edgeX: Where Mobile Traders Meet Institutional Liquidity

The Rise of On-Chain Derivatives

Perpetual decentralized exchanges (perpDEXs) processed $7.1 trillion in trading volume over the twelve months ending November 2025, representing 371% year-over-year growth. In November 2025 alone, monthly volume reached $1.17 trillion, reflecting the sector’s rapid maturation from experimental protocols to high-throughput trading venues.

Figure 1: PerpDEX Daily Trading Volumes

The volume profile increasingly resembles a market with repeat usage, with a higher baseline that persists beyond event-driven spikes. This upward trend underscores the growing adoption of perpDEX trading and the increasing recognition of its benefits. The steep rise in volume is anticipated to continue its momentum, fueled by a growing influx of institutional capital, professional market makers, and increasing market confidence in sophisticated on-chain trading infrastructure that delivers deep liquidity and reliable execution.

To place this expansion in perspective, perpDEXs have outperformed several major DeFi categories over the last twelve months ending November 30, 2025.

Figure 2: LTM Growth by DeFi Category

Among the five major DeFi categories analyzed, perpDEX volume recorded the highest growth at 432%. This expansion outpaced even the real-world asset sector, one of DeFi’s clearest growth narratives, with total RWA value up 353% over the same period. Traditional DeFi categories lag dramatically: lending protocol TVL expanded just 30%, liquid staking TVL fell 14%, and spot DEX volume contracted 34%. The contrast suggests perpDEXs are capturing specific user demand rather than benefiting from general market tailwinds.

This interpretation is reinforced by perpDEXs’ growing capture of the total perpetual futures market. When measuring perpDEX volume across both centralized and decentralized exchanges, perpDEX market share has surged from effectively zero in early 2023 to recent peaks approaching 60% in October 2025, a fundamental shift in market structure achieved in under three years.

Figure 3: PerpDEX share of perps trading volume

Over the last twelve months of perpDEX volume expansion, centralized exchange perpetual volumes have remained relatively flat. If perpDEX growth were driven by rising market interest in derivatives broadly, CEX volumes would have expanded in parallel. Instead, the data points to perpDEXs capturing the majority of incremental volume entering the market.

While increasing volumes and market share signal adoption, revenue demonstrates whether that activity translates to durable economics. PerpDEXs monetize across the trading lifecycle, driven primarily by execution fees and liquidation-related charges, with additional revenue depending on how each venue structures leverage, margin, and collateral mechanics. This direct tie between trading activity and revenue has translated into meaningful, repeatable on-chain revenue.

Figure 4: Top Protocols by Revenue, Last 30 Days

This revenue profile matters for market structure. First, it supports deeper liquidity by enabling incentives and market-making support that can be funded increasingly by organic revenue rather than relying primarily on token emissions or raised capital. Second, it creates room for sustained investment in execution quality, from infrastructure and performance improvements to product features that reduce friction for active traders. Together, these dynamics reinforce a flywheel where better liquidity and execution attract more flow, which in turn sustains higher and more consistent revenue generation.

Highly Competitive and Fragmented Market

Strong growth and clear revenue potential have attracted a wave of new perpDEXs, making it one of the most competitive sectors in crypto. Market share has proven volatile, with leadership positions frequently shifting as protocols compete on technical performance, liquidity depth, and product innovation. Unlike spot DEX trading, where Uniswap has maintained a dominant market share for years, the perpDEX landscape remains fragmented with newer entrants successfully capturing meaningful market share from incumbents.

Figure 5: PerpDEX Volume Market Share

Market share dynamics underscore how execution quality, rather than first-mover advantage, determines leadership in perpDEXs. Early entrants like Perpetual Protocol (2020) and GMX (2021) initially dominated but lost share as new architectures improved execution. AMM-based designs are generally less capital efficient, which opened the door for orderbook venues that concentrate liquidity near the mid price and deliver tighter pricing for active flow. dYdX v4, launched as a Cosmos appchain, capitalized on this shift and took a dominant position in 2023, reaching about 77% market share in March 2023 and maintaining over 50% each month through November.. Hyperliquid further improved on this with a custom L1 optimized for trading, rising from about 17% market share in January 2024 to roughly 62% by December as dYdX steadily ceded ground. The market has since fragmented as multiple protocols compete with advanced orderbook implementations. Hyperliquid reached peak market share in May 2025 at roughly 72%, but by November 2025, the market tightened around several leaders, with Lighter at 25%, Aster around 22%, Hyperliquid about 22%, and edgeX at 14%. Overall, the pattern suggests that architectural innovation, not timing, drives market capture.

