Original Title: The Perp DEX Wars of 2025: Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter, and EdgeX
Original Author: @stacy_muur
Translated by: Peggy, BlockBeats

Editor's Note: The decentralized perpetual contract trading (Perp DEX) sector has undergone dramatic changes over the past year: from the absolute dominance of Hyperliquid to the rise of Aster, Lighter, and EdgeX, the market landscape is being reshaped.

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the four major platforms from the perspectives of technical architecture, core metrics, risk events, and long-term viability, aiming to help readers see "the truth behind the data" rather than making judgments solely based on trading volume rankings.

The following is the original text:

In 2025, the decentralized perpetual contract (perp DEX) market experienced explosive growth. By October 2025, the monthly trading volume of perpetual contract DEXs surpassed $1.2 trillion for the first time, quickly attracting significant attention from retail traders, institutional investors, and venture capital funds.

Over the past year, Hyperliquid has almost monopolized the market, peaking in May with a 71% share of on-chain perpetual contract trading volume. However, by November, its market share had plummeted to just 20%, with emerging competitors rapidly claiming territory:

- Lighter: 27.7%

- Aster: 19.3%

- EdgeX: 14.6%

In this rapidly evolving ecosystem, the four dominant players have emerged, fiercely competing for industry supremacy:

@HyperliquidX — The seasoned king of on-chain perpetual contracts

@Aster_DEX — The high-volume, controversial "rocket"

@Lighter_xyz — The disruptor with zero fees and native zk technology

@edgeX_exchange — The low-profile "dark horse" that deeply resonates with institutions

This in-depth investigation aims to clear the fog and analyze each platform's technical strength, core metrics, points of controversy, and long-term viability.

Part One: Hyperliquid, the Undisputed King

Why Can Hyperliquid Dominate?

Hyperliquid has established itself as the leading decentralized perpetual contract trading platform, with a peak market share exceeding 71%. Although competitors have made headlines with explosive trading volume growth, Hyperliquid remains a structural pillar of the entire perp DEX ecosystem.

Technical Foundation

Hyperliquid's advantage stems from a revolutionary architectural decision: to create a custom Layer 1 blockchain specifically designed for derivatives trading. Its HyperBFT consensus mechanism achieves sub-second order confirmations and supports 200,000 transactions per second, with performance comparable to or even surpassing centralized trading platforms.

The Truth About Open Interest

Competitors often attract attention with astonishing 24-hour trading volumes, but the metric that truly reveals capital deployment is Open Interest (OI), which represents the total value of all perpetual contracts still held.

Trading volume indicates activity, while open interest indicates capital commitment.

According to 21Shares data, in September 2025: Aster accounted for about 70% of total trading volume; Hyperliquid had dropped to about 10%.

But this is merely an advantage in trading volume, which is the easiest metric to manipulate through incentives, rebates, frequent trading by market makers, or even "wash trading."

The latest 24-hour open interest data shows:

- Hyperliquid: $8.014B

- Aster: $2.329B

- Lighter: $1.591B

- EdgeX: $780.41M

Total OI of the top four platforms: $12.714B
Hyperliquid's share: approximately 63%

This means that Hyperliquid holds nearly two-thirds of the open positions in the entire market, exceeding the combined total of Aster, Lighter, and EdgeX.

Open Interest Market Share (24 hours)

- Hyperliquid: 63.0%

- Aster: 18.3%

- Lighter: 12.5%

- EdgeX: 6.1%

This metric reflects traders' willingness to keep funds overnight, rather than simply trading for incentives or frequent transactions.

Hyperliquid: High OI/trading volume ratio (approximately 0.64), indicating a significant conversion of trading flow into sustained positions.

Aster & Lighter: Low ratios (approximately 0.18 and 0.12), indicating frequent trading but low capital retention, typical of incentive-driven behavior rather than stable liquidity.

The Complete Picture

Trading Volume (24h): Indicates short-term activity

Open Interest (24h): Indicates risk capital retention

OI/Trading Volume Ratio (24h): Reveals real trading vs. incentive-driven trading

From all OI-related metrics, Hyperliquid is the structural leader: highest open interest; largest proportion of committed capital; strongest OI/trading volume ratio; total OI exceeding the sum of the last three platforms.

Trading volume rankings may fluctuate, but open interest reveals the true market leader, which is Hyperliquid.

Real-World Validation

In the liquidation event of October 2025, $19 billion in positions were liquidated, and Hyperliquid maintained zero downtime while handling peak trading volumes.

Institutional Recognition

21Shares has submitted a product application for Hyperliquid (HYPE) to the U.S. SEC and has listed a regulated HYPE ETP on the Swiss securities trading platform. These developments (including reports from platforms like CoinMarketCap) indicate increasing institutional access to HYPE. The HyperEVM ecosystem is also expanding, although public data has yet to verify claims of "180+ projects" or "$4.1B TVL."

