Imagine how to grow taller to 180 and pursue stable growth: How Hyperliquid maintains its leading position in the perpetual contract DEX market

Some things in the market are like “how to grow 180cm tall” — requiring a stable foundation and long-term persistence. Similarly, in the competition among perpetual contract DEXs, Hyperliquid is demonstrating this kind of steady and sustained leadership. In contrast, many platforms fall into trouble after short-term incentives fade, reflecting that true market position is not achieved overnight.

In this battle for high leverage and decentralized trading, Hyperliquid is gradually becoming an irreplaceable choice for traders. Meanwhile, platforms like Aster and Lighter are experiencing the opposite — once market hotspots, they now struggle to convert short-term traffic into lasting trading activity.

Trading volume data reveals the truth: Hyperliquid far surpasses Aster and Lighter

According to monitoring data from CryptoRank and DefiLlama, in the past week, Hyperliquid’s perpetual contract trading volume reached $40.7 billion, leading significantly over Aster’s $31.7 billion and Lighter’s $25.3 billion. From a trading volume perspective, Hyperliquid has already established a clear advantage.

However, these surface-level trading volume statistics do not fully reveal the true market picture. Many platforms boost trading activity through incentive mechanisms but fail to attract traders willing to participate long-term.

Open interest is the real key: who is truly bearing the risk

When measuring platform strength, a more critical indicator is often overlooked — open interest. This data directly reflects whether traders are willing to “bear actual risk,” rather than just “participate in volume-faking contests.”

Over the past 24 hours, Hyperliquid’s open interest in contracts reached $9.57 billion; in comparison, the combined open interest of Aster, Lighter, Variational, edgeX, and Paradex is only about $7.34 billion. This huge difference clearly indicates that Hyperliquid has become a true risk shelter for traders, rather than just a transient site chasing short-term rewards.

This asymmetry in data profoundly reveals the market’s true tendency — traders are voting with their actions, choosing Hyperliquid as their long-term risk-bearing platform.

The truth after the airdrop craze fades: why did Lighter’s trading volume halve?

The differentiation among platforms becomes especially apparent after the incentive-driven momentum diminishes. Take Lighter as an example: before the end of 2025, just before the token airdrop, trading activity once exploded; but as the token distribution completed, market enthusiasm quickly dissipated, and weekly trading volume shrank from $600 million in December to nearly one-third of that.

This shift again confirms a harsh reality: once incentive subsidies lose their appeal, liquidity recedes like the tide. Short-term reward mechanisms can create a false prosperity but struggle to retain genuine trading strength.

The trap of incentive mechanisms: BitMEX CEO’s warning

This phenomenon has prompted industry leaders to reflect. BitMEX CEO Stephan Lutz issued a warning at the Token2049 summit, pointing out that many perpetual contract DEX platforms rely excessively on token reward mechanisms. Once rewards return to normal levels, these platforms will face difficulties in retaining liquidity.

Stephan Lutz compared token incentives to “paid advertising” — capable of bringing short-term traffic peaks but unlikely to cultivate participants willing to bear long-term trading risks. This metaphor exposes the fundamental limitation of incentive models: they can generate hype but cannot foster loyalty.

The contradiction between token price and utility: the HYPE dilemma

Interestingly, despite Hyperliquid’s clear lead in operational data and trading depth, the HYPE token’s price performance has not benefited accordingly. This reflects ongoing fundamental doubts about the value accumulation mechanism of DeFi protocol tokens.

Many investors seem to separate “the platform’s actual utility” from “the token’s investment returns.” Hyperliquid has won the traffic race and the leverage trading competition, but whether this market leadership can translate into long-term economic benefits for token holders remains an unresolved issue.

The platform’s true strength cannot be denied, but the market’s judgment of its long-term value is still in the observation phase. Just as “how to grow 180cm tall” requires time to verify, whether Hyperliquid can turn its trading volume advantage into token value also needs time to prove.