Aster, Hyperliquid, and Lighter dominate as Perp DEX trading soars

In September, the monthly trading volume on Perp DEXs surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in history, reaching a high of $1.14 trillion amid the surge in Perp trading.

DeFi Llama shows that Perpetual decentralized exchanges (Perp DEXs) achieved a notable milestone over the past month, surpassing $1 trillion in monthly trading volume for the first time. This achievement reflects the sector’s rapid growth, representing a 48% growth from August’s $766 billion. 

Aster, Hyperliquid, and Lighter dominate as Perp DEX trading soars

Perpetual Protocol’s monthly trading volume surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in September, currently standing at $ 1.226 trillion. The surge has been driven by increased competition across several platforms, including Hyperliquid (HYPE), Aster  (ASTER), and Lighter. ASTER led with $493.61 billion monthly Perpetual trading volume, followed by HYPE, $280.74 billion, and Lighter, which recorded $165.4 billion Perpetual volume. DefiLlama data also highlighted several chains that played a role in the surge, including edgeX, Pacifica, and Paradex.

BNB Chain-focused Aster, supported by YZi Labs, rose quickly to take the top spot in last month’s Perpetual swap trading volume, reaching over $420 billion in activity. The long-standing custom Layer 1 platform Hyperliquid fell to second place, recording $282.5 billion in September trading volume, a 29% drop from its $398 billion in August. Aster will also launch its own Aster Chain, a ZK-based Layer 1, to support its Perpetual trading platform.

At the same time, Ethereum Layer 2 Perpetual DEX Lighter gained $164.4 billion in September to secure third place, even though it’s still in private beta. With the Lighter public mainnet now live as of Wednesday, it could soon challenge Aster and Hyperliquid in the Perpetual trading space as it opens up to more traders from its current 188,000 unique accounts and over 50,000 daily active users.

According to a recent Cryptopolitan report, Aster surpassed HYPE and received around $12.19 million in fees over the past 24 hours, compared to HYPE’s $3.5 million. The feat positions the digital asset as the second-highest protocol globally in fee capture, surpassing Circle and Uniswap. Aster earned $121.55 million in fee capture in the last seven days and $148.69 million over the past month. T

Aster surpasses HYPE in daily revenue and Perp volume

Cryptopolitan revealed that Aster has drawn traders’ attention due to its focus on Perpetual futures trading and its 1,001x max leverage options. The decentralized exchange surpassed Hyperliquid in daily revenue during its first week, but remained behind in terms of trading volume. At the time of publication, Aster’s Perpetual trading volume hit $70.64 billion in the last 24 hours. 

Hyperliquid’s blockchain powers the exchange, and its transparent model has also caught headlines due to whales placing big bets. Hyperliquid’s maximum leverage also tops out at 40x.

“The current model, where everything is fully transparent, may or may not be the best. You can see a big whale placed at $300 million short. But the guy who wants to do a $300 million short doesn’t want you to see it.”

–Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO

The Aster token has increased by 6.4% in the last 24 hours, reaching $1.73 at the time of publication. Since its launch this September, Aster has surged by 1,942%. The token soared by 2,000% in the first seven days of its debut, reaching a $3.8 billion market capitalization. 

At the time of publication, Aster’s market cap increased by nearly 7% to $2.89 billion, making it the 40th largest digital asset by market capitalization. Predictions from Myriad suggest the token could hit $4 before November, giving it a 24.4% chance.

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