Conclusion

Based on current filings, trading platform listings, and ecosystem growth, Hyperliquid demonstrates strong momentum and increasing institutional recognition, further solidifying its position as a leading DeFi derivatives platform.

Part Two: Aster, Explosive Growth Amid Scandals

Aster's Positioning

Aster is a multi-chain perpetual contract trading platform that launched in early 2025, with a clear goal: to provide users with high-speed, high-leverage derivatives trading across networks like BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Ethereum, and Solana without the need to transfer assets across chains.

The project did not start from scratch but originated from the merger of Asterus and APX Finance at the end of 2024, combining APX's mature perpetual contract engine with Asterus's liquidity technology.

Explosive Rise

Aster launched on September 17, 2025, at $0.08, and within a week soared to $2.42, a staggering increase of 2800%. Daily trading volume peaked at over $70 billion, briefly dominating the entire perpetual contract DEX market.

What fueled this "rocket"? CZ. The founder of Binance supported Aster through YZi Labs and personally tweeted to boost the token's price. In the first 30 days post-launch, Aster's cumulative trading volume exceeded $320 billion, briefly capturing over 50% market share.

DefiLlama Delisting Incident

On October 5, 2025, DefiLlama, one of the most trusted data sources in the crypto industry, removed Aster's data, citing that its trading volume was almost perfectly correlated with Binance's (1:1 correlation).

Real trading platforms exhibit natural fluctuations, while perfect correlation only indicates one thing: data manipulation.

Evidence includes:

- Trading volume patterns completely synchronized with Binance (all trading pairs like XRP, ETH, etc.)

- Aster's refusal to provide trading data, making it impossible to verify the authenticity of trades

- 96% of ASTER tokens concentrated in 6 wallets

- Trading volume/OI ratio exceeding 58+ (healthy levels should be below 3)

The ASTER token immediately plummeted 10%, from $2.42 to approximately $1.05.

Aster's Defense

CEO Leonard claimed that this correlation was merely "arbitrage users" hedging on Binance. But if true, why refuse to publicly disclose data to prove it?

Weeks later, Aster was relisted, but DefiLlama warned: "Still a black box, we cannot verify the data."

The Actual Functionality It Provides

To be fair, Aster does have some technical highlights: 1001x leverage; hidden orders; multi-chain support (BNB, Ethereum, Solana); interest-bearing collateral.

Additionally, Aster is building the Aster Chain based on zero-knowledge proofs for privacy protection. However, no amount of good technology can mask false metrics.

Conclusion

The evidence is clear:
- Perfect correlation with Binance = wash trading
- Refusal of transparency = concealment of facts
- 96% token concentration = high centralization
- DefiLlama delisting = credibility collapse

Aster leveraged CZ's hype and false trading volume to capture immense value but failed to establish a real infrastructure. It may survive due to Binance's support, but its reputation has been permanently damaged.

To Traders: High risk, you are betting on CZ's narrative rather than real growth. Please set strict stop-losses.
To Investors: Avoid, too many risk signals, there are better options in the market (such as Hyperliquid).

Part Three: Lighter, Technically Impressive, Metrics Questionable

Technical Advantages

Lighter stands out. Founded by former Citadel engineers and backed by Peter Thiel, a16z, and Lightspeed (raising $68 million with a valuation of $1.5 billion), its core technology utilizes zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) for encrypted verification of each transaction.

As an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2), Lighter inherits Ethereum's security through a "lifeboat" mechanism—users can still retrieve funds via smart contracts even if the platform fails. In contrast, application chain L1 does not have this security guarantee.

Lighter launched on October 2, 2025, and within weeks, its TVL surpassed $1.1 billion, with daily trading volume reaching $7-8 billion and over 56,000 users.

Zero Fees = Aggressive Strategy

Lighter charges 0 fees for both limit and market orders, completely overturning the choices of fee-sensitive traders.
The strategy is simple: capture market share through an unsustainable economic model, build user loyalty, and later achieve profitability.

October 11 Stress Test

Ten days after the mainnet launch, the crypto market faced the largest liquidation event in history, with $19 billion in positions liquidated.

Good news: The system remained operational during 5 hours of chaos, with LLP providing liquidity as competitors retreated.

Bad news: The database crashed after 5 hours, causing the platform to go down for 4 hours.

Worse: LLP incurred losses, while Hyperliquid's HLP and EdgeX's eLP were profitable.

Founder Vlad Novakovski explained: The plan was to upgrade the database on Sunday, but Friday's extreme volatility overwhelmed the old system ahead of schedule.

