the mainstream Perp DEXs been up to lately?

While the entire crypto market seems to have returned to a "bear market," enthusiasm for new sectors hasn't waned much.

Especially in the derivatives sector, Perp DEXs, many traders and community users are focusing more on high-frequency, structured, and points-based perpetual markets. This is why Perp DEXs without tokens can still achieve impressive data in a sluggish environment.

This momentum will see a concentrated surge in December: two top-tier Perp DEXs without tokens will soon launch their TGE (Trading on Token Offering). Can they replicate the frenzy surrounding Aster's launch, or even replicate that phenomenal market performance? Many users, including myself, are eagerly anticipating it.

BlockBeats has compiled a list of the top-performing and most talked-about Perp DEXs by trading volume, summarizing their key events and developments from the past two to three weeks to help everyone gain a deeper understanding of the PerpDEX sector.

BlockBeats has compiled a list of the top-performing and most talked-about Perp DEXs by trading volume, summarizing their key events and developments from the past two to three weeks to help everyone deepen their understanding of the PerpDEX sector.

BlockBeats has compiled a list of the top-performing and most talked-about Perp DEXs by trading volume, summarizing their key events and developments from the past two to three weeks to help everyone gain a deeper understanding of the PerpDEX sector.

BlockBeats has compiled a list of the top-performing and most talked-about Perp DEXs by trading volume, summarizing their key events and developments from the past two to three weeks.

BlockBeats has compiled a list of the top-performing and most talked-about Perp DEXs, summarizing their key events and developments from the past two to three weeks to help everyone gain EdgeX: The Seal Meme is Here! 1. Community Memecoin $MARU is Here! The most talked-about event for EdgeX is undoubtedly the launch of its community memecoin, $MARU. This token, modeled after EdgeX's seal mascot, has garnered significant attention since its announcement. The total supply is 10 billion tokens, with an expected launch date after the Open Season ends, specifically after December 3rd. 70% will be allocated directly to airdrops and ecosystem incentives, 20% to the liquidity pool (unlocked upon launch for easy trading), and the remaining 10% will be reserved for core contributors (fully locked for long-term incentives). How to get $MARU? There are two main channels: One is Open Season points, which is the primary channel. These points will be converted into $MARU airdrops after December 3rd. Note that the platform has minimum trading volume requirements, and wash trading will be identified and penalized. The weighting for earning points is as follows: Trading perpetual contracts: 60% weighting, the largest portion of points; Referral rewards: 20% weighting; TVL/liquidity provision: 10% weighting; Open interest/liquidation: 10% weighting; Secondly, there's the creator activity, which can be simply understood as Kaito's reward system for creating content. There are many formats: create tweets, videos, memes, etc., and tag @edgeX_exchange. Original, high-quality content selected by the official platform (AI-generated content doesn't count; supports multiple languages ​​including English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese) will have a chance to share a prize pool of 500,000 USDT + 20 million MARU. Currently, some users have already seen temporary rewards on the dashboard (e.g., 21,370 MARU + 464 USDT). USDT can be claimed first, while MARU will be distributed after the official launch. 2. edgeX Messenger Upgrade Related to the previous point is the edgeX Messenger upgrade. Announced on November 13th, this plan aims to upgrade edgeX Messenger from a simple communication tool into a global DeFi collaboration hub. Core direction: Providing a collaboration platform for traders and influencers; deep integration with the $MARU incentive mechanism. In short, the goal is to create a platform that integrates a trader community, content creation, and an incentive mechanism. 3. EdgeXFlow Ecosystem Launched On November 19th, edgeX made another big move: launching the edgeXFlow ecosystem. Simply put, edgeXFlow is a new modular execution layer that operates in parallel with the existing StarkEx. Technical specifications: Execution latency: <10ms; Order processing capacity: 200,000 orders/second; ZK proof guarantees transparency, etc. The first partner is Ave.ai, and the two jointly launched the XPIN trading event (November 19-26). The design of this event is quite interesting—it's not just a traditional PnL competition, but uses a hybrid incentive model: tiered airdrop rewards based on trading volume; a leaderboard with 200 slots (expanding the winner pool); and a 1.1x edgeX points bonus. EdgeX has ambitious goals, aiming to integrate 30 ecosystem partners by Q2 2026. It seems they intend to market this infrastructure as an industry standard for modular execution layers. 4. Points Countdown The Open Season is now in its countdown phase! Currently in weeks 20-24, it's expected to end in 2-4 weeks. In recent weeks, 300,000 points have been distributed weekly, covering 13,000-14,000 addresses. According to calculations by community experts, assuming EdgeX's revenue is approximately 16% of Hyperliquid's, if the FDV reaches $2-7 billion at TGE, the value of a single point could be between $30 and $300. Of course, this is just an estimate, and the actual value will depend on market conditions. The current FDV probability of edgeX on Polymarket on launch day is as follows:

