The Market Has Grown Up

A few years ago, perpetual DEXs were scrappy experiments on the fringes of DeFi. Their volumes were marginal compared to centralized exchanges, their execution quality lagged, and liquidity was fragmented into thin silos. Fast-forward to 2025, and the landscape has changed dramatically.

Protocols such as Hyperliquid, Orderly Network, and Lighter have evolved from “products” to infrastructure — serving not as standalone exchanges, but as liquidity and execution rails powering multiple frontends, aggregators, and institutional flows.

The evolution mirrors what happened in traditional finance: liquidity migrated from single exchanges to interconnected electronic communication networks (ECNs), while aggregation became the dominant market structure. In crypto, this shift is happening faster because infrastructure is programmable, permissionless, and composable.

This article maps the structural forces shaping the perp-DEX ecosystem in 2025 — and why the future of derivatives on-chain isn’t about who builds the best DEX UI, but who builds the most robust, interoperable liquidity layer.

From Products to Infrastructure: The Great Unbundling

The first wave of perp-DEX innovation (2020–2022) was characterized by platforms that tried to behave like “on-chain exchanges”: each had its own liquidity pool or order book, frontend, funding rate mechanism, and user base. Liquidity was fragmented, and execution quality depended on retail flow.

But markets — especially derivatives markets — naturally gravitate toward infrastructure consolidation. Instead of 50 isolated perps, we are seeing the emergence of shared liquidity layers and infrastructure protocols.

Hyperliquid, for example, is not just offering perpetuals; it’s offering an execution and funding infrastructure that other protocols can build on. Orderly Network positions itself as a neutral CLOB liquidity backbone, while Lighter focuses on solving liquidity fragmentation through intelligent routing and unified pools.

This is the same “unbundling” that happened in equities and FX markets: execution, clearing, and user experience became separate layers. DeFi derivatives are now following the same curve — only at blockchain speed.

Aggregation: The New Liquidity Standard

Aggregation is more than a UX improvement. It is a market structure inevitability.

Traders don’t want to manage ten wallets, track ten funding rates, or monitor liquidity across ten perp protocols. They want the best price, the best depth, and predictable funding — regardless of which venue it comes from.

This is why perp-DEX aggregators are emerging as the real liquidity surface. They sit on top of infrastructure protocols and:

• Route orders across multiple perp engines,

• Normalize funding and execution data,

• Manage margin cross-venue,

• Aggregate depth into a single visible book.

In other words, what FIX networks and prime brokers did for FX, aggregators are doing for perps — but with the additional advantage of programmable composability.

In 2025, more than 60% of on-chain perp trading volume is expected to flow through aggregators rather than direct protocol frontends.

Modular Liquidity: Breaking the Venue Silo

Traditional exchanges are vertically integrated: liquidity, risk, execution, and user access live in the same stack. But DeFi is modular.

A liquidity provider in Aster Protocol can theoretically service multiple frontends. A trader can source liquidity from Hyperliquid through an aggregator without ever visiting its website. And funding rates can be standardized across protocols through shared margining infrastructure.

This modularity:

• Increases capital efficiency,

• Reduces redundant liquidity fragmentation,

• Creates competition on infrastructure quality rather than retail acquisition,

• Allows composability between different DeFi primitives (lending, perps, options, structured products).

The perp-DEX of 2025 looks less like a centralized exchange — and more like a public derivatives backbone.

Infrastructure Eats User Experience

For years, the dominant narrative in DeFi was “make DEXs usable.” In perp-DEX markets, we’re seeing a reversal. Execution infrastructure is becoming more important than frontend UX.

Frontends can be built by anyone; infra cannot.
A well-designed aggregator can outcompete even the slickest standalone DEX because:

• Liquidity depth matters more than UI polish,

• Institutional traders prioritize execution quality,

• Transparent funding and margining create trust.

This is why protocols like Orderly and Hyperliquid focus on speed, solvency, and transparency rather than aggressive branding. They understand that in a modular market, whoever owns the liquidity rails indirectly owns the user flow.

Systemic Implications: The ECN Era of DeFi

The emergence of shared liquidity and aggregation layers has profound consequences:

• Liquidity becomes fungible, not venue-bound.

• Arbitrage flows become more efficient, tightening spreads.

• Funding rate differentials compress, reducing manipulation risk.

• Smaller frontends can offer institution-grade execution by plugging into infra.

The endgame is clear: perp-DEX markets evolve into networked liquidity ecosystems, with infrastructure protocols acting as backbones and aggregators as surface layers. This is essentially the ECN model — but programmable, transparent, and global.

Aggregation Wins the Long Game

The battle for perp-DEX dominance won’t be won by whoever has the flashiest tokenomics or the most aggressive referral program. It will be won by whoever builds the most reliable, performant, and interoperable infrastructure — and by aggregators that can orchestrate that infrastructure into a single liquidity experience.

In 2025, perp-DEX protocols are no longer the destination; they’re the rails. Liquidity is no longer a moat; it’s a shared network resource. And the winners will be those who understand that in derivatives markets, infrastructure is strategy.