Is Perp DEX "dying" or is it just seasonal? 🤔 In Q4/2025, Perp DEX Volume decreased sharply. @HyperliquidX from $308 billion (October) down to $169 billion (December), a 45% decrease; protocol fees also decreased by 41%, from $117 million to $69 million. @Lighter_xyz Similarly: Volume dropped from $272 billion to $200 billion. The total weekly perp Volume of DEXs across the entire market plummeted from a peak of $683 billion to a Dip of just $317 billion in December. 🙄 At first glance, it's easy to think it's due to competition or "the incentive has run out, so the Volume has decreased." But looking at CEX, you'll understand immediately. The combined perp Volume on Binance Futures, Bybit, and OKX fell from its weekly peak of $1.4 trillion to $469 billion – a decrease of -68%, even more significant than the -54% decrease in DEX perp during the same period. December is a market-wide contraction: institutions close their books for the year, retailers take holidays, and market makers withdraw liquidation. This is a familiar seasonal effect for crypto in Q4, not a problem unique to DEXs. History shows that long-standing CEX futures also fluctuate by 25-45% in 6 months, and December almost always underperforms. A decline of ~30% per month at the end of 2025 is entirely within historical pattern, similar to 2022-2023 and early 2024. Essentially, the trading platform is a cyclical business model, dependent on Volume and risk-on appetite. Significant revenue fluctuations are normal. 🌟 Looking ahead to 2026, Perp DEX has more direction: deposit funds will be used to generate interest, earning money from loaned Capital for leveraged trading, and interest rate arbitrage products - thus the exchange will have more consistent revenue, no longer entirely dependent on trading Volume . At the same time, RWAs and Tokenize stocks opened up new sources of Volume with a different "season" than crypto perps. 👉 Perp DEX isn't dead. It's just that the winter season is back on schedule ❄️ (Source: @shaundadevens - Analyst at Blockworks Research)