PerpDEX Landscape

Given the central role that architectural differentiation plays in perpDEX success, understanding the design space is critical. While all perpDEXs share the common goal of enabling leveraged derivatives trading, they pursue fundamentally different approaches to order matching, liquidity provision, and infrastructure. These architectural choices create distinct trade-offs in execution quality, capital efficiency, scalability, and user experience. Before examining edgeX’s specific design choices, it is useful to map the broader perpDEX landscape and understand the advantages and limitations that each approach entails.

Figure 6: PerpDEX Market Segmentation

The execution model defines the fundamental mechanism by which trades are matched and priced, establishing the structural constraints within which each protocol must operate. In orderbook systems, traders and market makers post limit orders at specific price levels, allowing liquidity to concentrate precisely where supply and demand intersect. This concentration delivers tight spreads and minimal slippage for trades executed near market prices. In AMM systems, liquidity providers deposit capital into pools that algorithmically price trades along a curve, distributing liquidity across a range rather than concentrating it at the mid-price. This distribution ensures continuous liquidity but typically results in higher slippage, particularly for larger orders. This categorization represents a simplified framework. In practice, many protocols operate outside these boundaries or combine elements in novel ways. Some orderbook-based protocols incorporate hybrid elements, using AMM liquidity as a backstop when orderbook depth proves insufficient or routing trades between both to optimize execution. These implementations vary significantly, from protocols that integrate AMM vaults directly into orderbook liquidity to those that maintain separate liquidity layers with intelligent routing between them. On the AMM side, some protocols price assets using external oracles rather than internal pool ratios, while others source liquidity from alternative structures like debt pools. The boundaries between categories are increasingly fluid as protocols iterate toward optimization.

Orderbook-based protocols now dominate perpDEX volume at over 97%, split between pure orderbook models at roughly 50% and hybrid architectures at 47%. In early 2023, AMM models dominated with 80% market share while orderbook-based protocols held less than 20%. By October 2025, AMM market share had contracted to under 3%. This shift reflects how infrastructure improvements enabled superior execution quality. Early perpDEXs relied on AMM models by necessity because orderbook execution demanded throughput and latency that many base layer blockchains could not provide. As Layer 2 solutions, application-specific chains, and custom L1s emerged, orderbook-based protocols could finally deliver the tight spreads, deep liquidity, and price discovery that professional traders require. dYdX’s Cosmos appchain, Hyperliquid’s custom L1, and edgeX’s Validium each represent infrastructure purpose-built for this performance.

Infrastructure quality continues to drive differentiation within the orderbook category itself. AMM protocols see minimal performance gains from infrastructure improvements because their pool-based models provide liquidity programmatically rather than through quoted orders that require constant updating. Orderbook protocols benefit dramatically from advances in execution speed, parallel processing, and state management. The protocols capturing market share are those that have invested most heavily in custom infrastructure optimized for trading workloads.

edgeX

edgeX operates a high-performance central limit order book for perpetual derivatives built on a StarkEx layer 2. The exchange was incubated by Amber Group, a global digital asset firm that launched edgeX’s mainnet in 2024. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Hong Kong, Amber Group manages over $3 billion in assets, works with more than 30 banks, and serves more than 2,000 institutional clients.

The edgeX team includes professionals with backgrounds at Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and Bybit, combining traditional finance expertise with years of crypto-native exchange engineering and derivatives trading experience. This blend of institutional and crypto-native talent underpins edgeX’s focus on execution quality, liquidity depth, and system performance across its markets.

