How Perpetual DEX Competition Is Reshaping On-Chain Trading In 2026
In Brief
In 2025, decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Raydium, Aerodrome, Meteora, and Pump.fun saw strong growth in trading volume, fees, and user activity, setting the stage for continued competition and expansion in 2026.
In 2025, decentralized exchanges continued to gain momentum in the mainstream trading arena, and this trend is likely to have an effect in 2026. Perpetual-based DEXs increased volumes, fee generation, and activity by users, whereas large spot venues continued to increase across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana. Another competitive cycle of liquidity and users is also anticipated in 2026, as a CryptoDep tracker identified several Perp DEXs still in their early development, which are generally anticipated to launch a token.
The list below features the best DEXs to observe in 2026, and where possible, the performance of each is shown in 2025.
Hyperliquid
One of the most evident 2025 on-chain perpetual winners was Hyperliquid. Various analytics dashboards monitored high increases in fees and revenue over the year. Data by DeFiLlama indicates that Hyperliquid currently has approximately $750 million in cumulative fees and $665 million in cumulative revenue on its tracker page. The figures indicate how rapidly the venue has grown.
According to Artemis data, Hyperliquid had over $800 million in fees produced in 2025. It is important to note that performance in 2026 provides evidence to the thesis of execution first. The traders observed tight spreads, regular execution, and deep liquidity, particularly in perpetual markets.
Uniswap
Frustratingly, Uniswap remained at the heart of DeFi liquidity in 2025 despite new designs vying for its attention. Generation of fees was one of the most tangible ones. The Block data shows that Uniswap had made approximately $985 million in fees to date as of mid-November 2025. That scale explains why UniSwap continued to be entrenched in DeFi.
UniSwap also reported significant record transactions throughout the year. In a news post by Binance, which used data provided by Token Terminal, it indicated that Uniswap had experienced the largest monthly trading volume of its history in October 2025, amounting to $116.6 billion. As of 2026, Uni remains relevant with its liquidity gravities and integrations despite being beaten by competitors on specialized execution.
PancakeSwap
The figures of PancakeSwap 2025 were fueled by the scale of the retail and multi-chain coverage. In its own annual review of the year ended, PancakeSwap indicated a total trading volume of $2.36 trillion and 35.3 million+ unique traders. These represent massive network effects when it comes to any decentralized venue.
In the same recap, it was also noted that there were high activity periods, such as the high October surge, that resulted in the highest monthly trading volume on the platform. In the case of 2026, PancakeSwap will be an important DEX to consider since it offers low-you-pay access and has a substantial number of repeat users.
Raydium
Raydium remained a liquidity node within Solana DeFi in 2025. Data shows that Raydium had processed $51.9 billion in trading volume in Q3 2025, an increase of approximately 30 percent over the Q2 trading volume of $39.6 billion. This quarter-to-quarter growth is important as it is an indicator of widespread activity and not just a one-off spike.
Individually, the data on the Raydium dashboard of Token Terminal also showed good Q3 numbers, such as TVL and fees growth. As Raydium, the association of Solana throughput and the rate of new Solana-native launches may continue to be affiliated with the positioning in 2026.
Aerodrome
In 2025, Aerodrome became even more of a Base liquidity venue due to increased Ethereum L2 traffic. In August 2025, A DWF Labs research note reported that Aerodrome was doing over $950 million in volumes per day and that Aerodrome was bringing in an average of about $4.6 million in fees in seven days in mid-August.
The point is 2026 coverage, which is supported by that snapshot. Native L2 DEXs are able to establish defensible liquidity by pegging themselves to a single rapidly growing ecosystem. According to the Aerodome 2025 report, the Base liquidity competition will continue to be a significant story in the year 2026.
Meteora
Meteora’s 2025 focused on liquidity maximization and fee capture, particularly due to the increase in Solana activity. Another comparison on Twitter asserted that Meteor would be the top-ranked DeFi protocol in fees in 2025, with some $1.25 billion in total fees.
On the other hand, Meteor on DeFiLlama indicates that Meteor has accrued over $881 million in cumulative fees on its tracker view, which aligns with a story of very high amounts of fee generation throughout its expansionary phase. Meteor in 2026 is worth following since the idea of liquidity as a product has become as relevant as the process of trading UX.
Pump.fun
Pump.fun is positioned on the periphery of the DEX category since it is a combination of token creation, discovery, and trading behavior in a single loop. Even so, it had an impact on on-chain volumes and fee flows in 2025, particularly on Solana. In late-January 2025, when Pump.fun had reached an all-time peak daily fee amount of approximately $15.4 million.
Towards the end of 2025, the revenue scale was also covered. In a KuCoin flash update, with reference to reporting, Pump.fun had generated $74.1m in Q4 2025 revenue and approximately $935.6m lifetime revenue by that time. Those numbers are still controversial to discuss and explain, and they demonstrate why Pump.fun remained on the radar at the beginning of 2026.
Why the 2025 numbers matter for 2026
On these platforms, 2025 pieces of data support a single theme. The generation of liquidity and fees is used as real-time scorecards. The fee and revenue profile of Hyperliquid underscores the emergence of the on-chain perps economics. UniSwap and PancakeSwap demonstrate that scale prevails in spot liquidity.
Disclaimer
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About The Author
Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
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Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in cryptocurrency, zero-knowledge proofs, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
