TL;DR
- Record Volume: Perpetuals DEXs generated $7.9 trillion in 2025, representing 65% of all lifetime activity, with December alone hitting $1 trillion as traders shifted more aggressively to onchain derivatives.
- Second Half Surge: The second half contributed $5.74 trillion, or 73% of the year’s total, as Q3 and Q4 saw monthly volumes consistently exceed $1 trillion, confirming perpetuals DEXs as primary leveraged trading venues.
- Rising Competition: Hyperliquid’s early dominance weakened as Aster hit $259 billion in October and November, while Lighter scaled past $100 billion, creating a more competitive multi-venue market.
Perpetuals decentralized exchanges are closing 2025 with a surge that reshaped the onchain derivatives landscape, as cumulative trading volume hit $12.09 trillion, with $7.9 trillion generated in 2025 alone. The data shows that 65% of all lifetime perp DEX activity occurred this year, underscoring how quickly traders shifted toward decentralized venues. December capped the trend with $1 trillion in monthly volume, continuing the momentum that began in October when monthly activity first crossed the trillion mark.
Second Half of 2025 Becomes the Core Growth Engine
DefiLlama data highlights that $5.74 trillion of 2025’s volume came in the second half, representing 73% of the year’s total. The first half held a steady baseline near $2.1 trillion, but the market entered a new phase in Q3 as liquidity deepened and execution improved. By Q4, monthly volumes consistently exceeded $1 trillion, and the final quarter alone surpassed the entire first half. This shift signaled that perpetuals DEXs were no longer secondary alternatives but increasingly primary venues for leveraged trading.
Hyperliquid’s Early Lead Faces Rising Competition
Hyperliquid dominated early 2025 with monthly volumes between $175 billion and $248 billion, while rivals Aster and Lighter remained comparatively small. Aster posted single-digit billions, and Lighter only began scaling after Q1. However, the competitive landscape changed mid-year as both platforms accelerated sharply. Lighter jumped from below $50 billion to consistently above $100 billion by Q3, reflecting stronger trader adoption.
The most significant challenge to Hyperliquid emerged in Q4 when Aster recorded $259 billion in both October and November, marking one of the most aggressive growth spurts of the year. This surge signaled a transition from a single leader market to a multi-venue ecosystem where liquidity and user flow became more evenly distributed.
The sector’s evolution since early platforms like dYdX and Perpetual Protocol in 2021 reached a turning point in 2023 with Hyperliquid’s rise. By 2025, the combination of deeper liquidity, improved execution, and competitive pressure pushed perpetuals DEXs into a new era of scale, setting the stage for further expansion as traders increasingly favor decentralized infrastructure.
