Decentralized trade (DEX) buying and selling exercise surged to new highs in October, demonstrating the worldwide cryptocurrency market’s continued shift in direction of on-chain finance.
In line with information from DeFiLlama, perpetual DEX buying and selling quantity exceeded $1.36 trillion final month, the very best degree ever. This quantity surpassed August’s peak of $759 billion and have become a brand new benchmark for on-chain buying and selling exercise.
Hyperliquid takes the lead as on-chain perpetual good points momentum
The speedy enhance in buying and selling quantity confirms the rising confidence of traders in on-chain platforms. Hyperliquid, the layer 1 blockchain that has dominated the persistent DEX panorama, accounted for roughly $299 billion of the October whole.
This was adopted by Lighter, an Ethereum-based DEX, which processed roughly $265.4 billion, and Binance-linked Aster, which processed roughly $259.9 billion.
High 5 Perps DEX Platforms. Supply: Defilama
The efficiency of recent gamers resembling Lighter and Aster exhibits that merchants are steadily migrating away from centralized exchanges (CEX). They’re as a substitute turning to decentralized venues that provide better transparency, decrease charges, and direct management of their property.
Actually, the spot quantity share from DEX to CEX has doubled from lower than 10% final 12 months to greater than 20% in 2025.
Notably, Hyperliquid is each a driver and beneficiary of that momentum.
Business analysts imagine that this on-chain increase is because of a number of intertwined elements. The rise of platforms providing improved interfaces and incentives resembling airdrops and factors applications has attracted retail merchants in droves.
However this development additionally displays deeper structural adjustments. Following repeated centralized trade scandals and elevated regulatory scrutiny, many merchants now imagine that DEXs are a safer place to take care of custody and supply early entry to new tokens.
Nonetheless, October’s document numbers weren’t purely pure.
This spike in buying and selling quantity coincided with roughly $20 billion in compelled liquidations throughout leveraged positions at first of the month. The wave was sparked after President Donald Trump mentioned america might increase tariffs in response to new restrictions on China’s uncommon earth exports.
The feedback prompted a big decline in danger property, sending crypto costs decrease and triggering a wave of document buying and selling exercise throughout platforms.
Actually, CoinShares later reported that the ensuing market turmoil had generated document weekly buying and selling quantity of over $53 billion in regulated crypto funding merchandise resembling ETFs.
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