Make Money While Making it Rain: Check Out the Recent Updates from These Top Perp DEXes

According to the latest on-chain data, the market landscape of the Decentralized Perpetual Contract Exchange (Perp DEX) has become relatively clear. In terms of 24-hour trading volume, Aster leads the pack with $121.2 billion, followed by Lighter at $86.16 billion in second place, Hyperliquid at $59.58 billion in third place, edgeX and ApeX Protocol in fourth and fifth place with $50.6 billion and $21.22 billion, respectively.

The total trading volume of these five platforms exceeds $338 billion, establishing absolute dominance in the entire Perp DEX arena.

For investors and traders looking to delve deeper into the Perp DEX arena, focusing on the dynamics of these top five platforms can essentially grasp the trajectory of the entire arena. Therefore, this article from BlockBeats elaborates in detail on the recent significant developments, product updates, and community activities of these 5 platforms to help readers gain a comprehensive understanding of the latest trends in the decentralized derivative trading market.

Lighter

1. Suspected Insider Reveals Lighter's Funding Amount as $1.5B.

Recently, an informant who accurately predicted Coinbase's acquisition of Echo and Kalshi's valuation of $12 billion hinted in the same cryptic form that Lighter's funding amount reached $1.5 billion. This news has sparked widespread community attention, and although it has not been officially confirmed, the informant's previous accurate predictions have added credibility to this rumor.

From a market performance perspective, Polymarket's prediction data shows investors have a high regard for Lighter: 88% probability believes that its FDV on the first day of listing will exceed $20 billion, with a 55% probability of surpassing $40 billion. Meanwhile, the OTC market price remains stable at around $80.

2. Lighter CEO Hints at Lighter Airdrop Node on Major Holiday

The latest hint from Lighter's CEO on Twitter has provided the community with a clearer expectation of the airdrop timing. He explicitly stated that the second season's points plan will end before the end of the year, but not on December 31st, and teasingly tweeted, "this year's holidays will be lit."

Combining this information, the community generally speculates that the airdrop is most likely to occur during the most important Western holiday — Christmas.

Polymarket's data further confirms this expectation, showing that the probability of Lighter completing the airdrop by December 31 is as high as 90%. This means that participants may receive their long-awaited token rewards before the end of the year.

3. Lighter Season 2 Rule Adjustment

This month, Lighter announced adjustments to the point distribution rules for the second season compared to the first season. 200,000 points will be distributed every Friday, covering trading activities from Wednesday to the following Tuesday. The allocation mechanism is more diversified, taking into account various dimensions such as trading volume, holding amount, treasury limit, liquidation and leverage multiples, P&L amount, and trading categories.

It is worth noting that points do not have a simple linear relationship with trading metrics. For example, twice the trading volume may result in three times or 1.5 times the points, and this non-linear design aims to encourage more diverse trading behaviors. The platform has implemented a combination of fully automatic and semi-automatic witch detection systems, and each user can have up to 10 accounts without punishment, and any excess will face penalties.

For more details, please refer to the official documentation.

4. Tokenomics and Product Roadmap

Two weeks ago, the founder of Lighter conducted a Russian AMA, revealing some key information:

Lighter plans to allocate 25-30% of the tokens for airdrops in the first and second seasons, with a total community distribution ratio of 50%, and the remaining portion will be used for future airdrops, partner programs, and project funding.

On the product side, the spot trading feature is expected to be launched at the end of October or the beginning of November, with the initial launch including core assets such as ETH, BTC, followed by selected meme coins and partner projects.

6-12 Month Roadmap:

By the end of the year, we plan to achieve cross-margin functionality, allowing the use of spot as collateral for perpetual contracts; early next year, we will launch an EVM "sidecar" smart contract extension; RWA derivatives (precious metals and crypto-related stocks) are planned to go live by year-end; options and dark pool functionality are set to be released next year and by the end of next year, respectively.

5. Arbitrage Opportunities

Community user Your Quant Guy shared an arbitrage alpha strategy about Lighter in a tweet, with an annualized return of approximately 51.5%.

6. Data Performance

According to a community-built dashboard website and lighterlytics data, Lighter's data growth is evident, with Lighter's current TVL at 1.15B, showing a growth rate of 481% over the past three months.

The platform's 24-hour revenue has reached $598k, indicating highly active trading on the platform. Liquidity providers dominate, with the Premium Maker market share at 81.9%. The Premium Taker market share is at 11.6%.

The top ten traders on Lighter mainly focus on trading ETH and HYPE. The top-ranked trader has a major ETH short position, with a total position value of $25.52M, realizing a profit of $3.21M, executing a total of 83 trades and holding 20 positions.

