DEX war is hot: hundreds of billions of transactions are divided into three parts of the world, Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter Who dominates?

The daily trading volume of decentralized perpetual futures trading exchanges (Perp DEX) surged from billions of dollars at the beginning of 2024 to over 100 billion dollars in October 2025, an increase of more than 25 times. Hyperliquid's market share plummeted from 70% to 10%, while Aster soared to 70% and Lighter, with its mainnet launch, captured 15%. The three major DEXs are waging war with speed, multi-chain, and zero fees as their weapons. This article deeply compares the technical advantages and risks of Hyperliquid, Aster, and Lighter, analyzing who will ultimately prevail in the DEX market.

Market Transition: From Hyperliquid Monopoly to Tripod Balance

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Decentralized perpetual futures trading exchanges (perp DEX) have become one of the most competitive areas in decentralized finance (DeFi). The daily volume of perp DEX skyrocketed from several billion dollars at the beginning of 2024 to over 100 billion dollars in the first week of October 2025.

In the explosive development over the past 12 months, Hyperliquid has been the undisputed leader, occupying about 70% of the market. However, by October 2025, with the addition of Aster and Lighter, Hyperliquid's dominance declined. Today, the perpetual derivatives market presents a three-way competition, with each platform offering unique technologies and product innovations, reshaping the way traders interact with decentralized finance.

Market landscape changes in September 2025:

Hyperliquid: market share has dropped to about 10%, with daily volume maintained at 10-15 billion USD.

Aster: Occupying nearly 70% of the market share, daily trading volume surged from 1 billion dollars at the end of September to over 70 billion dollars.

Lighter: Mainnet launched on October 2, capturing a 15% share, processing about 8 billion dollars daily.

Comparison Table of Three Core DEX Data

This transformation highlights that liquidity and user adoption are no longer concentrated on a single platform. Instead, innovation is segmenting the market into various specialized competitors. In this landscape, Aster has become a clear leader, but how much of its growth truly comes from organic growth remains a question.

Hyperliquid: The King of Performance Pioneers

Hyperliquid proves that DeFi can match centralized exchanges (CEX) in terms of speed and liquidity.

· Technical Advantages: Sub-second Confirmation and 200,000 TPS

Hyperliquid runs on a custom Layer-1 chain that includes HyperCore (Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) and HyperEVM (Smart Contract). Its consensus system, HyperBFT, enables sub-second final confirmation (about 0.2 seconds), throughput up to 200,000 orders per second, and performance comparable to that of top centralized exchanges.

· Core technical features:

CLOB vs AMM: Choosing fully on-chain trading over automated market makers, offering lower spreads, superior price discovery, and institutional-level execution.

Hyper Liquidity Provider (HLP) Vault: Allows users to participate in market making, with an annual yield of approximately 6-8%, peak liquidity exceeding 500 million USD.

No VC allocation: Community first, cultivating deep user loyalty.

· Tokenomics and Sustainability

Hyperliquid generated over $800 million in annualized revenue in 2025. Most of these fees were used to repurchase HYPE tokens, resulting in the repurchase of over $715 million in HYPE, leading to deflationary pressure.

Advantages: Unparalleled throughput, deep liquidity, a user-friendly interface similar to a CEX, and a sustainable profit model.

Selling point: The only DEX that fully replicates the speed and reliability of CEX on-chain.

Aster: The Radical Expansion of Multi-Chain Disruptors

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(Source: 21Shares)

Aster breaks boundaries through multi-chain support and stock perpetual futures, but also gets caught up in volume manipulation controversy.

· Product Innovation: Stock Perpetual Futures with 1,001x Leverage

Aster prioritizes multi-chain deployment, supporting multi-chain platforms such as BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum. This design eliminates the complexities of cross-chain interactions and attracts users who are already active in different ecosystems.

· Dual Mode Trading System:

Simple Mode: Offers up to 1,001x leverage and ALP pool liquidity

Pro Mode: Features a CLOB interface, advanced order types, and MEV protection.

