Assessing EVM Potential for Sustainable Contract DEX in 2026: An In-Depth Review of 23 Unreleased Token Projects After Lighter

As Lighter completes TGE by the end of 2025, the market focus in the perpetual contract DEX sector is shifting. When evaluating the next wave of token projects, the EVM assessment framework becomes especially important — not only to look at trading volume performance but also to understand how these projects find differentiation advantages within multi-chain ecosystems. This article analyzes 23 top-ranked Perp DEXs across three dimensions: trading volume, funding background, and technical selection.

From Trading Volume to High-Performance Perpetual DEX Technical Trade-offs

Based on recent data from DefiLlama, the projects listed below have generated genuine trading volume and user engagement in the past 30 days. However, during the EVM evaluation process, we found these platforms employ vastly different chain deployment strategies.

Non-EVM Dedicated High-Performance Chains

EdgeX ranks 4th on the list, with a 30-day trading volume of $91.005 billion. Built on StarkEx (a ZK-rollup technology for Ethereum L2), it offers ultra-low latency execution and deep liquidity. Unlike traditional EVM chains, it specializes in professional-grade order book trading, achieving throughput of up to 200,000 TPS — a key metric in EVM evaluation. EdgeX was incubated by Amber Group, with clear funding background, and its technical choices reflect a focus on minimizing latency.

GRVT ranks 6th, with a 30-day trading volume of $35.683 billion. Built on ZKsync Validium L2, it has raised $35 million (from QCP Singapore, ABCDE Capital, Further Ventures, etc.). Its innovation lies in pioneering a “hybrid exchange” model, combining CEX-level user experience with fully self-custodied and zero-knowledge privacy tech. From an EVM perspective, although ZKsync is EVM-compatible, GRVT leverages Validium architecture to achieve a unique privacy-performance balance.

Paradex ranks 7th, with a 30-day trading volume of $30.249 billion. Built on Starknet as an efficient application chain, this project incubated by Paradigm adopts a non-EVM route, focusing on a unified DeFi ecosystem with atomic settlement and institutional-grade privacy. Its trading experience is optimized for mobile, supporting hundreds of markets including crypto and pre-market trading.

Extended ranks 8th, with a 30-day trading volume of $29.309 billion. Also based on Starknet’s Starkex, it has raised $6.5 million (StarkWare, Semantic Ventures, Cherry Crypto). Founded by former Revolut executives, CEO Ruslan Fakhrutdinov (former Revolut crypto lead), it migrated to Starknet in 2025 to achieve full composability. It offers over 50 markets, up to 100x leverage, and seamless connection to EVM wallets without cross-chain bridges — a critical feature for evaluating cross-chain experience.

Emerging Competitors in the Solana Ecosystem

Pacifica ranks 9th, with a 30-day trading volume of $17.783 billion. As a native Solana hybrid perpetual futures DEX, equipped with AI-assisted tools, it uses off-chain order matching for speed and on-chain settlement for security and transparency. The team has backgrounds at Binance, FTX, Jane Street, Fidelity, and OpenAI. Notably, its funding is self-raised, with no native tokens incentivizing, indicating confidence in its self-sustainability.

Professional Liquidity Infrastructure

Reya ranks 10th, with a 30-day trading volume of $14.615 billion. Built on Reya Chain (an Ethereum rollup optimized for trading), it has raised $19 million (Coinbase Ventures, Stani Kulechow, Framework Ventures). Founded by DeFi veterans behind Voltz Protocol, Reya specializes in capital-efficient margin mechanisms (improving trader efficiency by up to 3.5x), cross-collateralization with yield assets, and institutional-grade performance secured by Ethereum validators. Its technical advantages include millisecond execution, gasless trading, deep shared liquidity via passive pools, and an MEV-resistant FIFO matching mechanism.

Trade.xyz ranks 11th, with a 30-day trading volume of $11.684 billion. Deployed on Hyperliquid L1, built by Hyperunit team, it provides 24/7 liquidity for traditional stock perpetual contracts, with ultra-low costs, and allows permissionless market deployment within the Hyperliquid ecosystem. It is self-funded and focuses on US stocks and indices, enabling round-the-clock trading of non-crypto assets.

