Seize a espresso because the crypto market enters one other record-setting part. Volumes are climbing to new highs, sparking debates about whether or not this alerts power or exposes fragility beneath the floor in a system more and more fueled by leverage and hypothesis fairly than regular demand.
Crypto Information of the Day: Whole Perps Quantity Hits ATH, Surpassing $100 Billion
In late September, perpetual futures buying and selling quantity surged to an all-time excessive (ATH) above $100 billion. This marks a milestone for decentralized exchanges (DEXs) specializing in perpetual contracts.
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The surge highlights a brand new part in crypto, the place hypothesis is the product and never only a function. Perpetual DEXs are 24/7, self-custodial venues the place merchants can lengthy or brief crypto property with leverage, with out expiry dates.
Not like centralized exchanges (CEXs), perps reside totally on-chain, with oracles and automatic funding charges anchoring contract costs to identify markets.
The mannequin has matured quick, due to regulatory strain on CEXes, improved execution tech that mimics centralized velocity, and a income meta the place tasks immediately accrue worth by way of charges and token buybacks.
“Crypto’s largest PMF → ability to make people rich. Perp DEXes do exactly that and allow users to long any degeneracy in our hyper-financialized world,” wrote DeFi researcher Ash.
Between 2023 and 2025, perp DEX quantity jumped from $647.6 billion to $1.5 trillion, representing a 138% year-on-year surge.
Market share rose from beneath 10% to 26% of all perpetual futures buying and selling globally. The second quarter (Q2) of 2025 alone noticed a document $898 billion in perp quantity.
Behind the growth are platforms pushing innovation at breakneck velocity. Hyperliquid (HYPE), constructed by itself Layer-1 (L1) with a completely on-chain order e book, has led the cost, funneling actual worth to token holders by way of buybacks.
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Aster (ASTER) has leaned on BNB Chain integrations with darkish pool orders and yield-bearing stablecoin. Others embrace Avantis, native to the Base chain, which blends crypto with real-world property (RWA), and edgeX, Pacifica, and Lighter, which convey distinctive architectures round oracles, equity, and execution.
Hidden Risks Behind the Perp DEXs Growth
Whereas the $100 billion milestone is critical, troubles abound. Critics argue that perp volumes are dwarfing spot markets.
This raises issues that costs are being propped up by speculative leverage fairly than real demand.
“6x more volume is coming from leverage than actual spot buying. That’s a red flag… speculative longs, not real demand, are propping up the price. This kind of setup often leads to flushes, not breakouts,” wrote Blasto, a dealer and crypto analyst on X (Twitter).
Spot buying and selling volumes stay muted, with perp exercise at instances exceeding spot by an element of two. In keeping with Boxmining founder Michael Gu, this on-chain perps meta may clarify why altseason feels muted.
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Actually loving the onchain perps meta rn however I gotta be cautiously optimistic about this..
For the primary time ever, onchain perps quantity has flipped spot quantity on all main chains – by twice as a lot!
This has NEVER occurred earlier than in crypto historical past.
Perhaps this explains why… pic.twitter.com/SLfryl5Gqy
— Boxmining (@boxmining) September 30, 2025
The results of this leverage-heavy setting are stark. With margin ranges rising, even small drawdowns in Bitcoin or Ethereum may set off cascading liquidations.
“In hindsight, perhaps every single person on CT ruthlessly farming perps DEXes and increasing all leverage in the system by 100x was not a great idea,” DeFi researcher Mert Helius chimed.
In the meantime, the distinction with broader DeFi metrics is evident. Whereas whole worth locked (TVL) throughout protocols has but to reclaim 2022 highs, perp DEX volumes have multiplied many instances over.
The disconnect alerts that capital just isn’t constructing long-term liquidity swimming pools. Fairly, it’s churning by way of leveraged bets. This milestone cements perp DEXes as crypto’s hottest product in 2025.
However, the imbalance between leverage and spot demand raises the query of whether or not crypto’s present rally is being constructed on real adoption or borrowed time.
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Chart of the Day
Perp DEXs Quantity. Supply: DefiLlama
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Crypto Equities Pre-Market Overview
FirmOn the Shut of September 30Pre-Market OverviewTechnique (MSTR)$322.22$329.23 (+2.18%)Coinbase (COIN)$337.49$343.65 (+1.83%)Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY)$33.81$34.50 (+2.04%)MARA Holdings (MARA)$18.26$18.52 (+1.42%)Riot Platforms (RIOT)$19.03$19.24 (+1.00%)Core Scientific (CORZ)$17.94$18.02 (+0.45%)Crypto equities market open race: Google Finance
