Decentralized perpetual exchanges close 2025 with cumulative trading volume reaching $12.09 trillion, up from $4.1 trillion at the start of the year.
DefiLamy data can be seen that approximately $7.9 trillion of this total lifetime volume was generated in 2025. This means that 65% of the total perp DEX trading volume occurred in a single calendar year. This concentration shows how quickly onchain derivatives have scaled in 2025.
In December alone, perpetual trading volume reached $1 trillion, maintaining the momentum that began in October, when monthly volume reached $1 trillion for the first time.
The growth reflects a edged acceleration in the employ of onchain derivatives over the past 12 months as perpetual DEXs absorbed a growing share of leveraged cryptocurrency trading activity.
Perpetuals DEX platforms began to emerge around 2021, and dYdX and Perpetual Protocol are widely recognized as some of the earliest platforms to offer decentralized futures on the network.
The sector’s growth accelerated dramatically in 2023, with the arrival of Hyperliquid marking a turning point.
Perp DEX activity accelerated in the second half of 2025
Nearly $8 trillion in volume generated throughout 2025 was largely concentrated in the second half of the year.
DefiLlama data shows that in the first half of 2025, revenue was around $2.1 trillion, while in the second half, volume was around $5.74 trillion, representing 73% of the overall record for the year.
Trading activity remained relatively stable through the first half of 2025, suggesting a consistent baseline in onchain derivatives usage rather than a breakout phase.
This pattern changed mid-year, with volumes accelerating in the third quarter before reaching a turning point in the fourth quarter when monthly volumes began to consistently exceed $1 trillion. The trading volume in the fourth quarter exceeds the total trading volume in the first half of 2025.
As liquidity deepened and execution improved, perpetual DEXs increasingly functioned as primary venues for leveraged trading rather than as complementary alternatives to centralized exchanges.
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Hyperliquid dominated the DEX perps space for much of the year, especially in the first six months when its monthly volumes steadily reception from $175 billion to $248 billion.
During this period, competing platforms, including Aster and Lighter, remained relatively tiny, including Aster appointment single digit billions and only lighter starting scale after the first quarter.
The competitive landscape began to change mid-year as competing platforms accelerated faster than Hyperliquid. Both Aster and Lighter have seen a surge in activity since June.
Lighter went from monthly volumes below $50 billion to consistently above $100 billion in the third quarter, signaling growing investor adoption and depth of liquidity.
The most obvious challenge to Hyperliquid’s dominance came in the fourth quarter. Aster saw rapid growth in October and November, with monthly sales rising to $259 billion in both months.
By the end of the year, the data suggested a shift from a single leader market to a more competitive, multi-facility ecosystem.
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