The perpetual DEXs trend is shifting to Solana, with Pacifica emerging as an up-and-coming market. The DEX, launched by former FTX executives, is now growing its trading volumes.
On Solana, perpetual DEXs activity mostly relied on the Jupiter and Drift protocols. However, a new star is emerging, one that may be linked to the bankrupt FTX centralized exchange.
Pacifica has been making the rounds on social media a few months after launching. The perpetual futures DEX uses the Solana stack, and has been gaining on the general hype around Hyperliquid and Aster.
But what pushed Pacifica to the forefront was a recent post from Sam Bankman-Fried’s X account. As Cryptopolitan reported earlier, the SBF account posted a short message, sending the FTT token on another rally. The reawakened profile also pointed attention to former FTX and Alameda Research alumni, who walked free and are now at the helm of their own projects.
Solana DEX gain support from former FTX, Alameda hires
Just days before Pacifica gained attention, Armani Ferrente, an early Alameda Research hire, defended on-chain perpetual DEXs for being safer than the FTX centralized model. Ferrente is already promoting his own Backpack exchange, achieving over $10B in weekly volumes.
On-chain and transparent trading is seen as a clear defense against the non-transparent asset movements between FTX and Alameda Research.
However, there is still an ongoing discussion if a DEX can have some control of user funds for the sake of trading.
At this stage, Pacifica also emerged as a safer version, offering an advanced trading venue without the risk of FTX. The bankruptcy has not stopped influencers from taking up Pacifica and even promoting it for its connection to FTX.
Pacifica boasts of connection to FTX
The Pacifica perpetual futures DEX is still a relatively small newcomer to the recent perp DEX hype. The exchange only accrued $16.6M in value locked in the first 10 days of activity.
Influencers are already on the task, with some of them focusing on the link to FTX. Pacifica has been launched by Constance Wang, former COO at FTX until November 2022.
The Pacifica perp DEX claims to have gathered 10K users, with another 6K flowing in for the past week.
1/ gm
As of now, Pacifica has now reached:
$8,000,000,000+ Total Volume 💹💹
(up 50% since last week)10,000+ Active Users 🐳🐳🐳
(+6,000 since last week)600m+ 24h volume 📈https://t.co/wt4vESPDDchttps://t.co/4RDJnAbkJF
We don’t stop. 💪
— Pacifica (@pacifica_fi) September 26, 2025
The DEX reports over $34M in open interest, and posts daily records in deposits and new users. For now, the market has around 4,120 daily active users, a far cry from the success of FTX or even smaller perpetual DEXs.
Some of the influencers are leaning into the rumor that Pacifica will also gain input from Google talent and other former FTX employees, including input from Bankman-Fried.
In the short term, Pacifica is attractive for its early-stage point farming season. The DEX arrived relatively late, and is currently in Season 1, while other markets are already well into their second stage. The opportunity for airdrops is driving traffic to all markets, and all new perp DEXs are yet to prove the current hype is sustainable.
