This guide covers 8 leading perp DEXs with active points programs that are worth farming + proven farming strategies and tools. Ready? Go.
Introduction
Since the advent of Hyperliquid, Perp DEXs have entered their most competitive phase. The sector’s volume grew from $647.6 billion in 2023 to over $1.2 trillion in 2025, with market share rising to 26% of global perpetual futures trading even through the October 10–11, 2025, market crash.
At the time, Hyperliquid achieved something which was considered implausible. They built an exchange that actually challenged Binance and in doing so captured over 70% of decentralized perpetual trading volume.
However, the emergence of new Perp DEXs has begun, with new ones popping up daily.
But why are we seeing so many onchain perps right now? Is it because Hyperliquid was a huge success?
Although this is true and also Perp DEXs have become a lucrative sector, the fundamental answer is that before 2025, perp DEX competition was mostly about tech. It was dependent on more performant L1s, more advanced ZK proving systems, higher throughput DA layers. But in 2025, competition moved away from tech toward incentives.
A current snapshot of the sector reveals mounting pressure from emerging Perp DEXs offering comparable latency, lower fees, and enticing incentive programs.
Today Hyperliquid’s market share has plummeted to around 20%, with newer platforms posing a credible threat. For instance, Variational attracted attention and users not just with airdrop / points program but also trading loss refunds.
In October 2025, trading volume hit a record $1.2 trillion, nearly doubling the previous month's total. This was primarily driven by incentives; points programs and airdrops. The sector have become one of the most successful narratives to chase in airdrops. Protocols are prepared to distribute millions of dollars in airdrops to bootstrap liquidity and user activity.
This article analyzes the opportunity set across the Perp DEX landscape and highlights practical farming strategies.
8 Perp DEXs Worth Farming
The primary risk associated with Perp DEXs is that some have no intention of issuing tokens, others end up being worthless and not worth the time (e.g $VOOI) and some exist primarily to extract user trading fees. As a result, the core question is never “Can I farm it?” but instead whether it is worth farming
This section identifies the Perp DEX worth your time across volumes, open interest, user growth, and fee economics, using data primarily sourced from DefiLlama as of January 16, 2026.
Paradex V2
@paradex is a privacy-focused Perp DEX built on Starknet's first appchain. It offers zero trading fees, deep liquidity across hundreds of crypto and pre-market assets, and atomic settlements, while providing institutional-grade privacy features with a mobile-optimized interface.
Architecturally It is designed as a unified DeFi ecosystem (@Paradex_Eco) and consists of the Paradex Exchange, Paradex Chain, and $XUSD (a native synthetic dollar powered by the $DIME token).
Key Features
Leverage up to 50x across multiple markets
Low fees: 0.02% maker, 0.05% taker
Cross-margin functionality
ZK-Rollup technology with Ethereum-level security
Paradex has demonstrated impressive growth so far:
TVL: Approx. $220M (up from $25M at start of 2025 - nearly 6x growth)
Cumulative Volume: $206B
Open Interest: Around $620M
30-day Trading Volume: $36B
Points Program:
The Pre-Season and Season 1 of its airdrop campaign ran from February 1, 2024, to January 2, 2025. Paradex is now in Season 2, with 4 million XP (points) distributed every Friday to active traders.
Register & set up an account on Paradex, connect an EVM-compatible wallet.
Set nickname. Link X/Discord for sybil resistance & community XP boost.
Deposit USDC and commence trading by opening positions (select your pair, leverage, and order type).
Earn Open Interest XP (hold positions), trading fees XP and even Liquidation XP.
Provide liquidity for Vaults XP. Deposit into the USDC vault (each vault has its own strategy and risk profile).
Share your referral link to earn 10% of referees’ XP plus XP from their activity. Referees get a 5% XP bonus.
edgeX
@edgeX_exchange is a Layer-2 (L2) exchange offering both perpetual and spot trading. Originally Incubated by Amber Group on StarkEx ZK-rollup, it launched as a ZK-rollup-based perp DEX and is now transitioning toward the EDGE Chain: an Ethereum L2 purpose-built for high-throughput financial applications.
