Equity perpetual futures could become the next major growth area for onchain markets.
Crypto derivatives activity accelerated sharply in 2025, with traders increasingly turning to onchain perpetual futures as spot market opportunities remained muted, according to Coinbase researcher David Duong.
By the final months of the year, decentralized exchanges were processing more than $1 trillion in monthly perpetual futures volume, highlighting the rapid rise of onchain derivatives as a core segment of the crypto market.
In an X post, Duong said the lack of a traditional altcoin season led traders to adopt leveraged strategies rather than spot trading. Perpetual futures derivatives that allow traders to speculate on price movements without an expiry date offered what he described as an “unprecedented degree of leverage,” enabling larger positions with relatively small capital outlays.
This shift has significantly boosted activity on decentralized trading venues, where traders can access leverage without relying on centralized exchanges.
Duong noted that most of the growth has come from decentralized platforms, with onchain exchanges such as Hyperliquid, Aster, and Lighter accounting for a substantial share of trading volume.
Hyperliquid, which launched its onchain perps platform in late 2023, gained wider adoption in 2024 after introducing spot trading. In July, the exchange recorded a monthly high of roughly $319 billion in trading volume, according to DeFiLlama data.
Competition intensified further in September, when Aster briefly climbed to the top of decentralized perpetual futures rankings following its token generation event, posting nearly $36 billion in 24-hour volume, more than half of all perp DEX activity at the time.
Meanwhile, Lighter, an onchain derivatives exchange founded in 2022 by entrepreneur Vladimir Novakovski, raised $68 million in November shortly after launching its public mainnet.
Looking ahead, Duong suggested that equity perpetual futures could emerge as the next major expansion area for onchain derivatives. Tokenized stock perps could blend crypto’s 24/7 access and leverage with global demand for exposure to major US equities outside traditional market hours.
“Perpetual futures are no longer just high-leverage trading tools,”
Duong said, adding that they are increasingly becoming core, composable building blocks within DeFi markets.