· Product Innovation Highlights:

Stock Perptual Futures: Supports stock trading of companies like Apple and Tesla settled in cryptocurrency, with leverage up to 50 times.

Hidden orders: Combat front-running trades

Yield collateral: For example, asBNB, USDF, margin deposits can generate yield simultaneously.

The merger of Aster and APX Finance has brought explosive growth, with daily trading volume once surpassing Hyperliquid and token pump exceeding 2,000%.

Advantages: Stock Perpetual Futures, MEV protection trading, extensive multi-chain coverage

Unique Feature: The first perpetual DEX to offer high leverage for cryptocurrencies and stocks on a single platform.

· Controversies and Questions: Organic Expansion or Reward-Driven?

Although Aster's trading volume has grown significantly, on-chain data suggests that its trading volume may be artificially inflated.

Abnormal indicators:

Volume/TVL ratio: over 70:1, far exceeding the healthy range of 3:7 of other DeFi platforms.

Adoption curve anomaly: Daily trading volume suddenly spikes 10x in a week

Points reward mechanism: Encourages repetitive self-trading, thereby exaggerating reported trading volume.

These mechanisms indicate that Aster is carefully crafting growth strategies aimed at enhancing its image, attracting liquidity, and consolidating its market leadership.

Lighter: A Fair Challenger of Zero-Knowledge Proof

Lighter redefines trust through zero-knowledge verification and zero fees.

· Zero fee model with 60% annualized return

Lighter adopts a trust-first philosophy, utilizing a customized zk-rollup mechanism on Arbitrum. Each transaction, clearing, and settlement is verified through zero-knowledge proofs, ensuring cryptographic fairness, which is unmatched by any centralized or decentralized competitor currently available.

· Core Features:

Zero commission model: providing convenience for retail traders

Lighter Liquidity Pool (LLP): A community-based market maker vault, with an annual average return of 60% since the beginning of 2025.

Institutional Background: Founded by former Citadel engineers and supported by companies such as a16z.

Market Performance:

As of mid-September, its daily average trading volume had reached 3 billion USD. Although it was invitation-only, after the Mainnet launch on October 2, the current trading volume has exceeded 7 billion USD.

Pros: Zero-knowledge proof of fairness, zero transaction fees, institutional support

Selling point: The only DEX that offers mathematically verifiable execution.

The Future of DEX Wars: Who Will Laugh Last?

Competition is not only about market share, but also about competition in ideas.

· Three Major DEX Strategic Positions

Hyperliquid: The highest speed and scalability, attracting professionals who value speed, depth, and reliability.

Aster: Accessibility and cross-asset innovation attract retail traders and cross-border users seeking ultra-high leverage.

Lighter: Achieves transparency and fairness through zero-knowledge proofs, attracting investors who value transparency and low transaction costs.

· Risks and Challenges

Regulatory Risk:

1. High leverage (1,001 times of Aster) and lack of KYC may be subject to scrutiny.

2. Stock perpetual futures may touch the regulatory red line of securities.

Sustainability Issues:

1. The incentive-driven model (Aster) must prove its long-term viability

2. The revenue model of the zero-cost method (Lighter) needs verification.

Liquidity Risk:

1. If the incentives are exhausted or testing limitations still exist, early growth may fade.

2. Aster's abnormal volume/TVL ratio raises concerns about wash trading.

Market Outlook: Huge Pumping Space

Despite these risks, the DEX Perptual Futures sector still has a huge rise potential. Currently, the DEX Futures Trading volume only accounts for about 10% of CEX, so its growth space is still enormous.

Historical data shows:

2022-2023 Early Stage: dYdX has consistently held over half of the market share for nearly 7 months, with a relatively stable market dominance.

From 2024: The pace of change accelerates sharply, with the average leader's tenure lasting only a few weeks.

2025: Aster quickly rises to the majority share, highlighting how incentives drive the sudden fluctuations in market leadership.

These changes reflect traders' sensitivity to liquidity plans, rewards and rebates, as well as execution quality, risk management, and user experience. The result is a constantly fluctuating market where no position is secure, and maintaining a leading position requires continuous innovation and enhancement.