Deep Dive: PerpDEX Shakeup Moment, What's Next for Hyperliquid?
09-27 , 10:00
The decentralized perpetual trading market is undergoing an unprecedented surge in growth and a reshaping of the competitive landscape. As of September 2025, the global perp DEX daily trading volume has exceeded $520 billion, representing a 530% increase from the beginning of the year, with a total monthly trading volume reaching $130 trillion. Behind this growth are breakthroughs in technological innovation, the growing demand from users for decentralized financial products, and regulatory pressure on centralized exchanges. The sector now holds approximately 26% of the cryptocurrency derivatives market, a significant leap from single-digit percentages in 2024.
Perp DEX Total Trading Volume Change https://defillama.com/perps
The rapid differentiation of the market is reshaping the competitive landscape. Traditional order book models (such as dYdX, Hyperliquid) dominate the professional trading sector with precise price discovery and deep liquidity, while AMM models (such as GMX, Gains Network) attract retail users through instant liquidity and simplified operations. Emerging hybrid models (such as Jupiter Perps) attempt to combine the strengths of both by seamlessly switching between an order book and AMM through a keeper system in a high-speed environment. In terms of data performance, the order book model is gaining more market share, with Hyperliquid processing a cumulative trading volume of $2.76 trillion through its CLOB architecture.
The protocol Aster, formed by the merger of APX Finance and Astherus, has rapidly risen to the top through a multi-chain aggregation strategy and the support of YZi Labs, especially CZ. On the token launch day, September 17, it saw a 1650% price increase, $3.71 billion in first-day trading volume, and 330,000 new wallet addresses, demonstrating its strong market acquisition capabilities.
Aster's technological innovation is mainly reflected in the improvement of user experience. Its Simple mode offers leverage of up to 1001x, far exceeding Hyperliquid's 40-50x. Although the risk is substantial, it is highly attractive to speculators seeking high returns. The hidden order feature borrows from the concept of dark pools in traditional finance, effectively protecting large trades from MEV attacks. The yield aggregator feature allows users to use interest-bearing assets like asBNB as collateral, earning 5-7% base yield while trading, maximizing DeFi's composability.
In terms of data performance, Aster's TVL surged from $370 million on September 14 to $17.35 billion, a 328% increase, with 80% of the funds coming from the BNB Chain. The daily trading volume has repeatedly exceeded $20 billion, surpassing Hyperliquid at one point to become the world's largest perpetual DEX, with 24-hour fee revenue of $7.12 million. More importantly, Aster has accumulated a total perpetual trading volume of $19.383 billion in just a few months, although there is still a gap from Hyperliquid's $27.6 trillion, the growth rate is remarkable.