Trading Volume Issues

Data strongly suggests wash trading behavior:

- 24-hour trading volume: $12.78 billion

- Open Interest (OI): $1.591 billion

- Trading volume/OI ratio: 8.03
- Healthy level = below 3, above 5 is suspicious, 8.03 is extremely abnormal.

Comparison:

Hyperliquid: 1.57 (natural)

EdgeX: 2.7 (moderate)

Aster: 5.4 (concerning)

Lighter: 8.03 (serious wash trading)

For every $1 deployed, $8 in trading volume is generated—frequent position flipping for wash trading rather than real holdings.
30-day data validation: $294 billion in trading volume vs. $47 billion in cumulative OI = 6.25 ratio, still far above reasonable levels.

Airdrop Questions

Lighter's points program is highly aggressive. Points will be exchanged for LITER tokens at TGE (expected Q4 2025/Q1 2026). OTC market quotes for points range from $5-100+, with potential airdrop values in the tens of thousands, making the explosive trading volume understandable.
Key question: What will happen after TGE? Will users stay or will trading volume collapse?

Conclusion

Advantages:
Top-notch technology (ZK verification is effective)
Zero fees = true competitive advantage
Inherits Ethereum's security
Top-tier team and capital support

Concerns:
8.03 trading volume/OI ratio = serious wash trading
LLP incurred losses during stress testing
4-hour downtime raises questions
User retention post-airdrop unverified

Key difference from Aster: No wash trading accusations, no DefiLlama delisting. The high ratio reflects aggressive but temporary incentives rather than systemic fraud.

Bottom line judgment: Lighter has world-class technology but is wrapped in questionable metrics. Can it convert wash trading users into real users? Technology says "yes," history says "maybe not."

For wash trading users: Good opportunity before TGE.

For investors: Wait 2-3 months after TGE to observe if trading volume persists.
Probability judgment: 40% chance of becoming a top three platform, 60% chance of becoming another "wash trading farm," just with better underlying technology.

Part Four: EdgeX, Institutional-Level Professional Player

Amber Group's Advantages

EdgeX operates differently. It was born from the Amber Group's incubator (managing assets of $5 billion), with team members from Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and Bybit. This is not "crypto-native" learning finance, but traditional finance (TradFi) experts bringing institutional-level experience into DeFi.

Amber's market-making gene directly empowers EdgeX: deep liquidity, tight spreads, and execution quality comparable to centralized trading platforms. The platform launched in September 2024 with a clear goal: to achieve CEX-level performance without sacrificing self-custody.

Based on StarkEx (StarkWare's mature ZK engine), EdgeX can process 200,000 orders per second with latency under 10 milliseconds, comparable to Binance.

Lower Fees than Hyperliquid

EdgeX outperforms Hyperliquid in terms of fees:

Market order fee: EdgeX 0.038% vs Hyperliquid 0.045%

Limit order fee: EdgeX 0.012% vs Hyperliquid 0.015%

For traders with a monthly trading volume of $10 million, this can save $7,000-$10,000 annually, and for retail-level orders ($6 million), EdgeX offers better liquidity, tighter spreads, and lower slippage.

Real Revenue, Healthy Metrics

Unlike Lighter's zero-fee model or Aster's questionable data, EdgeX generates real, sustainable revenue:

TVL: $489.7 million

24-hour trading volume: $8.2 billion

Open Interest (OI): $780 million

30-day revenue: $41.72 million (147% increase from Q2)

Annualized revenue: $509 million (second only to Hyperliquid)

Trading volume/OI ratio: 10.51 (seems poor but requires deeper analysis)

At first glance, 10.51 seems high, but context is important: EdgeX initially adopted an aggressive points program to guide liquidity, and as the platform matures, this ratio is steadily improving. More importantly, EdgeX has maintained healthy revenue during this period, proving there are real traders, not just wash trading users.

October Stress Test

During the market crash on October 11 (with $19 billion liquidated), EdgeX performed excellently:
Zero downtime (Lighter was down for 4 hours)
eLP treasury remained profitable (Lighter's LLP incurred losses)
Liquidity providers achieved an annualized yield of 57% (highest in the industry)

eLP (EdgeX Liquidity Pool) demonstrated exceptional risk management capabilities during extreme volatility, remaining profitable while competitors struggled.

EdgeX's Differentiated Advantages

Multi-chain flexibility: Supports Ethereum L1, Arbitrum, BNB Chain; collateral supports USDT and USDC; cross-chain deposits and withdrawals (Hyperliquid limited to Arbitrum).

Best mobile experience: Official iOS and Android apps (Hyperliquid lacks), with a clean interface for easy position management anytime.

Asian market strategy: Actively laying out the Asian market through localized support and participation in the Korea Blockchain Week, seizing regions neglected by Western competitors.

