Publier
Cas Abbé
·
--
Perp DEXs vs. CEXs: Decentralized Derivatives Are Closing The Gap
Perpetual-swap decentralized exchanges, abbreviated as Perp DEXs, previously appeared to be a niche in crypto. Several years ago, it was necessary to open a perpetual Bitcoin or Ether trade at a centralized exchange (CEX) like Binance, Bybit or OKX. The market was still dominated by those venues, however, in 2025 -26 something different happened. New decentralized derivatives exchanges such as Hyperliquid and Aster grew in a short amount of time. They offer profound liquidity, elevated throughput and liquid-staking collateral and cross-margin. Being a person who had been trading on CEXs since he was young, I was very much observing this transition and was surprised by the speed with which perp DEXs are closing the gap.
The comparison between the action of perp DEXs and CEXs
CEXs play a role of conventional brokers. They provide custody of your crypto, you put your money in, and you trade it on perpetual contracts on order books operated by the exchange. There is low legitimacy to charges and enormous volumes since all traders have a common ledger. The negative is trust, in case the platform is compromised or not able to appropriately handle risk, you may lose money.
Perp DEXs reverse this model. They operate on blockchains and operate on smart contracts to run positions. The traders store their crypto in wallets and interface directly with the protocol. The trading can be on-chain and/or off-chain and can be settled transparently. Users are provided with comparatively high fees and reduced speed in order to ensure transparency and self-custody. This performance gap is being bridged today by the best perp DEXs.
The volumes maturing and open interest.
Overall 24 hours trading volume of all perp DEXs is approximately $19.2billion according to the CoinGecko derivatives dashboard.
That amount is still lower than tens of billions that are traded on CEXs daily but it is substantial enough. Hyperliquid is an Ethereum-based protocol, which is top with approximately $5.3 billion and open interest of $4.7 billion. Aster that supports several chains takes its place with a volume of $3 billion and an open interest of 1.8 billion. GRVT, Lighter and edgeX are other platforms which are rapidly expanding.
Perp DEXs Daily trading volume on major perp DEXs.
The above bar chart indicates that Hyperliquid, Aster and other platforms rank above each other. Although Hyperliquid is the leader, share in Aster has increased at a rapid rate. The competition is healthy since it makes DEXs become innovative.
Open interest in leading perp DEXs.
The total values of the outstanding position are measured by open interest. The open interest of Hyperliquid is bigger than the daily volume with the ratio being approximately 287%. According to the atomic wallet, this ratio is high implying that most traders use Hyperliquid to hedge their long term investments and not speculate in the short term. The ratio of Aster is just approximately 12 percent, which means it is more favored by short-term investors.
CEXs still dominate… for now
Most of the derivative volume is still processed by centralized exchanges with these gains. CEXs have been estimated to constitute about 80 percent of the entire crypto derivatives trading, and DEXs comprise 20 percent or lower. This gap is visualized below.
Why do CEXs still dominate? They provide the lowest liquidity and the best spreads and can cross-margin trades in most markets. The comfortable interface and the possibility of using fiat on -ramps are popular among most professional traders as well. Nevertheless, the question of trust still stands, which the downfall of FTX in the end of 2022 still teaches.
Inventions that can assist DEXs in being caught up.
Perp DEXs have become much better during the last year. Hyperliquid has a rate of more than 200,000 orders per second and has an efficient off-chain order matching to enable near-instant execution. Cross-chain deposits can be made simple by Aster- traders do not have to deposit assets using complex bridges. Professional traders are more likely to use Hyperliquid due to its one block confirmation and stable spreads whereas cross-chain users tend to use Aster.
Cross-margin is currently supported by many DEXs, enabling users to collateralize a number of positions. They also take other forms of collateral such as liquid-staking tokens, which receive staking yield even when they are being used as margin. Such innovations are used to make DEXs competitive to CEXs in terms of capital efficiency. It is depicted in the line chart below that the DEX trading volume is increased since early 2025 to early 2026.
The best of DEXs and CEXs.
As volumes and features are convergent, the user experience is different. DEXs are transparent and self-custodial, and CEXs convenient and liquid. The following is my personal comparison of major features with my experience:
Cross-margin and variety of collateral: DEXs are now able to use cross-margin and accept liquid-staking tokens, leaving CEXs behind.
Liquidity depth: CEXs continue to enjoy a deeper book because of their high number of users and market-maker incentives.
Custody control: DEXs enable you to hold your money in your wallet, removing the custody risk.
Slippage & spreads: CEXs typically have lower slippage particularly on large orders but DEXs are improving rapidly.
KYC: A majority of DEXs do not enforce any know-your-customer checks, whereas large CEXs do.
Closing thoughts
Being a client of both kinds of platforms, I am excited about the emergence of perp DEXs. These figures are not big enough to compare with CEXs, yet they are not insignificant anymore. The most advanced DEXs will support billions of dollars of volume each day with more sophisticated strategies like cross-margin and hedging in 2026. Such innovations as the possibility of liquid-staking tokens on a pledge and a one-block confirmation decrease the performance difference with CEXs. These platforms are worth trying, in case you attach importance to transparency and self-custody. To the extent that it requires high-frequency trading and maximum liquidity, CEXs remain king- however, the boundaries are becoming blurred rapidly, which is an indicator of a well-established, immature market.
