In 2025, the activity in crypto derivatives surged as traders increasingly embraced onchain perpetual futures, as noted by Coinbase researcher David Duong. By late in the year, decentralized exchanges were handling over $1 trillion in monthly perpetual futures volume, highlighting the expanding significance of onchain derivatives markets.
In a post shared on X on Monday, Duong mentioned that this trend was partially due to the lack of a typical altcoin season, prompting traders to seek leverage for heightened returns instead of relying on spot markets. He emphasized that the “unprecedented degree of leverage” offered in perpetual futures allowed traders to enhance their exposure with relatively minimal capital.
Duong pointed out that this influx in activity was primarily propelled by decentralized trading platforms, with onchain venues like Aster and Hyperliquid contributing significantly to the volume.
Perpetual futures, or perps, are crypto derivatives that enable traders to assume leveraged exposure to price fluctuations without an expiration date.
As per Duong, equity perpetual futures may represent the next growth frontier, as tokenized stock derivatives could merge crypto’s continuous access and leverage with the demand for exposure to leading US equities beyond standard market hours.
“However, we believe perpetual futures are evolving from isolated, high-leverage trading tools to becoming fundamental, composable elements in the DeFi landscape,” he stated.
Competition intensifies among onchain perpetual futures platforms
Hyperliquid launched its onchain perpetual futures platform in late 2023 and gained significant traction in 2024 after incorporating spot trading. In July, the platform achieved record volume, with DeFiLlama data indicating that the exchange recorded approximately $319 billion in trades that month.
The competition in the crypto perpetual futures market has escalated over the past year. In September, shortly after its token generation event and launch, Aster briefly claimed the top spot in decentralized perpetual futures rankings with close to $36 billion in 24-hour trading volume, making up more than half of total perp DEX activity.
In November, Lighter, an onchain perpetual futures exchange established by tech entrepreneur Vladimir Novakovski in 2022, secured $68 million in funding after the launch of its public mainnet.
Over the past 30 days, data from DeFiLlama indicates that onchain perpetual futures generated roughly $972 billion in trading volume. During this timeframe, Lighter led trading with around $203 billion in volume, followed by Aster at about $171.8 billion and Hyperliquid with close to $160.6 billion.
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