Key takeaways
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A new wave of Dex Wars has moved from token incentives to focus on speed, action and sustainable infrastructure.
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Hyperliquid continues to lead the market with over $ 300 billion in monthly volume, strong liquidity and increased institutional adoption.
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Aster growth is strengthened by airdrops, credentials supported by Binance and action that attracts professional entrepreneurs.
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The lighter gets momentum by the speed of the Ethereum layer-2, zero-fee trading model and exclusive farming system based on points.
Platforms such as sushiswap, pancakeswap and curve leveraged harvesting of farming and incentives in the token of management to attract liquidity. This method has passed a rapid capital formation, carrying billions of billions of onchain dollars for a short time.
Those early battles are about who can attract Total amount locked (TVL) and merchants through token incentives-not about the speed, action or grade-institutional infrastructure. The dust eventually repaired Uniswap leads. The Playbook it has established, including liquidity mining, airdrops and tokenized participation, has become the foundation for the more sophisticated Decentralized exchange (Dex) The wars today reveal to the ongoing.
Inside Dex Liquidity Wars
Hyperliquid, a DEX built on its own high -performance blockchain infrastructure, saw a major growth in 2025. The exchange Holding more than $ 300 billion In the amount of trade around the mid-2025, with daily activity that occasionally approaches $ 17 billion. Deep liquidity and its rapid implementation have helped gain strong traction among active and professional traders.
One of the main drivers behind the strong hyperliquid growth is its ability to boost the user’s liquidity and activity through a program -based program -based program. The effort eventually led to a large airdrop.
In total, 27.5% of token supply is distributed in 94,000 addressesreward early and active participants. It started as a way to get more people in trading since becoming one of the most important token distribution in recent crypto history. Airdrop now costs about $ 7 billion- $ 8 billion.
Rivals are, however, quickly getting.
Aster is a fast -growing DEX built on the BNB Smart Chain which is positioned itself as one of the major Hyperliquid competitors. In a few days, reported trading volumes have times forward to ten -billion dollars, sometimes exceeding hyperliquid numbers. The project connection to Changpeng “CZ” ZhaoBinance’s co-founder, also gained significant attention from the market.
Meanwhile, lighter, a new exchange built on an Ethereum Rollup, reported a sunny trading volume of over $ 8 billion.
Together, these challenging turns turns on what used to clearly lead to hyperliquid in a three-way fight for market sharing.
According to Calder White, Vigil Labs’s chief technology officer – a Silicon Valley start that has recently raised $ 5.7 million to apply AI to understand and exchange cryptocurrency markets – apparent progress has different different underlined platforms.
“Our system shows that aster growth is very much driven, with entrepreneurs recycling capital to increase volumes, while Hyperliquid continues to bring the most organic flow from serious participants. Both aster and lighter relies on both points-to-aircrop playbook to bootstrap In sharing the market, “White said.
Aster’s high-stakes play for Dex’s dominance
Aster’s momentum originated in its close ties with the CZ, which is now advising the project. His involvement led many online to refer to Aster as “Binance’s Dex.” The exchange has introduced tokenized stocks, allowing users to trade major onchain assets with up to 1,000x action. This is it too Plans To launch one’s own layer-1 blockchain.
The combination has become aster to one of the most daring experiments in the DEX design to the present.
Fuel Rise is the massive Airdrop program of Aster, which reward users for developing trading activity. Season two distributed by 320 million aster tokens It costs nearly $ 600 million and ended on October 5, 2025.
The incentive model is translated into strong activity. Aster has recently developed more than $ 20 million in 24 -hour fees, putting it on top income earnings in Decentralized Finance (DEFI). There is also a growing speculation that the team can use part of the revenues for tokens buyback. In fact, that move can boost the value of the Aster token and help maintain the entrepreneur’s interest beyond the Airdrop period.
Some participants have stood to earn significant rewards, from thousands of dollars to potential seven payout figures for the most active entrepreneurs. The size of these incentives has pushed strong volume across the platform, though it remains to be seen if users will continue to trade once the rewards taper off.
Airdrops and exclusively drive lighter will rise
Lighter quickly established itself as one of the more technically ambitious stacks at Defi. Constructed in a custom Ethereum Layer-2 with zero-knowledge circuits, it supports sub-five-milisecond matching latency. The goal is to approach the speed of centralized exchange (CEX). The platform offers zero trading fees for retail users, while API and institutional flow faces premium charges.
The lighter pushed the rapid growth through the lighter program of the Liquidity Pool (LLP), which became one of the attractive -looking opportunities for the defi yield. The pool currently offers nearly 60% annual percentage (APY) to over $ 400 million in deposits. Access to the LLP is linked to the balance of a user’s points, providing higher allocation limitations to the more active traders.
The zero-fee model of the lighter and the points system has poured out the growing speculation to entrepreneurs. Ever since it launched, the exchange has recorded large quantities of trade, sometimes competing with Hyperliquid. Much of the riots today are centered on the expectations of an upcoming token launch, which is widely heard that will take place later this year.
While there is still no token, there is already a exciting over-the-counter market for lighter points, with points sold for tens of dollars each. Prices went up from $ 39 to over $ 60, with a businessman reported to spend $ 1 million at $ 41 each.
One of the easiest ways to appreciate an eternal Dex is by examining open interest (OI), which represents the total amount of all trade that is still open to the platform. The higher the OI, the more real money is sitting in positions. In Hyperliquid, for example, $ 13.2 billion in OI supports a switch -switch market capitalization of nearly $ 15.2 billion.
The lighter currently holds about $ 2.1 billion in OI. Rating approximately 15% -20% of tokens were locked at the time of its token launch, this would indicate a circulating market cover of nearly $ 1 billion- $ 1.1 billion and a fully melted appreciation (FDV) near $ 5 billion- $ 5.5 billion. With nearly 12 million points tied to that initial float, each point costs about $ 83 to $ 100.
The community should be allocated 15% -20% of the supply, which will be translated into an airdrop worth $ 750 million- $ 1.1 billion for users-photential one of the most significant token distribution in the DeFI since the downfall of hyperliquid.
Institutional liquidity enters chat
A growing subplot in this battle is the gradual but noticeable entry of institutional liquidity. Funds that sometimes avoid Onchain derivatives, citing slippage, latency or compliance with concerns, now provide capital capital on these platforms.
Speed -focused speed, transparent hyperliquid design attracts growing interest from professional entrepreneurs, while Binance -related narrative Aster has drawn significant attention to Asian trading communities.
Lighter, along with the sub-five-millisecond implementation speed and onchain settlement model, draws interest from prop-trading firms looking for harvest without risk. The next stage of Dex Wars may be less than airdrops and more which platforms can offer the most reliable metals for serious capital.
Infrastructure Compared to the narrative: Who wins in the long run?
While the competition between lighter, aster and hyperliquid maintains heat, hyperliquid still sets a benchmark on onchain derivatives, supported by incompatible open interest, strong quality of implementation and growing institutional traction.
Instead of slowing down, the replace USDH Stablecoin launched And moves fast to list perpetuals for rival tokens such as aster to capture the flows driven by the narrative.
Hyperliquid also maintained the community engaged by new reward mechanics. The Hypurr Non-Fungible Token (NFT) CollectionLaunched in Sep. The powerful demand of the collection has issued speculation about future rewards and potential updates to the points program.
According to White, this split in emerging Dex shows how far incentives can move markets compared to how much infrastructure can stabilize.
“Hyperliquid is a bet on implementation and liquidity, while aster and lighter show how far the incentives can stretch the market,” he said.
“The real test is if the merchants remain once the airdrop music fades.”
