Perps & Derivatives
Derivatives venues price contracts that track an underlying asset without holding it. Perpetual futures carry no expiry and use a funding rate to hold the contract near spot, options sell the right to buy or sell at a strike, and synthetics mint an on-chain token that follows an external price feed.
The filters separate perpetuals, options and synthetic assets. Entries are ordered by 30-day trading volume on DefiLlama, with featured listings first.
Aevo
Aevo is a decentralized derivatives exchange, focused on options. The exchange runs on a custom EVM roll-up that rolls up to Ethereum. Aevo operates an off-chain orderbook with on-chain settlements.
Aster
Aster is a next-generation decentralized perpetual exchange offering multi-chain, liquid, and secure trading. Trade perpetuals across multiple chains with deep liquidity aggregation, hidden orders, and zero price impact trades.
Hyperliquid
Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetual exchange with best-in-class speed, liquidity, and price. Trade crypto in one click, without wallet approvals.
Lighter
Lighter is a perpetual futures exchange with an order book matched off chain and proved with zero-knowledge circuits, settling to Ethereum.
ApeX Protocol
ApeX Protocol is a perpetual futures exchange with an order book and self-custody of margin, running across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and BNB Chain.
edgeX
edgeX is a perpetual futures exchange with an off-chain matching engine and on-chain settlement secured by Ethereum, offering cross-margin accounts and a public API.
Variational
Variational settles peer-to-peer derivatives in isolated smart contracts, quoting prices on request rather than through an order book, and its Omni app trades perpetuals on Arbitrum.
GRVT
GRVT is a perpetual futures exchange built as a zkSync validium, pairing a central limit order book with on-chain custody of trader funds.
Pacifica
Pacifica is a perpetual futures exchange on Solana with an off-chain order book, cross-margin accounts and a vault that market makes against traders.
StandX
StandX runs perpetual futures on BNB Chain alongside $DUSD, a yield-bearing dollar token that traders post as margin.
Extended
Extended is a perpetual futures exchange on Starknet, a zk rollup secured by Ethereum, with one margin account across crypto and tokenized traditional markets.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the Solana trading hub that routes spot swaps across on-chain liquidity and also runs perpetual futures and a lending market from the same app.
GMX
GMX is a perpetual exchange where liquidity providers back trades from a shared pool and traders pay funding and borrowing fees. It runs on Arbitrum, Avalanche and Solana.
Drift Protocol
Drift Protocol is an open-sourced, decentralized exchange built on the Solana blockchain, enabling transparent and non-custodial cryptocurrency trading.
dYdX
dYdX is a trading platform for crypto assets, built with open-source protocols, enabling decentralized margin trading. dYdX - Decentralized Platform for Advanced Financial Products, interview with Antonio Juliano
Derive
Derive is a decentralized protocol that creates unique and programmable onchain options, perpetuals, and structured products.
Paradex
Paradex is a perpetual and options exchange running on its own Starknet appchain secured by Ethereum, with a cross-margin account and an order book.
Synthetix
Synthetix platform enables creation of the on-chain synthetic assets that tracks value of assets in real world. Interview with Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix.
Hegic
Hegic is on-chain options trading protocol, allowing you to buy ETH call and put options as an individual holder (buyer) or sell ETH call and put options as a liquidity provider.