Perp DEX Volumes Fall for Fifth Straight Month

Onchain perpetual futures trading has cooled for five consecutive months after peaking in October 2025, according to DefiLlama. Perpetual (perp) DEX volume declined from $1.36 trillion in October 2025 to $699 billion in March 2026.

The slide was gradual: volumes eased through November and December 2025 and continued to contract in the first quarter of 2026. Daily activity weakened as well — on April 4 perp DEX volume dropped to $8.4 billion, the first time it fell below $10 billion since Sept. 6, 2025, and the lowest daily total since July 5, 2025. Perp volumes are commonly used as a proxy for speculative demand and leveraged positioning in crypto markets, so the trend points to a broad cooldown after last year’s surge.

Trading remains concentrated among a few leading platforms. Over the past 30 days DefiLlama shows Hyperliquid reported roughly $185.5 billion in volume, about 34% of the top 10’s total, leaving it well ahead of peers such as edgeX ($73 billion) and Aster ($68 billion). Other reported 30‑day volumes include Lighter at about $50 billion, Grvt near $40 billion, and smaller venues like ApeX Protocol, Variational and StandX in the roughly $16 billion to $33 billion range. The distribution underscores that much of onchain perp activity is concentrated in a small number of dominant venues even as aggregate volumes have retreated from late‑2025 highs.

The slowdown follows a year of rapid expansion for onchain derivatives. In 2025 perp DEXs nearly tripled cumulative volume to $12.09 trillion, with roughly $7.9 trillion — about 65% of the total — generated during 2025 alone. That growth was driven partly by monthly activity averaging close to $1 trillion in the fourth quarter. Perpetual futures exchanges have become a key battleground across blockchains, with ecosystems competing to launch or host perp DEXs to capture trading flows, though liquidity has historically consolidated around a handful of leaders.

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