Aster

1. Phase III Airdrop Plan

On October 6, Aster seamlessly transitioned to the Phase III reward plan "Aster Dawn," which will last for 5 weeks until November 9. This plan introduces an innovative multidimensional Rh score system, considering factors such as trading volume, holding period, ASTER ecosystem assets (e.g., asBNB, USDF), realized gains and losses, and team referral contributions.

The highlights of the Dawn plan include: 4% of the total ASTER supply allocated specifically for the Phase III airdrop; introducing spot trading into the scoring system for the first time, no longer limited to perpetual contracts; certain trading pairs (such as AT, AT, AT, ON, etc.) enjoy a 1.2x score bonus; the standard team referral fee is 10%, with whales able to apply for a higher level. Scores are recalculated weekly to ensure fairness, but the specific formula is kept confidential to prevent wash trading.

The Phase II rewards were available for query starting October 10, withdrawals began on October 14, with no restrictions on lock-up periods.

2. Launching Buyback

In October, Aster officially launched the Phase III (S3) token buyback plan. After the buyback is completed, the repurchased tokens will be transferred to the same address as the S2 buyback, following which the S3 airdrop distribution will commence.

Based on an estimated daily platform fee of $15 million, the market expects the total buyback amount to exceed $200 million. Several community members and analysts believe that if this buyback plan continues to be executed, it could drive the ASTER price to the $10 target level.

Regarding the analysis of buyback, KOL Honest Wheat CEO shared some additional insights and detailed information: Aster's current valuation is significantly discounted; all KOL round chips have either been bought back OTC at the current price or have all been unlocked, with chip concentration being high; Binance's internal exposure to Aster has no limit. These factors together form the bullish logic.

3. Mobile App and AI Trading Event

The Aster App has officially launched on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, allowing users to trade anytime, anywhere, marking a significant milestone for the platform in terms of user experience.

Of particular note is the launch of the "Aster Vibe Trading Arena." This event is aimed at the world's top AI traders and developers, with a total prize pool of 50,000 ASTER tokens. Participants are required to build an automated AI system "Vibe Trader" that can execute live trades through the Aster API. The winning team will also have the opportunity to establish a long-term partnership with Aster.

The competition timeline is as follows: submissions are accepted from October 21 to November 3, with the final winners to be announced no later than November 21. The judging process includes Aster's initial screening, community voting, and the core team's final decision.

Additionally, inspired by nof1 (@the_nof1), the MoneySharks project has launched a similar perpetual contract trading competition on Aster involving six large language models, each starting with 1 BNB (approximately $1,100). Currently, all six large language models are in a loss-making position, with the first-place, consistent with nof1's test results, being deepseek.

Hyperliquid

1. Season 3 Ready to Launch

Renowned community member Raccoon Chan (@RaccoonHKG) speculated through clues the arrival of "Season Three November," indicating that the Hyperliquid third-quarter airdrop plan will be launched in November. This news has excited users who have been actively participating in trading.

2. Remarkable Results of HIP-3 Upgrade

The HIP-3 upgrade activated on October 13 has brought significant changes to the ecosystem. The most notable success story is trade.xyz and its launch of XYZ100—a tokenized Nasdaq 100 futures tracking the top 100 non-financial companies in the U.S. The product's trading volume exceeded $35 million on the first day, demonstrating strong market demand.

According to Hyperliquid News: trade.xyz set a new all-time high for daily trading volume, reaching $77.57 million. It generated $37,789 in revenue within 24 hours, with total revenue surpassing $217,000. Based on the current growth trajectory, analysts believe that by Christmas, trade.xyz's trading volume will surpass that of the established platform dYdX.

It is worth mentioning that currently trade.xyz is still fully open, and only users with a front-row reservation can use it.

3. Robinhood Effect

On October 23, after Robinhood launched HYPE, the token saw a single-day price increase of 25%. More importantly, there was sustained buying support: according to arthur.hl (@ArthuronH), Robinhood is currently purchasing about $3.7 million worth of HYPE every day, compared to only $2.4 million just a few days ago. The net purchase rate even exceeds that of SOL, demonstrating the strong demand for HYPE from traditional financial platforms.

4. HyperEVM Native Protocol

Hyperliquid Daily (@HYPERDailyTK) compiled and summarized the native protocols of HyperEVM, ranging from DeFi protocols to innovative applications. HyperEVM is becoming a key choice for developers.

edgeX

1. edgeX's 24-Hour Revenue Performance Surpasses Hyperliquid

According to Artemis's "Top Chains by Fees" data, edgeX's $2.3 million 24-hour fee revenue has surpassed Hyperliquid, making it the new king of on-chain transaction fees. This highlights the platform's high trading activity and user stickiness.