5. Strategic Partnership with Polymarket

This is also quite significant news. Yesterday, edgeX announced a strategic partnership with Polymarket: Polymarket's prediction scenarios will be seamlessly integrated into the edgeX mobile app; users can participate in event prediction with one click; the two parties will jointly develop innovative leveraged prediction products.

Since this news was announced yesterday, there aren't many details yet, but we can keep an eye on future developments. It's expected that the products co-developed and incubated will be one of the key projects in the edgeXFlow ecosystem. Lighter: $68 Million Funding, Valuation $1.5 Billion 1. Major Funding Round On November 11th, Lighter announced the completion of a $68 million funding round, instantly joining the ranks of DeFi unicorns. The lineup for this funding round is quite impressive: Funding Details: Amount: $68 million (equity + token subscription rights) Valuation: $1.5 billion (post-valuation) Lead Investors: Founders Fund (Peter Thiel), Ribbit Capital Participants: Haun Ventures, Robinhood (a rare instance of brokerage VC participation) Total Funding: Approximately $90 million (previously $21 million in 2024, led by Haun/Craft) Several key points about this funding round: First, the investor lineup is top-tier. Founders Fund is one of Silicon Valley's top VCs, and Robinhood, as a brokerage firm, directly investing in perp DEX is rare in the industry, indicating that traditional finance is increasingly accepting decentralized derivatives. Secondly, the founder's background is impressive. Novakovski is a legendary figure—entering Harvard at 16, graduating at 18, and being personally recruited by Citadel founder Ken Griffin, he later worked as an engineer and trader at several financial institutions for nearly 15 years. Founders Fund partner Joey Krug stated frankly that 85%-90% of the investment reason was due to founder Vladimir Novakovski and his team. 2. The only perp DEX with a daily trading volume exceeding 10 billion. Lighter's recent growth data is quite explosive. 24-hour trading volume: Approximately $7.9-11.2 billion (fluctuates depending on the time frame, once the only perp DEX to break $10 billion); TVL: Approximately $1.15 billion (a 2000-fold increase in 6 months! From approximately $500,000 at the end of March); Open interest: Over $17 billion; L2 ranking: Ranked among the top in the Ethereum L2 protocol, considered the first native perp DEX on Ethereum; However, some analysts have pointed out some concerns: Lighter's trading volume/open interest ratio once reached 27 (the industry healthy value is usually ≤5), which suggests that some trading volume may come from incentivized wash trading. The trading volume before TGE included wash trading, a characteristic of the industry. We'll likely get the true trading volume of Lighter immediately after TGE. However, considering the platform has just graduated from beta, its overall performance is still very impressive.

3. Oracle Integration + RWA Expansion, Targeting Traditional Financial Assets

Lighter recently announced a partnership with Chainlink to integrate real-time oracle data, officially expanding into the real-world asset (RWA) derivatives field.

Supported asset classes include: commodity futures contracts (gold, crude oil, etc.); stock index derivatives; forex trading pairs; and other real-world assets.

Additionally, since RWA price sources are not available 24/7 (e.g., gold and stocks only have prices during trading hours), Lighter has also implemented some special measures: During non-trading hours, it enters a "reduction-only" mode, where users can only submit reduction orders; funding rates continue to be calculated normally during non-trading hours; the RWA market only supports segregated margin mode (considering its experimental nature and volatility); a dedicated XLP (experimental liquidity provider) pool has been established to provide liquidity to the RWA market, segregated from the main pool LLP.

