The Truth Behind Crypto's Perps Sector: CoinGecko Report

CoinGecko's State of Crypto Perpetuals Report 2026 shows perpetual decentralized exchanges (DEXes) are pulling real volume away from their centralized rivals, but centralized exchanges (CEXes) still process roughly 90% of the market.

The report, published on May 21, covers January 2025 through April 2026 and captures a sector in transition. Perp DEXes, once a niche corner of on-chain trading, now sit at around 10% of total perpetual futures volume, with open interest share climbing from about 3.6% at the start of 2025 to 13.5% by the end of the period.

DEX volumes climb while CEX activity cools

The top 12 perp DEXes averaged $611.57B in monthly volume during 2026, up from $531.65B in 2025. January 2026 opened strong at $751.59B, then eased to $481.84B by April. Even with that pullback, monthly figures remained well above 2025 levels, where the same period registered under $300B.

Hyperliquid (@HyperliquidX) led the on-chain side, with $190.28B in volume in April 2026, accounting for roughly 3.9% of all perp volume across exchanges. That placed it at #9 overall, just behind BingX at $196.81B and well ahead of CEXes like KuCoin at $83.71B. Within the perp DEX category, Hyperliquid held a 39.5% share in April.

Aster (@Aster_DEX) ranked second on the DEX side with 12% of top-12 volume in April. It is a notable comedown from its peak of roughly 24% in November 2025, a period when Hyperliquid's share briefly dipped to 23% before recovering. The shift between the two has shaped much of the DEX leaderboard over the last six months.

The CEX picture looked different. The top 11 perp CEXes averaged $4.69T in monthly volume in early 2026, a 34% drop from $7.11T in 2025. Binance and OKX consolidated their positions with 33% and 15% market share respectively. BingX climbed to roughly 5% and a #7 ranking. Bitget fell 61.2% over the same period, with average monthly volume dropping from $740.62B to $287.08B.

The DEX-to-CEX volume ratio peaked at 13% in November 2025 before dipping back to 10% by April 2026. CEXes still dominate, but the gap has narrowed noticeably from where it stood a year earlier.

Why are CEXes listing so many new perps?

Listing strategy emerged as one of the clearer trends in the report. MEXC and BingX added 879 and 565 new perpetual contracts between January 2025 and April 2026, averaging 55 and 35 new contracts per month. Their approach skewed toward longer-tail crypto assets.

Larger venues are more selective but still active. Binance added 305 new perpetual markets against 125 new spot listings over the same 16-month window, focused mostly on memecoins and AI-related tokens. The pattern suggests centralized venues are using contract listings to compete for traders who might otherwise migrate to on-chain platforms where new token exposure is often available faster.

CoinGecko also notes that demand for leverage on smaller assets is limited and serves a niche risk appetite. Of 7,803 new tokens listed on CoinGecko since January 2025, the top 11 CEXes added perpetual contracts for only 1,030 of them.

What happened to open interest?

Total crypto open interest tells a more cautious story. OI peaked at $210.02B on October 7, 2025, just before what the report refers to as the "10.10 liquidation event." By the end of April 2026, that figure sat at $99.09B, still more than 50% below the peak.

Leverage has not returned to pre-event levels. The slow recovery suggests traders and market makers are running with thinner positions and that some of the speculative excess from late 2025 has yet to come back. For a sector that often runs hot on leverage, the discipline is notable.

DEX share of OI moved in the other direction. On-chain venues held about 13.5% of total OI by April, up from roughly 3.6% at the start of 2025. CEXes dropped from 96.4% to 86.5% over the same window.

Who are the new DEX players?

Beyond Hyperliquid and Aster, the report flags three names that gained traction in 2026: Pacifica, Extended, and Variational. As of April, the three held market shares of 4%, 4%, and 3% respectively. They have already overtaken Jupiter and dYdX.

All three run points programs that reward early users and often signal a potential future airdrop, making such programs a standard tool for new perp DEXes to bootstrap liquidity and trader attention. Whether the volume sticks once points dry up is a separate question, and one @coingecko's data does not yet answer.

Where do RWAs fit in?

The report links part of the on-chain perpetual growth to the expansion of Real World Assets (RWAs). Traders are using DEXes to take leveraged positions in tokenized exposure to traditional-finance assets without leaving the crypto ecosystem. CEXes have started responding with their own RWA perp listings.

What the data actually shows

The shift to on-chain perpetual trading is real and measurable. DEX volumes are higher in absolute terms, OI share has more than tripled, and venues like Hyperliquid are competing directly with mid-tier CEXes rather than sitting in a separate category.

But CEXes still control around 86.5% of open interest and roughly 90% of volume. The October 2025 liquidation continues to shape position sizing across the sector. And the most aggressive contract listings, the bulk of new tail-asset exposure, is still coming from centralized venues racing to keep traders on their platforms.

Sources:

• CoinGecko: State of Crypto Perpetuals Report 2026, published May 21, 2026. Primary source for all volume, open interest, market share, and listing figures.