Perpetuals are the dominant derivatives product in crypto. Binance Futures processes more volume than Binance Spot. On the decentralised side, Hyperliquid, dYdX, GMX, Jupiter Perps and Drift have built order books and liquidity pools deep enough to compete with centralised venues.
Hyperliquid in particular has been the standout story of 2024-2025 — launching its own L1, airdropping HYPE to users, and consistently leading on-chain perp volume. Its token went from zero to a top 25 market cap in under two months following launch.
For broader context see the DeFi sector and DEX sector.
What a perpetual future actually is
A perpetual future (perp) is a leveraged derivative that tracks the price of a crypto asset without a settlement date. Unlike quarterly futures that expire, perps can be held indefinitely. The price is anchored to spot via a funding rate — a periodic payment between longs and shorts that pushes the contract price back toward the index. If perps trade above spot (too many longs), longs pay shorts a funding rate; if below (too many shorts), shorts pay longs.
This structure is what makes perps dominant in crypto: no roll risk, no expiry, high leverage (up to 100x on many venues), and they work on any asset with a reliable oracle. They’re also where most crypto trading volume lives — often 3-5x the spot volume for major coins.
The major on-chain perp protocols
Hyperliquid (HYPE) runs on its own L1 optimised for order-book trading. Sub-second execution, CEX-level liquidity on BTC/ETH/SOL pairs, and a 2024 airdrop that distributed 31% of HYPE supply to users. The project has drawn comparisons to early Binance — product-led growth with no VC concessions.
dYdX migrated from Ethereum to its own Cosmos-based chain in 2023 for better performance. The v4 chain is fully validator-run with no central sequencer; makers earn rewards in DYDX for providing liquidity. Volume sits behind Hyperliquid but the product has a longer track record.
GMX on Arbitrum and Avalanche uses a pooled counterparty model — traders trade against a multi-asset liquidity pool (GLP) rather than an order book. Simpler for LPs, can have wider spreads than order-book models. GMX v2 added synthetic assets and improved capital efficiency.
Jupiter Perps on Solana offers perps routed through Jupiter’s aggregator. Leverages Solana’s speed and JUP’s brand recognition; caters to Solana-native traders who don’t want to bridge.
Drift, Vertex, Vela, and several others sit one tier below in volume but each has distinct design trade-offs worth understanding before allocating.
Why protocol tokens here have real fundamentals
Unlike governance-only tokens, perp protocols generate meaningful fee revenue — and several share that revenue with token holders. Hyperliquid’s fee revenue is shared with HYPE stakers. dYdX fees flow to DYDX stakers. GMX holders stake for fee share plus GLP yield. That puts perp tokens closer to traditional-finance exchange tokens (CME, Nasdaq parent) than to pure speculation assets. The cash flows are real and growing.
Risks specific to the sector
High-leverage trading is where liquidations happen, so protocols face acute oracle-manipulation and solvency risk. GMX and similar pooled-counterparty models have exhibited liquidity-provider losses in specific regimes. Token-value capture depends on the protocol maintaining market share — and perps is a winner-take-most market at the venue level. If Hyperliquid’s market share slips, HYPE fundamentals compress sharply.
Data below is live from CoinGecko.