Onchain perpetual contracts have surged to $972 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days, even as broader crypto market sentiment remains cautious.
Market participants increasingly view perpetual futures as core decentralised finance infrastructure rather than pure speculative instruments.
Perpetual contracts allow traders to gain leveraged exposure without holding spot assets, shifting activity away from traditional altcoin trading cycles.
David Duong, a researcher at Coinbase, said traders have leaned heavily on perps to offset limited movement in altcoin spot markets.
The unprecedented leverage level offered by perps has allowed traders to amplify their exposure and potential profits or losses with low capital.
David Duong said.
Duong added that stagnant altcoin prices over the past year strengthened the appeal of perpetual derivatives.
Decentralised finance composability has enabled perps to function as financial building blocks within liquidity pools, lending platforms, and collateral frameworks.
This integration has reduced reliance on short-term speculation and encouraged structural use cases across DeFi protocols.
Decentralised exchanges are capturing a growing share of perpetual trading volume while centralised platforms consolidate.
Lighter, Aster, and Hyperliquid recorded a combined $972 billion in onchain perpetual volume over the last month.
Lighter led the sector with $203 billion in volume, followed by Aster at $171.8 billion and Hyperliquid at $160.6 billion.
Lighter’s infrastructure relies on zero-knowledge circuits built on Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) layer 2 to deliver high-speed and verifiable trading.
The platform has removed deposit caps and invitation barriers, allowing open access to its perpetual markets.
Trade low-cost, low-latency perpetual contracts on Ethereum L2 using customised ZK circuits allowing verifiable matching and liquidations.
The Lighter team said.
Lighter reported more than 188,000 unique accounts and roughly 50,000 active users each day.
Industry attention is also turning towards equity perpetuals linked to tokenised stocks rather than cryptocurrencies alone.
Duong highlighted that equity perps could provide continuous exposure to indices such as the Nasdaq and S&P 500 without traditional market hours.
These products may blur boundaries between traditional finance and crypto by offering 24/7 global access to stock-linked derivatives.
Protocols increasingly use perps to manage risk, improve capital efficiency, and stabilise DeFi portfolios.
Analysts estimate decentralised exchanges could reach $1.2 trillion in monthly perpetual volume by the end of 2025.
Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 protocol upgrade in October expanded access to perpetual markets and accelerated onchain adoption.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) trades near $41,000, providing a cautious macro backdrop as onchain derivatives activity continues to expand.
At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $87,956.87.