Hyperliquid: The Joys and Sorrows of a King

1. HIP-3 Upgrade, Fees Plummet by 90%

On November 19th, Hyperliquid released a major upgrade: HIP-3 Growth Mode.

HIP-3 itself allows anyone to deploy their own perpetual contract market on Hyperliquid permissionlessly by staking 500,000 HYPE tokens. This "growth model" is a further optimization based on HIP-3—specifically providing ultra-low fee incentives for new markets. Key changes include: Taker fees plummet by over 90%, from 0.045% to 0.0045%-0.009%; higher-staking users benefit even more, with fees as low as 0.00144%-0.00288% for those reaching the highest staking and trading volume levels; rebates and trading volume contributions can be reduced by over 90% simultaneously, etc. However, to prevent "parasitic trading volume," growth model markets have some exclusion rules: they cannot include BTC or existing validator-operated markets, cryptocurrency baskets/ETFs, synthetic price indices, or any assets that overlap with existing markets (for example, gold already has PAXG-USDC). The purpose of this upgrade is clear: to lower the barrier to entry for new markets. New markets often start with few traders and low liquidity; a 90% fee discount can effectively attract early users, further helping Hyperliquid evolve from "a PerpDEX" into a "permissionless financial infrastructure layer." 2. Another whale has "succeeded by a different path." Popular trader Andrew Tate recently lost all his funds on Hyperliquid, earning him the nickname "Hyperliquidated." According to Arkham on-chain data, Andrew Tate's liquidation dates back nearly a year. On December 19, 2024, there was a wave of collective liquidations of long positions in BTC, ETH, SOL, LINK, HYPE, and PENGU. On November 18, when BTC fell below $90,000, Andrew Tate's last remaining positions were completely liquidated, leaving his account with zero. This instantly became meme material, given his frequent self-proclaimed status as a financial guru. Some analysts have directly listed him as "one of the worst traders in crypto history," placing him alongside other major losers on Hyperliquid (James Wynn lost $23 million, Qwatio lost $25.8 million, and 0xa523 lost $43.4 million in one month).

3. POPCAT Manipulation Attack

On November 12th, Hyperliquid suffered its second major attack this year, the previous one being XPL, and this time the target was memecoin POPCAT.

The attacker withdrew 3 million USDC from OKX and distributed it to 19-26 new wallets. They opened approximately $20-30 million in leveraged long positions in POPCAT on Hyperliquid (approximately 5x leverage), then placed approximately $20 million in buy orders at the $0.21 price level, creating a false impression of strong demand. Other traders, seeing the buy orders, assumed there was support and followed suit by going long. The attacker suddenly withdrew the buy orders, and the price of POPCAT plummeted from $0.21 to $0.13.