The comparison between the action of perp DEXs and CEXs
CEXs play a role of conventional brokers. They provide custody of your crypto, you put your money in, and you trade it on perpetual contracts on order books operated by the exchange. There is low legitimacy to charges and enormous volumes since all traders have a common ledger. The negative is trust, in case the platform is compromised or not able to appropriately handle risk, you may lose money.
Perp DEXs reverse this model. They operate on blockchains and operate on smart contracts to run positions. The traders store their crypto in wallets and interface directly with the protocol. The trading can be on-chain and/or off-chain and can be settled transparently. Users are provided with comparatively high fees and reduced speed in order to ensure transparency and self-custody. This performance gap is being bridged today by the best perp DEXs.
The volumes maturing and open interest.
Overall 24 hours trading volume of all perp DEXs is approximately $19.2billion according to the CoinGecko derivatives dashboard.
That amount is still lower than tens of billions that are traded on CEXs daily but it is substantial enough. Hyperliquid is an Ethereum-based protocol, which is top with approximately $5.3 billion and open interest of $4.7 billion. Aster that supports several chains takes its place with a volume of $3 billion and an open interest of 1.8 billion. GRVT, Lighter and edgeX are other platforms which are rapidly expanding.
Perp DEXs Daily trading volume on major perp DEXs.
The above bar chart indicates that Hyperliquid, Aster and other platforms rank above each other. Although Hyperliquid is the leader, share in Aster has increased at a rapid rate. The competition is healthy since it makes DEXs become innovative.
Open interest in leading perp DEXs.
The total values of the outstanding position are measured by open interest. The open interest of Hyperliquid is bigger than the daily volume with the ratio being approximately 287%. According to the atomic wallet, this ratio is high implying that most traders use Hyperliquid to hedge their long term investments and not speculate in the short term. The ratio of Aster is just approximately 12 percent, which means it is more favored by short-term investors.
CEXs still dominate… for now
Most of the derivative volume is still processed by centralized exchanges with these gains. CEXs have been estimated to constitute about 80 percent of the entire crypto derivatives trading, and DEXs comprise 20 percent or lower. This gap is visualized below.
Why do CEXs still dominate? They provide the lowest liquidity and the best spreads and can cross-margin trades in most markets. The comfortable interface and the possibility of using fiat on -ramps are popular among most professional traders as well. Nevertheless, the question of trust still stands, which the downfall of FTX in the end of 2022 still teaches.
Inventions that can assist DEXs in being caught up.
Perp DEXs have become much better during the last year. Hyperliquid has a rate of more than 200,000 orders per second and has an efficient off-chain order matching to enable near-instant execution. Cross-chain deposits can be made simple by Aster- traders do not have to deposit assets using complex bridges. Professional traders are more likely to use Hyperliquid due to its one block confirmation and stable spreads whereas cross-chain users tend to use Aster.
Cross-margin is currently supported by many DEXs, enabling users to collateralize a number of positions. They also take other forms of collateral such as liquid-staking tokens, which receive staking yield even when they are being used as margin. Such innovations are used to make DEXs competitive to CEXs in terms of capital efficiency. It is depicted in the line chart below that the DEX trading volume is increased since early 2025 to early 2026.
The best of DEXs and CEXs.
As volumes and features are convergent, the user experience is different. DEXs are transparent and self-custodial, and CEXs convenient and liquid. The following is my personal comparison of major features with my experience:
Cross-margin and variety of collateral: DEXs are now able to use cross-margin and accept liquid-staking tokens, leaving CEXs behind.
Liquidity depth: CEXs continue to enjoy a deeper book because of their high number of users and market-maker incentives.
Custody control: DEXs enable you to hold your money in your wallet, removing the custody risk.
Slippage & spreads: CEXs typically have lower slippage particularly on large orders but DEXs are improving rapidly.
KYC: A majority of DEXs do not enforce any know-your-customer checks, whereas large CEXs do.
Closing thoughts
Being a client of both kinds of platforms, I am excited about the emergence of perp DEXs. These figures are not big enough to compare with CEXs, yet they are not insignificant anymore. The most advanced DEXs will support billions of dollars of volume each day with more sophisticated strategies like cross-margin and hedging in 2026. Such innovations as the possibility of liquid-staking tokens on a pledge and a one-block confirmation decrease the performance difference with CEXs. These platforms are worth trying, in case you attach importance to transparency and self-custody. To the extent that it requires high-frequency trading and maximum liquidity, CEXs remain king- however, the boundaries are becoming blurred rapidly, which is an indicator of a well-established, immature market.
Avertissement : comprend des opinions de tiers. Il ne s’agit pas d’un conseil financier. Peut inclure du contenu sponsorisé. Consultez les CG.