Perpetuals decentralized exchanges closed 2025 with cumulative trading volume around $12.09 trillion, up from about $4.1 trillion at the start of the year. This means that 65% of all perp DEX trading volume occurred in a single calendar year, underscoring how rapidly onchain derivatives scaled in 2025. Perp DEX activity accelerated in the second half of 2025, with nearly $8 trillion in volume generated largely in that period. The first half accounted for about $2.1 trillion, while the second half delivered about $5.74 trillion, representing 73% of the year’s total, with volumes surging in Q3 and exceeding $1 trillion in monthly volume in Q4.
As liquidity deepened and execution improved, perpetuals DEXs increasingly served as primary venues for leveraged trading rather than mere supplements to centralized exchanges. Hyperliquid dominated the space for most of the year, especially in the first half, with monthly volumes typically between $175 billion and $248 billion, while Aster and Lighter stayed smaller until mid-year. The landscape shifted from June onward as Aster and Lighter accelerated, with Lighter surpassing $100 billion in monthly volume by Q3 and Aster posting explosive growth in October and November at about $259 billion per month. By year-end, the market had shifted from a single-leader dynamic to a more competitive, multi-venue ecosystem.
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