Since its public debut in November 2024, edgeX has expanded rapidly, reaching approximately $438 million in total value locked and onboarding more than 154,000 users. Typical daily trading activity ranges between $4 billion and $8 billion. This growth has given edgeX a roughly 14% market share and placed it as the fourth largest venue by monthly volume, with the leading protocols all holding comparable positions. The exchange has developed strong traction in Asian markets, ranking first in Japan and second in South Korea by trading volume. The platform is accessible through both web and mobile interfaces, with native iOS and Android applications supporting the web platform. Approximately 40% of edgeX’s trading volume occurs through mobile applications.

edgeX is preparing to move from its current StarkEx-based V1 architecture to a new system expected to launch in Q1 2026. The V2 upgrade will expand the protocol beyond perpetuals to include spot markets, prediction markets and tokenized asset venues. It will also introduce EDGE Stack, a specialized execution layer created to support scalable high-frequency order book trading and to allow third-party developers to launch permissionless markets on edgeX infrastructure.

V1 Performance

edgeX has demonstrated exponential growth across all core metrics since launching in November 2024. As of November 26, 2025, the protocol holds $437.8 million in total value locked across 154,597 users, representing 1,329% growth from $28.5 million on July 1, 2025. Monthly trading volume reached an all-time high of $167.2 billion in November 2025, positioning edgeX as the fourth-largest perpDEX by volume with approximately 14% market share. This growth trajectory is driven by the protocol’s execution performance, processing over 200,000 orders per second with sub-10ms latency, and its positioning in key Asian markets where it ranks number one in Japan and number two in South Korea by trading volume.

Figure 7: edgeX TVL and Users

edgeX experienced modest early growth before accelerating sharply in mid-2025. TVL grew from approximately $5 million in April to over $500 million by November, a roughly 100x increase over seven months. Cumulative users expanded from around 20,000 to over 150,000 over the same period. Growth accelerated notably from September through November as the broader perpDEX sector reached record volumes. TVL primarily reflects trader deposits, with additional capital flowing into the eLP vault, which offers passive exposure to market-making returns.

Figure 8: edgeX Revenue

edgeX uses a tiered maker/taker fee schedule based on rolling 30-day trading volume. At the standard tier, fees are 0.012% for makers and 0.038% for takers. November 2025 marked a revenue peak at $45.0 million from $167.2 billion in trading volume. Q4 revenue of $106.9 million nearly doubled the prior quarter’s $56.3 million. As of December 18 2025, the protocol ranked 4th in 30-day revenue among all protocols tracked by DefiLlama at $34.0 million, placing edgeX among the top revenue-generating applications in decentralized finance.

Figure 9: Orderbook Depth Comparison

edgeX differentiates through superior orderbook liquidity depth, a critical factor determining execution quality for both retail and institutional traders. Artemis data from November 7, 2025, shows edgeX maintaining an average BTC orderbook depth of 126 BTC within 1 basis point of mid-price, 212 BTC at 2 basis points, and 300 BTC at 3 basis points. By comparison, Hyperliquid, the recent market leader by volume, averages 44 BTC, 79 BTC, and 125 BTC at equivalent price bands. This depth concentration reduces slippage on larger orders and improves execution certainty during volatile market conditions. The liquidity advantage stems from the eLP vault’s passive market-making activity, combined with active institutional market makers contributing to the orderbook.

Future Outlook & Roadmap

edgeX’s roadmap centers on the transition from application-specific Validium to multi-product trading infrastructure through its V2 release, estimated for Q1 2026. V2 represents a fundamental architectural evolution built on EDGE Stack, a custom execution layer engineered for high-performance orderbook trading. As shown in Figure 10, EDGE Stack consists of three core architectural innovations:

Modular Multi-VM Design: The system employs edgeVM for perpetual execution and edgeEVM for standard DeFi functionality, allowing each VM to optimize for its specific workload while maintaining unified state management. This separation enables independent scaling and feature development across product categories.
Parallel Transaction Execution: EDGE Stack’s deterministic parallel transaction execution engine processes non-conflicting transactions concurrently through market sharding, allowing individual orderbooks to scale independently as activity increases. The access-list analysis system identifies transaction dependencies and routes non-conflicting operations to parallel execution paths, maximizing throughput without sacrificing determinism.
FlashLane Quality of Service: FlashLane routes latency-sensitive operations, such as order placement and cancellation, to a fast lane while directing non-urgent transactions, such as withdrawals, through a separate slow lane. This dual-lane architecture prevents low-priority operations from degrading matching engine performance during high-activity periods.

