If I ran a perp dex...
The approach needs to be drastically different from the rest
I recently met my friend from Drift and asked him what their focuses are for next year. He said they’re aiming to further tighten their existing mechanisms to provide better and faster trades. And on top of that, they’re rolling out a mobile app on iOS and Android.
He also mentioned a lot of the useless gunk that they are forced to do as a large crypto company—the typical ambassador programs and marketing tweets which don’t really add value but run as general maintenance. It’s just part of keeping the machine oiled.
Looking at the wider landscape, with players like GRVT, EdgeX, Lighter, and Paradex, I don’t see much differentiation. They’re all blending into the same perp dex mold.
Most people are farming these perp dexes to potentially get a fat airdrop, which means stats will be bolstered pre-TGE and die right after. Their marketing and campaigns don’t turn heads, either. And most have also copied the GLP mechanism to gather TVL metrics prior to TGE, making everything feel even more cookie-cutter.
Difference wins, though. Besides Drift, most recently my friends at BasedoneX made an extreme pivot from crypto cards to a mobile trading app powered by Hyperliquid. Their speed of execution led them to become the first competent mobile app on Hyperliquid and captured the market even before Phantom and Metamask got to integrate perps.
Hyperliquid builder stats: https://app.coinmarketman.com/hypertracker/builders
Besides speed of execution, which is key, it was novelty that supported them. They have a mini app section where builders could include their apps on their frontend, adding value and flavor to a vanilla perp dex.
BasedOneX Mini Apps: https://app.based.one/miniapps
On this, I have deployed my own app as well called Astrolute, which provides traders with astrological trading signals such as moon phases, eclipses, and mercury retrograde.
Astrolute: https://astrolute.xyz/
Insights/Truths of Perp Dexes
Most perp dex volumes are just through APIs and whales. BasedoneX has 10k users but does more volume than Phantom’s 27k users as they captured majority of the whales in Asia.
“PMF”/Vanity metrics for a perp dex is usually achieved through that.
Most haven’t captured the hearts of the masses, the general retail that doesn’t like to trade every other day or lack the knowledge to manage the inherent risks of perps.
This requires education which most perp dexes always provide through very boring vanilla written content that no one reads in full and without the dopamine boost similar to TikTok, general retail won’t even get started.
We Need To Be Different
This boils down to my initial point: we need to be different. First, feature parity is important, and in 2026 it will be smooth UI and mobile first. Beyond that, it’s time for us to be eccentric.
New Ideas for Perps
A few brainfart ideas to spice up the perp dex scene:
Gamified perps: game-like UI to wrap the underlying perp dex. (Eg. Euphoria Finance on MegaETH and PokPok)
AI agent trading arena (Eg. Semantic and NofA on Aster)
SynAdventures
Turn trading into a narrative-driven adventure where each position is a quest with branching storylines based on market outcomes. Users collect artifact NFTs from successful trades, unlock new levels with better leverage or tools, and face “boss battles” during high-volatility events. Wrapper could integrate with storytelling platforms like AI-generated lore tied to real-time price feeds.
Eco-Sim Perps
Wrap the dex in a virtual ecosystem simulation where trades influence a digital world—eg. long positions “grow” forests (bullish growth), shorts “erode” mountains (bearish decay). Users manage “biomes” as portfolios, earning eco-tokens for balanced trading that sustains the sim, blending environmental themes with DeFi education.