Transparent points program: 60% trading volume, 20% referrals, 10% TVL/treasury, 10% liquidation/OI

Clear statement: "No rewards for wash trading," and the metrics validate this—trading volume/OI ratio is improving, not worsening.

Challenges

Market share: Only 5.5% of perpetual contract DEX open interest, growth requires more aggressive incentives (risk of wash trading) or significant partnerships.

Lack of "killer features": EdgeX performs solidly across the board but lacks disruptive innovation; it is a "business class" option—professional but not dazzling.

Cannot compete with Lighter on fees: Zero fees make EdgeX's "lower than Hyperliquid" advantage less appealing.

TGE timing is late: Expected in Q4 2025, missing the initial airdrop hype.

Conclusion

EdgeX is the choice for professional users—stability over flashiness.

Advantages:
Institutional support from Amber Group
Annualized revenue of $509 million
Treasury profitable during stress testing, with APY up to 57%
Fees lower than Hyperliquid
No wash trading scandals, clean metrics
Multi-chain support + best mobile experience

Concerns:
Small market share (5.5% OI)
Trading volume/OI ratio still high (but improving)
Lacks unique selling points
Pressure from zero-fee competition

Target Audience:

Asian traders needing localized support

Institutional users valuing Amber's liquidity

Conservative traders prioritizing risk management

Mobile-first users

LP investors seeking stable returns

Bottom line judgment: EdgeX is expected to capture 10-15% market share among Asian markets, institutions, and conservative traders. It will not threaten Hyperliquid's dominance, but it does not need to—it is building a sustainable, profitable niche.
Think of it as the "Kraken of perpetual contract DEXs": not the largest, not the flashiest, but stable, professional, and trusted by mature users who value execution quality.

For wash trading users: Moderate opportunity, competition is not as fierce as other platforms.
For investors: Suitable for small position diversification, low risk, low return.

Comparative Analysis: Perp DEX Wars

Trading Volume/Open Interest (OI) Analysis

Industry standard: Healthy ratio ≤ 3

Hyperliquid: 1.57 ✅ Indicates strong organic trading model

Aster: 4.74 ⚠️ On the high side, reflecting significant incentive activities

Lighter: 8.19 ⚠️ High ratio suggests incentive-driven trading

EdgeX: 10.51 ⚠️ Points program impact is evident, but improving

Market Share: Open Interest Distribution

Total Market: Approximately $13B in open interest

Hyperliquid: 62% - Market leader

Aster: 18% - Strong second tier

Lighter: 12% - Continuous growth

EdgeX: 6% - Focused on niche market

Platform Overview

Hyperliquid - Seasoned Leader

Holds 62% market share, stable metrics

Annualized revenue of $2.9B, active buyback program

Community ownership model, reliable performance

Advantages: Market dominance, sustainable economic model

Rating: A+

Aster - High Growth, High Questions

Strong integration with BNB ecosystem, backed by CZ

Faced data scrutiny from DefiLlama in October 2025

Multi-chain strategy driving adoption

Advantages: Ecosystem support, retail user coverage

Concerns: Need to monitor data transparency issues

Rating: C+

Lighter - Technological Pioneer

Zero-fee model, advanced ZK verification

Top-tier investors (Thiel, a16z, Lightspeed)

Pre-TGE phase (Q1 2026), limited performance data

Advantages: Technological innovation, Ethereum L2 security

Concerns: Sustainability of business model, user retention post-airdrop

Rating: Incomplete (awaiting TGE performance)

EdgeX - Institutionally Oriented

Backed by Amber Group, professional execution

Annualized revenue of $509M, stable treasury performance

Asian market strategy, mobile-first

Advantages: Institutional credibility, steady growth

Concerns: Small market share, competitive positioning

Rating: B

Investment Considerations

Trading Platform Choices:

Hyperliquid: Deepest liquidity, reliability validated

Lighter: Zero fees, suitable for high-frequency traders

EdgeX: Fees lower than Hyperliquid, excellent mobile experience

Aster: Multi-chain flexibility, BNB ecosystem integration

Token Investment Timeline:

HYPE: Now available, $37.19

ASTER: Trading price $1.05, need to monitor future developments

LITER: TGE Q1 2026, assess metrics post-launch

EGX: TGE Q4 2025, observe early performance

Key Conclusions

Market Maturity: Clear differences in the Perp DEX space, with Hyperliquid establishing dominance through sustainable metrics and community collaboration.

Growth Strategies: Each platform targets different user groups—Hyperliquid (professional), Aster (retail/Asia), Lighter (technology), EdgeX (institutional).

Metric Focus: Trading volume/OI ratio and revenue generation better reflect performance than pure trading volume.

Future Outlook: The post-TGE performance of Lighter and EdgeX will determine long-term competitiveness; Aster's future depends on resolving transparency issues and maintaining ecosystem support.

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