The trading volume of the perpetual market on Decentralized Exchange (DEX), measured over 17 different venues including Lighter [LIT], Hyperliquid [HYPE]Aster [ASTER]The. has dropped to 355.78 billion dollars for the month July.
The volume of the previous peak, which was $1.19 trillion (October 2025), has been steadily declining since. The volume of transactions increased gradually from April to June, indicating renewed investor interest.
As of July, however, monthly volumes have dropped to their lowest levels since April 20,25, when trading volumes reached $311.41 trillion.
More insights reveal that the shift is a result of a change in trading behavior, since more trades are taking place at centralized permanent markets (CEX) compared to those on decentralized markets.
As of this writing, the DEX to CEX futures has fallen sharply from 21.6% in November 2025.
The traditional traders are still active on the perpetual market
As their capital continues to grow, traditional traders remain active on the market.
The 30th July marked a record high for Open Interest, as measured by HIP-3. This arm allows commodities and equities to be traded on a 24 hour basis.
The growth in OI has continued throughout the entire year. This means that there are more traders investing more money in the permanent market. OI was $3.59bn at the time of publication.
As of the 31st of July the trading volume of HIP-3 had dropped from $9.19 billion to $6.99 billion.
In fact, the majority of the trade could be tied to activity linked to the equities market, with $741.04 million on the S&P 500.
U.S. Investors sell ETFs
There has been an enormous decline in the number of cryptos held by U.S. Investors.
On April 1, the total flows of exchange-traded (ETFs), including ETFs, saw a huge outflow. Bitcoin On Friday, sales totaled approximately $265 million. Although net weekly flow recorded a lower outflow of only $61.53 for the weeks ending 31st July, inflows earlier during the week had absorbed much Friday’s sales.
The crypto market is slowing, and activity has dropped significantly across the board.
CoinMarketCap states that the centralized exchanges are responsible for 96.03% percent of derivatives trading on the global market. The perpetual trading volume fell from $1.65 trillion to 356.5 billion in the reporting period.
Final summary
- The vast majority of derivatives trading is now handled by centralized exchanges.
- The fact that traders are investing more in the equity and commodity markets around-the-clock is a clear sign of a steady demand despite the current slowdown.
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Source: ambcrypto.com