Regarding cross-chain fund flows, edgeX ranks second in net inflows over the past 24 hours, just behind Ethereum, showing strong fund attractiveness.

2. Further Clarification of TGE Signal

The edgeX official Twitter account launched a widely discussed poll: "Preparing something special for the mainnet. If our mascot is Maru (the seal), what should the token symbol be?" This tweet garnered over 111,000 views and 141 replies within 24 hours, seen by many as a clear signal of the upcoming TGE.

The edgeX admins further confirmed in the Telegram group that matters related to the TGE are progressing as planned. Starting this week, the team will gradually release relevant information and will soon hold community AMA sessions and Q&As to ensure users have a full understanding of the tokenomics and distribution plan.

3. Latest AMA Reveals More Coin Distribution Details

The TGE is scheduled for December. Before the launch, there will be a meme airdrop for stress testing, likely to occur in November.

Airdrop Distribution: Community airdrop accounts for 25%, released before TGE with no lockup; therefore, only 25% will be in early circulation. Team and institutions account for 25%, locked up for two years, with a gradual release over the next two years. The future community ecosystem incentives and foundation together make up 50%.

Buyback Ratio: Net profits will be used for token buybacks, with 100% of all pre-TGE fee net revenue used for buybacks.

ApeX

1. Launch of Ape Season 1 Score Airdrop

ApeX officially kicked off the Season 1 core score plan on October 6th, initiating a large-scale user incentive activity lasting nearly three months. The plan started its warm-up on September 29th and will run until December 28th, spanning a total of 12 epoch periods.

Season 1 has established a reward pool of 69 million APE scores, distributing 5.75 million scores weekly. Distributions are scheduled every Wednesday at 8 AM UTC, calculated based on the previous week's user activity data.

The points acquisition channels include: Trading Volume (60%); Referral System (20%); TVL Treasury (10%); Liquidation Operations (5%); Holding Interest (5%);

Additionally, if you join the ApeX Fleet team, there is a corresponding bonus based on the team's weekly trading volume, where users can receive a multiplier of 1.05 to 1.5: $5 billion trading volume receives 1.05x, $10 billion receives 1.10x, $30 billion receives 1.15x, $50 billion receives 1.20x, $80 billion receives 1.30x, and top teams with over $100 billion will enjoy the maximum multiplier of 1.5.

There are also several special bonuses: Additional multiplier for deposits via the Mantle Network; Staking APEX tokens for 3-24 months for tiered bonuses; Early adopters during the warm-up period receive a compounding factor reward; Users with historical trading activities on platforms like Hyperliquid, Aster, EdgeX, etc., can also receive the "DEX Pioneer Bonus."

2. Kaito AI Collaboration: $100,000 Creator Support Plan

ApeX and Kaito AI have jointly launched a creator incentive plan lasting over two months, with a total prize pool of up to $100,000 USDT. The plan runs from October 27 to January 4, 2026, divided into 5 two-week periods, rewarding the top 100 high-quality creators in each period with a $20,000 prize.

The creators' ranking is based on a comprehensive assessment of three dimensions:

Content quality accounts for the highest proportion (50%), covering market analysis, ApeX platform tutorials, trading strategy sharing, DeFi industry discussions, and meme culture content. This means that both in-depth research content and light-hearted creative works have the opportunity to be rewarded.

Social interaction accounts for 30%, mainly considering likes, comments, and retweets on the Twitter platform. This encourages creators to not only produce high-quality content but also actively engage with the community to expand their influence.

Ecosystem value contribution accounts for 20%, evaluating the creators' actual driving role in the ApeX ecosystem, such as attracting new users and promoting feature usage.

Of particular note is that if a creator is also an active trader, they can receive additional bonuses. Achieving a weekly trading volume of $500,000 earns a 1.25x points multiplier, while exceeding $2 million earns a 2x multiplier. Furthermore, highly active creators can also receive up to a 30% trading fee discount.

3. AI Trading Competition

The AI Trading Arena launched on October 20 provides a stage for algorithmic trading enthusiasts to showcase their skills. The competition has set up a prize pool of 25,000 USDT and supports AI trading bots that integrate via API/SDK.

The platform provides each participating fund with an initial $5,000 and offers leverage of up to 100x.

4. ApeX Traders Club

Targeting platform's experienced users, ApeX has introduced the Traders Club program. The program runs from October 17 to November 13, lasting 4 weeks with a weekly distribution of $2,000 USDT, totaling $8,000.

The entry requirement is a 6-month trading volume validation to ensure that members are genuine active traders. The club operates in an exclusive Telegram community format, providing a platform for deep discussions and information sharing among high net worth traders, forming a close-knit community of elite traders.