Perp DEX Upstarts | Waiting for the Next "Aster" Moment

Decentralized perpetual contract exchanges (Perp DEXs) are making waves in the 2025 cryptocurrency market, quickly becoming one of the most dynamic and sought-after sectors.

Hyperliquid is leading the charge, with Aster and Avantis further fueling market excitement and user engagement.

Which other Perp DEX platforms should you be watching and interacting with right now?

Before reviewing Perp DEX projects and sharing related strategies, it’s critical to note: While participants may expect airdrops from engaging in Perp DEX markets, vigilance is essential. Conduct thorough risk assessments and keep these key factors in mind:

• Contract Risk: Perpetual trading is highly leveraged. Always manage your positions and implement stop-losses to hedge against market volatility.
• Platform Credibility: Beyond product design and user experience, a platform’s backing matters. Aster’s rally stems partially from Binance’s strong endorsement and vocal support from Changpeng Zhao, while Avantis benefits from ties to Coinbase and Peter Thiel. These robust endorsements are hard for future projects to replicate.
• Narrative Sustainability: Current enthusiasm is intense, but the ongoing narrative depends on regulatory shifts, market dynamics, and other variables. Stay rational and avoid following hype blindly.
• Point Earning Difficulty: Most Perp DEX point campaigns are in mid-to-late stages, and earning points is increasingly challenging. Chasing “airdrop expectations” could lead to diminishing returns as interaction costs outweigh benefits.
• Token Incentives: Watch for future plans such as token buybacks or burns.

Aster

Aster emerged at the end of 2024 from a merger of Astherus and APX Finance, with a focus on multi-chain perpetuals. Binance Labs selected Astherus for its Season 7 incubator and provided funding (now YZi Labs).

Aster’s simplified mode provides single-click, MEV-resistant execution. Pro mode unlocks 24/7 stock perpetuals, hidden orders, and grid trading, supporting BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, and Arbitrum.

Performance-wise, Dune Analytics reports Aster has over 1.97 million total users, more than 720,000 trading users, $51.89 million in total revenue, and a 24-hour trading volume of $6 billion—about 40% of Hyperliquid’s volume.

Aster Genesis Phase 2 ends October 6, 2024, at 23:59 UTC. Four percent of ASTER’s total supply is allocated as Phase 2 rewards. Reward metrics for Phase 2 include:

• Trading Volume: Higher volume on Aster Pro earns more Rh points. Taker orders receive double the points of maker (limit) orders.
• Holding Time: Longer position holding earns more Rh points (capped at two times weekly trading volume per user).
• Asset Holding: Using Aster assets (e.g., asBNB or USDF) as margin boosts Rh points (also capped at two times weekly trading volume).
• Realized PnL: Daily realized profit and loss (excluding funding and other fees) is factored into Rh points.
• Referral & Team Points: Referrals earn 10% of first-level and 5% of second-level invitees’ base points.

Lighter

Lighter started as a decentralized spot order book on Arbitrum and pivoted to an application-level ZK-Rollup for perpetuals, utilizing custom zero-knowledge circuits for verifiable matching and clearing. Lighter charges zero trading fees.

Investors include a16z and Lightspeed Faction. The platform is currently in private testnet (invite only).

On September 21, 2024, Lighter’s TVL topped $500 million and 24-hour contract volume hit $6.9 billion—46% of Hyperliquid’s volume.

Lighter has not published specific point allocation rules. Based on user feedback, earning points is now more challenging, so users should assess viability themselves.

edgeX

edgeX, incubated by Amber Group, is an order book-based derivatives system. Its first MVP, edgeX Exchange, anchors a growing ecosystem that will soon include modules such as edgeX Telegram Bot, edgeX Leverage (covering US equities, forex, and commodity futures), edgeX Epool, edgeX Lend, and edgeX Insurance.

Contributor @ruiixyz reported on September 23, 2024, that edgeX ranks as the second-largest decentralized perpetual platform by monthly revenue ($19 million), with daily trading volume of $5 billion and over 100,000 active users.

edgeX point allocation is weighted: 60% for trading volume, 20% for referrals, ambassadors, and campaigns, 10% for TVL and Vaults, and 5% each for liquidation and open interest.