Nado ranks 12th, with a 30-day trading volume of $10.341 billion. Built on Ink (Kraken’s Ethereum L2), it offers a high-performance centralized limit order book (CLOB) DEX. Developed by core contributors from Kraken, it provides unified full-margin trading for spot, margin, and perpetual futures. Its CEX-like 5-15 ms latency and fully self-custodied features demonstrate the potential of Ethereum L2 for high-performance trading.

Arbitrum Ecosystem: A Key Arena for Decentralized Derivatives

Mainstream Project Camp

Variational ranks 17th, with a 30-day trading volume of $9.65 billion. Raised $13 million (Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly, Sequoia Capital, etc.), it is a peer-to-peer derivatives trading protocol on Arbitrum supporting applications like Omni, with hundreds of markets, zero trading fees, and liquidity aggregation via RFQ (Request for Quote). Founded by former Genesis Trading executives with deep market-making expertise, its innovation lies in customizable derivatives (including exotic options and options) with bilateral settlement, rapid asset listing, and direct revenue redistribution to users and liquidity providers.

Ostium ranks 34th, with a 30-day trading volume of $2.377 billion. Raised $24 million (General Catalyst, Jump Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, etc.), it specializes in synthetic exposure trading for real-world assets (commodities like gold, oil, forex, stocks, indices) and crypto, using RFQ to achieve narrow spreads and deep liquidity. Founded by Harvard alumni, it aims to disrupt traditional CFD brokers by providing transparent, self-custodied, on-chain alternatives.

Vest ranks 39th, with a 30-day trading volume of $1.286 billion. Raised $5 million (Jane Street, Amber Group, Big Brain Holdings, etc.), it features zkRisk engine for real-time risk pricing, unlimited positions, rapid asset onboarding (including tail and real-world assets). Its strength lies in fair, manipulation-resistant pricing and no position limits, enabling access to thousands of markets.

Hibachi ranks 64th, with a 30-day trading volume of $204.34 million. Raised $5 million (Dragonfly, Electric Capital, echo), it is a privacy-first decentralized perpetual contract exchange with off-chain CLOB for sub-10ms latency, zk-encrypted positions and balances via Celestia DA, and fully on-chain settlement with proof of solvency. Founded by elites from Citadel, Tower Research, IMC, Meta, Google, and Hashflow.

Mid-Scale Projects

Based ranks 29th, with a 30-day trading volume of $3.491 billion. Built on Hyperliquid L1, it is a professional-grade trading frontend that has quickly become a dominant application on Hyperliquid, creating revenue for traders and liquidity providers, capturing a large market share.

Bullpen ranks 71st, with a 30-day trading volume of $162 million. An on-chain trading terminal providing seamless access to Hyperliquid L1 perpetual futures, spot trading, Solana spot markets (including Meme coins), and prediction markets via Polymarket. Co-founded by KOL Ansem.

Liquid ranks 72nd, with a 30-day trading volume of $156.55 million. Raised $7.6 million (Paradigm, General Catalyst, Alpen Capital, etc.), it is a non-custodial perpetual contract aggregator integrating top venues like Hyperliquid, Lighter, and Ostium into a mobile-first app, simplifying fragmented perpetual trading. Founded by former Two Sigma AI lead Franklyn Wang.

Emerging Projects

Cascade is in early access with deposits live (invite-only), raised $15 million (Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Variant Fund, etc.), emphasizing deep liquidity, narrow spreads, and institutional-grade execution for crypto and broader assets. Before full trading launch, it is building momentum through liquidity strategies and reward points.

Differentiation in New Public Chains: Sui and Emerging Blockchains

Astros ranks 58th, with a 30-day trading volume of $170.35 million. As a native Sui perpetual futures DEX, it directly integrates NAVI Protocol (Sui’s leading liquidity protocol) lending pools, offering high-leverage trading with deep liquidity. Founded by Jerry Liu, leveraging Sui’s high performance, it aims to create a self-sustaining trading-lending ecosystem without token incentives, positioning Sui as a top derivatives hub.

StandX is self-funded, operating on Solana and BNB Chain. It is a decentralized perpetual futures DEX using DUSD (a native interest-bearing stablecoin) as its exclusive collateral. Founded by experienced teams including former Binance contract leads and Goldman Sachs engineers.

