Aster

dYdX

DeFi

Lighter, a crypto platform for perpetual futures, has seen a big jump in daily trading, beating Aster and Hyperliquid over the past three days. On October 26, it handled $8.6 billion in trades, though the total value of open positions was $1.7 billion, still below its competitors.
According to data from Artemis, perpetual trading picked up sharply in late September, briefly climbing above $125 billion, mostly fueled by strong activity from the ApeX and Aster platforms. However, after early October, daily totals eased to $25–50 billion, stabilizing trading activity.&nbsp;
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 <img width="1200" height="556" src="https://www.cryptotimes.io/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Perpetual-Volume-and-Daily-Active-Users-1200x556.png" alt="Perpetual Volume and Daily Active Users">
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 Perpetual Volume and Daily Active Users, Source: <a href="https://app.artemisanalytics.com/sectors" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Artemis</a>
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Besides volume fluctuations, daily active users remained consistent, with platforms like Hyperliquid, Paradex, and dYdX attracting 40,000–80,000 users per day.&nbsp;
Lighter runs on Ethereum using zk-rollup technology, which makes it faster and cheaper to trade perpetual futures. Its recent growth shows traders are still active, even though the overall crypto market has become less volatile.&nbsp;
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="open-interest-trends-and-market-dynamics">Open interest trends and market dynamics</h2>
Open interest, a measure of how much capital is locked into open perpetual futures trades, increased during September and peaked almost to $30 billion at the beginning of last month. Hyperliquid took the biggest share, though ApeX, Aster, and dYdX also gained strongly in that peak.&nbsp;
However, after early-October highs, open interest normalized around $15–20 billion. Hence, even as Lighter leads daily volume, its smaller open interest suggests new participants or higher turnover, rather than long-term leveraged positions dominating the market.
On October 27, <a href="https://chainwire.org/2025/10/24/astros-launches-perpetual-dex-on-sui-as-chains-race-to-capture-trillion-dollar-derivatives-market/?mfk=LDzuNL6cJ0sBD83vCeOaB3jYMnfM9rkgnAQS%2BPXlGew%2Ftgk3F%2B2eYUTaXh6sN%2BQ01%2B9bhmvN1S%2F7PH9Ha8mTUDeCfBEpfHMX1SlgB9hou%2B7K8g%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Astros launched its perpetual DEX on the Sui network</a>, which now holds $2.6 billion in total value. “Perp DEXs have become the ultimate litmus test for a blockchain’s ability to handle real financial infrastructure,” said Jerry Liu, Astros Founder.&nbsp;
Yesterday, Surf Protocol introduced <a href="https://www.turboflow.xyz/home" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">TurboFlow</a>, a fully on-chain trading platform that allows traders to use leverage of up to 1000x. It includes both traditional fee models and a fee-free profit-sharing option.&nbsp;
These shifts show how much perpetual futures have grown in crypto, now making up 26% of all derivatives trading and reaching around $1 trillion in monthly volume.
Lighter’s rise in daily trading shows more traders are joining, even if long-term positions stay small. The perpetual futures market keeps growing, and fast, low-cost platforms on new chains are driving DeFi forward.
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Lighter Leads Perp DEX Volume Despite Lower Open Interest

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The Crypto Times

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