Ultimately, a large number of leveraged long positions were liquidated, with at least 26 accounts liquidated, totaling $25.5 million in positions, resulting in a loss of $2.98 million in margin. HLP's vault was forced to absorb $4.9 million in bad debt. The strange thing about this attack is that the attackers themselves also lost $3 million, seemingly not for profit. There are two main speculations in the community: one is that the attack was purely a "stress test" to damage Hyperliquid's reputation, with Binance/CZ being the primary suspects. The other is that the attackers opened hedging positions on centralized exchanges, thus making an overall profit; on-chain analysis points to BTX Capital, but founder Vanessa Cao has denied involvement. Aster: Spreading Money While Buying Back Assets 1. Phase Four "Aster Harvest" Airdrop: 120 Million ASTER On November 10th, Aster officially launched its fourth phase airdrop, codenamed Harvest. The distribution size was 120 million ASTER (1.5% of the total supply) over 6 weeks (November 10th - December 21st), distributed at 0.25% per week, evenly distributed across 6 epochs. Compared to previous phases (S2 4%, S3 2.5%), the distribution ratio in S4 is indeed smaller. However, community analysis suggests that due to potentially fewer participants, the returns per user may actually be higher, and the halving could drive up the token price. Here are some tips for earning more points during this phase: $ASTER can be used as collateral for perpetual contracts, and using $ASTER as contract collateral earns extra points; using $ASTER to pay transaction fees enjoys a 5% discount; spot trading is now also eligible for points; another key aspect is anti-scalping measures. Aster now emphasizes quality trading and has implemented maker order and symbol accelerator multiplier mechanisms to try and filter out wash trading. 2. The $10 Million Trading Competition: A Double Win On November 17th, Aster launched its largest trading competition in history: a total prize pool of $10 million. The competition format is divided into 5 weekly phases (running until December 21st), each with its own leaderboard. The first phase has a prize pool of $1 million, with a maximum of $2 million per week. Each phase has 1,000 winning slots. Only perpetual contract trading is allowed, and rankings are based on trading volume and PnL. The biggest highlight of this trading competition is the "double win" feature: the same trade can be counted in both the competition and the S4 airdrop. For example, top players can earn up to $300,000 per week, and if they dominate the leaderboard for 5 consecutive weeks, they could theoretically earn $1.5 million. 3. Continued Protocol Buybacks Aster's buyback program is considered quite aggressive in the perp DEX sector. As of November 13th, the cumulative buyback amount was approximately $214 million; the number of repurchased tokens accounted for 7.11% of the circulating supply. Recently, CZ (Center for Cyber ​​Security) recommended purchasing over $2 million worth of ASTER tokens, triggering speculative demand; additionally, market makers like Wintermute have been quietly increasing their holdings, leading some analysts to predict that ASTER could rise to $10. However, some in the community are concerned: approximately 6.35 billion ASTER tokens are still locked, and future unlocking could create selling pressure. It is estimated that approximately $700 million worth of tokens will be unlocked before 2026. The recent fluctuations in the unlocking time have also caused some panic. However, the official statement indicates that the unlocking time will not be changed. 4. "Machi Mode" Feature This is perhaps the most memorable new feature launched by Aster. On November 19th, Aster announced the launch of "Machi Mode," where liquidated users would receive points as a consolation prize for losing traders. Why is it called Machi Mode? It's a playful jab at the well-known trader Jeffrey Huang, affectionately known as "Machi Big Brother." According to Lookonchain data, since November 1st, the three traders with the most liquidations on Hyperliquid are: Machi Big Brother—71 liquidations; James Wynn—26 liquidations; and Andrew Tate—19 liquidations. Machi is far ahead, arguably the unluckiest "King of Liquidations." He once lost over $53 million in a single month, known for his extremely high leverage and aggressive position sizes. Aster naming this feature after himself is, in a way, embracing the degen culture of the crypto world.

Others

Additionally, let me introduce two more recent developments from Perp DEX, which I follow closely regarding unlisted tokens.

1. Pacifica

On November 12th, Pacifica announced the launch of the TIF=TOB (Time in Force = Top of Book) order type.

Simply put, when you submit a post-only limit order, if the price is set too aggressively, it will penetrate the order book (i.e., be executed immediately). Traditionally, this order would be canceled. However, with TIF=TOB, it won't be canceled; instead, it will automatically move your order to the top of the order book.

For example, suppose the current best bid price (Bid) for BTC is $100,000, and the best ask price (Ask) is $100,100. If you submit a TOB buy order with a price of $100,200 (which will penetrate the Ask), the system will automatically adjust your order to $100,099—just below the best ask price, becoming the top of the new order book. This is a great feature for market makers. Pacifica has now become one of the most important projects on the Solana chain. 2. Variational Another option is Variational, a Perp DEX that played a significant role in Arbitrum's DeFi revival strategy. The features include: an automated listing engine that eliminates coordination delays through OLP internal market making, currently supporting 515+ tokens, making it the DEX with the most listed tokens; the protocol itself acts as a market maker, with hedging costs of only 0-2 basis points, and users paying 4-6 basis points of price difference, achieving an annualized return of over 300% at one point. It also offers loss compensation: currently, over $2 million in refunds have been issued, covering over 70,000 transactions, benefiting over 6,500 users, with the highest single refund exceeding $100,000, accounting for approximately 2% of the platform's total losses. On November 15th, over $1 million in rewards were retrospectively distributed; on November 17th, a retail sentiment index tool was launched, showing that 89% of trading volume comes from the long-tail market. Overall data growth is very rapid. While a points-based competition is not yet available, retrospective trading volume tracking may be implemented later.