Paradex

Paradex is a hybrid derivatives exchange and application chain incubated by Paradigm on Starknet. The platform supports futures, options, pre-market instruments, and spot trading—all fee-free.

Paradex reports 32,607 total users and $964 million in 24-hour trading volume.

The Paradex point campaign is in its second season; users can earn points by trading and maintaining open positions, providing bilateral liquidity, supplying collateral to Paradex Vaults, and making referrals. Paradex announced plans for the DIME token in December 2024, targeting a 2025 launch with 20% for genesis airdrop. Season 2’s end date is delayed and has not been announced.

Extended

Extended (formerly X10) started with StarkEx Layer 2 and shifted to Starknet in mid-2025. Extended aims to be a full open finance ecosystem supported by unified margin, integrating perpetuals, spot, and lending within one collateral framework.

Led by former Revolut crypto operations head Ruslan Fakhrutdinov, Extended raised $6.5 million in April 2024 from Tioga Capital, Semantic Ventures, Cherry Ventures, StarkWare, Cyber Fund, and angel investor Konstantin Lomashuk (Lido founder).

Extended’s first point season began April 29, 2025, distributing 1.2 million points weekly for trading, liquidity provision, and referrals.

Ethereal

Ethereal is a decentralized spot and perpetual contract DEX powered by USDe, built on the Converge chain from Ethena and Securitize. Mainnet launch is upcoming, with a waitlist open now.

The current strategy: Deposit USDe into Ethereal to earn eUSDe receipt tokens, accumulate points, and unlock up to a 30x Ethena reward multiplier.

GRVT

GRVT is a hybrid trading and investment marketplace, currently supporting perpetuals and soon expanding to spot, options, and RWA markets.

In September 2025, GRVT closed a $19 million Series A led by ZKsync, Further Ventures, EigenCloud, and 500 Global, bringing total funding to $26.1 million.

Token Generation Event (TGE) is planned for Q1 2026. The Rewards 2.0 program started September 23, 2024, with points earned through deposits, trading, and referrals. Deposits also yield a 10% annualized return.

Ostium

Ostium is an open-source decentralized exchange (DEX) on Arbitrum supporting leveraged contracts on stocks, commodities, forex, indices, and crypto (up to 200x leverage).

Ostium Labs secured $3.5 million in October 2023, with General Catalyst and LocalGlobe leading and participation from SIG, Alliance, and Balaji Srinivasan.

Earn Ostium points through trading, referrals, and liquidity provider (LP) staking.

vooi

vooi is a cross-chain Perp DEX aggregator. VOOI Pro offers an order book trading interface; VOOI Light is a unified platform powered by chain abstraction, integrating GMX, Ostium, and KiloEx.

vooi joined the MVB accelerator in March 2024 and was funded by Binance Labs. In March 2025, VOOI announced a $1.25 million community raise on echo.

vooi distributes 20 million points weekly: 10 million to Light’s contract traders, 4 million to Pro contract traders, and 6 million to spot and RWA traders. Referrals earn 15% of a friend’s trading points.

StandX

StandX enables perpetuals with yield-bearing stablecoin margin. Its core team includes Binance Futures founders and ex-Goldman Sachs professionals. The platform is fully self-financed and has accepted no outside investment.

Users earn points via pre-depositing (mint DUSD with USDT/USDC), referrals, DUSD liquidity provision, holding LP tokens, holding DUSD YT on RateX, and trading DUSD in DEX pools.

Pacifica

Pacifica is a hybrid Perp DEX with off-chain matching and order books plus on-chain settlement and self-custody. Its team includes talent from Binance, FTX, Coinbase, NFTperp, OpenAI, DeepMind, and ByteDance.

Pacifica’s closed testnet and point program launched September 4, 2024, with 500,000 points distributed each Thursday. The point allocation formula is undisclosed and adapts based on usage.

Astros

Astros is a Sui ecosystem DEX aggregator and perpetual marketplace backed by NAVI Protocol. The Perp DEX is currently in a soft launch phase.

Watch for periodic Odyssey campaigns and trading or interaction events on the Astros website.

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