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In this report, we explore the explosive growth of decentralized perpetual exchanges (perp DEXs), led by Hyperliquid. Since late 2024, perp DEXs have surged in volume and fee generation, with Hyperliquid alone capturing 58% of top DEX volume and consistently outearning Uniswap in daily fees since May 2025. Frictionless onboarding, self-custody, faster token listings and competitive fee structures are driving this growth.
Hyperliquid’s native token, HYPE, has outpaced its peers, thanks to a 97% revenue buyback program. However, upcoming token unlocks may dilute this momentum. Overall, perp DEXs have become a dominant force in crypto trading, reshaping the landscape with their speed, accessibility and on-chain transparency.
Figure 1. Daily volume of perpetual swap contracts across decentralized perpetual swap contract exchanges (excluding Hyperliquid, Lighter and edgeX Exchange). Sources: Artemis, Block Scholes
Hyperliquid has emerged as the clear leader among decentralized perpetual swap exchanges (perp DEXs), capturing 58% of volume across the top eight platforms in 2025. Its rise was catalyzed by President Trump’s pro-crypto post-election stance, and further accelerated by the launch of its native token, HYPE, in late 2024. While overall perp DEX volumes surged, the bulk of this growth was concentrated in Hyperliquid, edgeX Exchange and Lighter. Notably, Hyperliquid’s daily fee generation has consistently outpaced Uniswap’s since May 2025, contributing up to 60% of total fees across major blockchains.
Perp DEXs offer several advantages over centralized exchanges (CEXs) and spot DEXs:
Frictionless onboarding: Many perp DEXs bypass KYC/KYB requirements, allowing immediate access.
Self-custody: Traders retain control of their assets, reducing counterparty risk.
Faster listings: New tokens can be listed within hours, compared to weeks on CEXs.
Competitive fee structures: Platforms such as Hyperliquid offer maker rebates and volume-based fee tiers.
High leverage: Up to 100x on some DEXs, with smart contract—based margin and liquidation systems.
However, drawbacks include public visibility of trades, slower execution speeds on AMM-based platforms and potential liquidity fragmentation.
Figure 2. HYPE spot price (blue, left-hand axis) and BTC spot price (orange, right-hand axis). Source: Block Scholes
HYPE has significantly outperformed peer tokens in 2025, such as UNI, DYDX, GMX and JUP, rising more than 6x from its April lows. This rally can be partially attributed to Hyperliquid’s aggressive buyback program, which allocates 97% of protocol revenues to purchasing HYPE tokens. Daily buybacks have reached up to $6M, and regression analysis suggests that these buybacks explain 26% of HYPE’s price variation. However, with a major token unlock beginning Nov 29, 2025 — releasing 237.8M tokens over 24 months — the dilution risk may offset some of the bullish momentum unless buybacks scale accordingly.