Crypto derivatives activity rose sharply in 2025 as traders increasingly turned to on-chain perpetual futures, according to Coinbase researcher David Duong. By the end of the year, decentralized exchanges processed more than $1 trillion in monthly perpetual futures volume, highlighting the growing role of on-chain derivatives markets.
In an article published Monday XDuong said the trend was partly due to the lack of a traditional altcoin season, leading traders to seek higher returns through leverage rather than spot markets. He added that the “unprecedented degree of leverage” available in perpetual futures allowed traders to amplify their exposure with relatively small amounts of capital.
Duong noted that the increase in activity was primarily driven by decentralized trading platforms, with on-chain platforms such as Aster and Hyperliquid accounting for a large portion of the volume.
Perpetual futures, or perps, are crypto derivatives that allow traders to gain leveraged exposure to price movements without an expiration date.
Perpetual stock futures could emerge as a next growth area, according to Duong, as tokenized stock derivatives could combine the 24/7 access and leverage of crypto with the demand for exposure to major U.S. stocks outside of traditional market hours.
“Nevertheless, we believe that perpetual futures contracts are evolving beyond isolated, highly leveraged trading vehicles and becoming essential, composable primitives within DeFi markets,” he said.
Competition Intensifies Among On-Chain Perpetual Futures Platforms
Hyperliquid launched its on-chain perpetual futures platform in late 2023 and has gained momentum traction in 2024 after adding spot trading. In July, the platform saw record volume, with data from DeFiLlama showing that the exchange processed approximately $319 billion in transactions during the month.
Competition in the cryptocurrency perpetual futures market has intensified over the past year. In September, shortly after its token generation event and launchAster briefly dominated ranking of decentralized perpetual futures contracts with nearly $36 billion in 24-hour trading volume, accounting for more than half of total perp DEX activity.
In November, Lighter, a perpetual on-chain futures exchange founded by tech entrepreneur Vladimir Novakovski in 2022, raised $68 million in a funding round following the launch of its public main network.
During the last 30 days, data from DeFiLlama shows that on-chain perpetual futures generated approximately $972 billion in trading volume. During the same period, Lighter dominated trading with a volume of around $203 billion, followed by Aster with around $171.8 billion and Hyperliquid with around $160.6 billion.
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