Beyond DEX: Hybrid Trading Platforms

Backpack Exchange, technically a regulated centralized crypto exchange (CEX), has raised $37 million (Placeholder, FTX Ventures, Wintermute, etc.) and sees $32 billion in 30-day perpetual futures volume. Founded by Armani Ferrante (Mad Lads, the team behind xNFTs and Coral), it stands out as a hybrid wallet-exchange platform with strong Solana roots. Through acquisition of FTX EU, it gained EU regulation, and its high perpetual volume rivals major CEXs.

Public Testnet Projects: The 2026 Growth Vanguard

Aptos Ecosystem Full-Chain Integration

Decibel is a fully on-chain trading engine built on Aptos, unifying spot, perpetuals, and yield strategies within a single full-margin, multi-collateral interface. It offers CEX-like speed and sub-second finality, directly supported by Aptos Labs, designed as a neutral, composable execution layer for global on-chain markets.

Participation: Visit app.decibel.trade, connect Aptos wallet, mint test USDC, and trade (perpetuals, spot, vault) to earn XP and rankings based on volume; join trading competitions; join the deposit waitlist at decibel.trade.

High-Performance Vision for Ethereum L2

RiseX is the flagship integrated perpetual DEX on Rise Chain (a high-performance Ethereum L2), featuring on-chain order book, shared liquidity via MarketCore, CEX-level execution, and programmable markets for spot and perpetuals. Supported by Rise Chain’s ultra-low latency infrastructure (integrating acquired BSX Labs tech), it aims to be the home of global on-chain markets.

Participation: Visit testnet.rise.trade, connect EVM wallet, claim test USDC, and trade daily to earn points. Mainnet launch planned for early 2026.

Private & Invitation-Only Projects: Opportunities for Institutional Participants

Dedicated Chain Infrastructure

01.xyz is currently in private testnet (invite-only). Powered by N1 Blockchain (using high-performance NordVM engine), it offers a decentralized perpetual futures exchange with CEX-level speed, low latency, and feature-rich order book, while maintaining full on-chain transparency and self-hosting. Built by experienced traders focused on precision and advantage, it aims to be the next-generation venue for unlimited-scale perpetual contracts on dedicated Layer 1 infrastructure.

Participation: Invite-only, no public code yet. To get access, follow and reply to @01Exchange posts, interact with community members sharing codes, or message activity users. Once in, participate in high-volume trading, refer friends, join events, and climb leaderboards.

Institutional Liquidity Deployment

Cascade (early access, deposits live by invitation only, trading not yet live) has raised $15 million (Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Variant Fund, etc.), emphasizing deep liquidity, narrow spreads, and institutional-grade execution for crypto and broader assets.

Participation: Strictly by invitation only, requiring access codes for deposits and pre-allocations. Codes are limited and randomly distributed to waitlist users or via community. After obtaining codes, deposit and pre-allocate to CLS (recent cap around $1-3 million total, $10,000 per account) to earn points.

Investment Logic Under the EVM Evaluation Framework

From the review of these 23 projects, three core insights emerge:

First, the positive correlation between technical choice and trading volume. Projects employing dedicated L2s or application chains (like StarkEx, Starknet, Hyperliquid) tend to achieve higher trading volumes, driven by breakthroughs in EVM compatibility — bypassing Ethereum mainnet congestion and providing ultra-low latency environments.

Second, funding background reflects market confidence. Participation by top-tier institutions like Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital indicates long-term optimism for the perpetual DEX track. Funding scale and project funding efficiency are key indicators for TGE success.

Third, self-sustainability becomes the new standard. Projects like Pacifica, Trade.xyz, StandX, with self-raised or partially self-funded models, and designs without native token incentives, show that next-generation perpetual DEXs are moving away from traditional token reliance toward sustainable fee structures and user value cycles.

In 2026, the investment logic for perpetual contract DEXs under the EVM assessment framework not only helps us filter projects ranked highly in trading volume and funding background but also understand how these projects leverage technology choices, ecosystem deployment, and funding strategies to address core challenges in the DEX sector. For participants aiming to seize the next wave after Lighter TGE, this review provides a clear basis for evaluation.

Sources: DefiLlama (recent data), SoSoValue, CryptoRank. Information organized and synthesized.

(Content adapted from PANews and Deep潮TechFlow collaborations)