All execution converges to a single state root commitment that settles to the base layer, maintaining Ethereum-level security guarantees while achieving orderbook-specific performance requirements.

Figure 10: EDGE Stack Architecture

V2 broadens edgeX’s product surface substantially beyond its current derivatives focus while maintaining consistent execution and risk controls across all offerings. The roadmap includes several major product launches scheduled for Q1 2026:

Spot Trading (Live): Enables direct hedging capabilities and completes the exchange’s core trading infrastructure, allowing users to hold and trade underlying assets alongside derivative positions within a unified interface.
U.S. Stock Perpetuals (Jan 19-25): These contracts introduce leveraged exposure to listed equities using aggregated oracle prices from independent providers with corporate action adjustments reflected in settlement calculations.
Polymarket Integration (Early Feb): Native integration surfaces event markets directly within the edgeX trading interface, enabling users to access prediction markets alongside traditional derivatives through unified order entry, margining, settlement, and dispute resolution enforced on-chain.
Third-Party Market Creation (Live): The protocol now supports external developers launching new markets under parameterized risk limits and oracle requirements through a designated venue framework, expanding market coverage beyond edgeX’s core offerings.
Real-World Asset Markets (Jan 19-25): Planned expansion into tokenized securities and other RWA instruments extends the protocol’s addressable market beyond crypto-native instruments.

Beyond serving end users directly, edgeX positions itself as liquidity infrastructure for third-party applications through its B2B API initiative, transforming the protocol into a distribution layer for derivatives and adjacent products. Whitelisted partners can gain access to edgeX’s orderbook liquidity, matching engine, oracle infrastructure, and bridging services, enabling front-end applications, aggregators, and specialized trading interfaces to leverage edgeX’s execution layer without building duplicative infrastructure. Fee-sharing arrangements with ecosystem partners align incentives while expanding edgeX’s reach beyond its proprietary interfaces. This distribution layer strategy positions edgeX as the backend execution infrastructure rather than solely a consumer-facing exchange.

edgeX can similarly integrate third-party products into its own interface, expanding its product suite through partnerships. The Polymarket partnership exemplifies this strategy by bringing prediction markets to edgeX’s mobile application, where the protocol’s existing user base and mobile-first design provide distribution advantages for event markets. Mobile trading represents 40% of edgeX’s current volume, demonstrating significant mobile user adoption that benefits integrated products.

Token Launch and Incentive Transition

As edgeX transitions from application-specific Validium to the EDGE Chain, the protocol has entered open beta ahead of its token generation event. The EDGE token will launch with a total supply of 1 billion tokens, allocated across five categories: 35% to Ecosystem & Community (locked), 25% to Core Contributors (locked), 25% to Genesis Distribution via airdrop, 10% to Foundation (locked), and up to 5% to the Pre-TGE Season airdrop.

The Pre-TGE Season, launched on January 8, 2025, replaces the completed Open Season program and is designed to reward organic platform usage through XP, the campaign’s incentive unit. XP accumulates weekly until the TGE, which is expected on or before March 31, 2026. The total EDGE allocation to XP holders scales with TGE timing: 2% if TGE occurs by February 3, 3.5% if by March 3, and the full 5% if by March 31.

Weekly XP distribution weights activity across four categories: trading volume accounts for 60% of the allocation, with spot trading earning a 3x multiplier over perpetuals; perpetual trading losses receive 10%, compensating traders for realized drawdowns; vault and TVL contributions receive 10%; and referral rewards account for the remaining 20%. Users can stack additional XP multipliers through mobile trading (1.2x), holding $MARU tokens (1.05x – 1.15x), or achieving Messenger status within the community program (1.05x – 1.1x).

The perpDEX sector is consolidating around platforms that combine superior execution infrastructure with comprehensive product suites. edgeX’s V2 transition positions the protocol to compete on both dimensions: The EDGE chain delivers orderbook performance at scale, while the product roadmap extends beyond perpetuals into spot, prediction markets, and real-world assets.

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