DEXs Shatter Records: November Perpetual Trading Volume Blasts Past $1 Trillion

Forget Wall Street's old boys' club—the real action just bypassed it entirely. A tidal wave of capital, over a trillion dollars strong, just washed through decentralized exchanges last month, proving the skeptics wrong and the believers very, very right.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Let's talk scale. That $1 trillion figure isn't just a milestone; it's a sledgehammer. It represents a fundamental shift in where and how sophisticated trading happens. While traditional finance debates rate cuts over martinis, decentralized perpetuals are quietly eating their lunch, offering leverage and access without asking for permission.

Why This Isn't a Fluke

This surge isn't magic. It's built on rails that cut out the middleman—no custodians holding your keys, no brokers taking a slice. The infrastructure matured, liquidity pools deepened, and traders voted with their wallets. They chose self-custody, 24/7 markets, and a system that doesn't close for holidays or banking hours.

The New Trading Floor Has No Address

The trading floor is now everywhere and nowhere—a global network running on code, not couriers. This volume screams that the demand for non-custodial, on-chain derivatives isn't niche anymore; it's mainstream. It's the sound of capital finding efficiency, even if that efficiency makes some suits in glass towers nervously check their Bloomberg terminals.

So, while traditional finance pats itself on the back for a good quarter, remember: the future of trading isn't being built in their boardrooms. It's being coded, governed, and traded by a global community that just moved a thirteen-figure sum without asking for a single banker's blessing. A trillion here, a trillion there—pretty soon you're talking about real money, even by their gilded standards.

November perpetual trading volume on DEXs exceeds $1 trillion

Data from DefiLlama, an open-source analytics platform for decentralized finance (DeFi), shows that November marked the second consecutive month with $1.317 trillion in trading volume for perpetual contracts. The figure follows a surge in trading activity in October, which sent the volume to a new all-time high, surpassing $1 trillion. The volume of perpetual contracts that DEXs processed in October stood at $1.37 trillion, surpassing $759 billion recorded in August and $564.622 million in July.

The significant rise in volume indicates growing confidence among investors in decentralized on-chain platforms. The notable performance of newer DEX protocols, such as Lighter and Aster, shows that traders are moving away from centralized exchanges. 

The data shows that Lighter, a DEX based on the Ethereum network, leads the pack with a total trading volume of $290.605 billion recorded in the last 30 days and $8.882 billion in the last 24 hours. The protocol has claimed the top spot after falling second to Hyperliquid in October, with a trading volume of $265.4 billion. Hyperliquid ranked first in October with a trading volume of $317.6 billion. 

Aster has also displaced Hyperliquid, currently claiming the second spot with a trading volume exceeding $248 billion in the last 30 days and $7.414 billion in the last 24 hours. The exchange recorded $177.6 billion in October, claiming the third position after Hyperliquid and Lighter. Hyperliquid now ranks third, with a 30-day trading volume of $237.86 billion and a 24-hour volume of $6.316 billion.

edgeX also appeared in the spotlight, ranking fourth with a 30-day trading volume of $163.533 billion and $4.088 billion in the last 24 hours. Apex Protocol follows with $80.337 billion in the last 30 days and $2.822 billion in the preceding 24 hours. Single-day perpetual contracts trading volume for November peaked at $68.642 billion, a $10 billion decline from the previous month’s $78.014 billion.

Centralized exchanges still lead the crypto futures market despite DEXs’ boom

The significant shift in investor confidence is attributed to various factors, including the emergence of new-generation platforms with more user-friendly interfaces and trading incentives such as airdrops and point-awarding programs. These incentives have likely played a major role in attracting crypto traders who initially executed most of their trading activities on centralized exchanges. 

Numerous scandals on centralized exchanges, such as hacks and evolving regulatory scrutiny, may have also presented decentralized exchanges as suitable alternatives for trading activities. Many traders now view decentralized exchanges as safer platforms that allow them to retain custody of their funds and provide earlier access to new tokens. 

However, centralized exchanges still lead in crypto futures’ open interest and trading volume. Data from Coingecko shows that centralized exchanges have amassed a total derivatives volume of $570 billion in the last 24 hours, compared to $39.313 billion witnessed on decentralized exchanges during the same period. Binance (Futures) leads with $58.4 billion in 24 hr trading volume, followed by Bybit (Futures) with $20.1 billion.

The news comes after Metamask announced it had teamed up with Hyperliquid to offer traders perpetual futures trading on the ethereum wallet’s mobile application. The announcement also detailed that the duo will offer rewards to incentivize traders to utilize the feature.

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