Key Features:
Built on StarkNet (zk‑Rollup) – fast finality
Up to 50X leverage
Maker 0.02 % / Taker 0.05 % (among the cheapest Perp DEXs)
CLOB based model
edgeX Market Performance:
Weekly volume: $21.59B
30-day Volume: $84.58B (consistently ranks in the top‑5 Perp DEXs)
Open Interest: $1.2B
TVL: $422.23M
Points Program:
edgeX recently wrapped up its 27-week-long “Open Season” points program, which distributed over 7 million points to active users. The Pre-TGE Season launched on January 7 2026 and is designed to reward organic platform usage through XP, the campaign’s incentive unit. XP is distributed on a weekly basis until the TGE, which is expected to occur on or before March 31.
Go to the edgeX platform and create your trading account: https://pro.edgex.exchange/referral/MUUR
Deposit funds and begin trading. Priortize spot trading to benefit from the 3× XP multiplier on volume.
Trade directly on the edgeX mobile app to receive a 1.2× XP boost on all eligible activity.
Hold MARU tokens to unlock an additional 1.05×–1.15× XP multiplier. Register as a Messenger to gain a further 1.05×–1.1× XP boost.
Open perpetual positions and actively trade, as perpetual trading losses account for 10% of XP distribution. Increase overall trading volume, as it contributes 60% of weekly XP allocation.
Contribute assets to vaults or TVL programs to earn XP from the 10% allocation tied to liquidity participation.
Invite new users and participate in the referral program to capture rewards from the 20% XP allocation.
GRVT
@grvt_io, pronounced “Gravity” is a Perp DEX founded in 2023 and built within the zkSync ecosystem using a modular ZK Stack architecture. It operates as a L3 Validium Appchain, optimized for high-performance Perp trading while inheriting Ethereum-grade security through zero-knowledge proof
Key Features
Privacy focused exchange
Combines a self‑custodial Layer‑2 (ZK/Validium) settlement layer with an off‑chain CLOB
ZKsync Atlas makes high-performance perps compatible with Ethereum composability
The L3 design allows GRVT to prioritize throughput and latency without sacrificing cryptographic proofs.
Growth Metrics:
TVL: Approx. $85M
Cumulative Volume: $2142.1B
Open Interest: Around $427.6M
30-day Trading Volume: $38.7B
Points Program:
After an extended development period, GRVT formally introduced its points-based incentive system in 2024, launching Season 1 of its points program to reward users who contribute trading activity, liquidity, and open interest to the platform.
Visit the GRVT exchange website and register an account (email-based registration may require KYC depending on region).
Deposit capital into the trading account.
Open positions to generate points, with particular emphasis on maintaining open interest due to its increased weighting.
Participate in the referral program to earn additional fee rebates (rebates are calculated from net exchange revenue and may vary due to maker–taker fee offsets).
Extended
@extendedapp (formerly X10) is a high-performance perpetual DEX on Starknet built by a former Revolut team. While initially focused on perps, the protocol is expanding toward a unified margin model that supports spot trading and integrated lending.
Key Features:
Hybrid architecture: off-chain CLOB for matching, risk, and sequencing + on-chain settlement
Up to 100x leverage on crypto and TradFi assets
Unified margin via XVS vault shares. This integrates lending; provides liquidity, and handles liquidations
Markets include synthetic TradFi assets
Market performance:
TVL: $200M
24h Perp Volume: $1.6B (Strong; contributes to Starknet perps dominance.)
30d Perp Volume: $37.8B
Open Interest: $280M (45.2% increase YTD)
Points Program:
On April 30, 2025, Extended launched its “Points Program”, through which 1.2 million points are distributed weekly among traders and liquidity providers (LPs). Points are earned through trading, referring, and providing liquidity with distributions every Tuesday at 00:00 UTC.
Visit the Extended website, connect your wallet, and create an account: https://app.extended.exchange/join/MUUR
Fund your account and open positions to generate trading volume and accumulate points
Earn an additional 20% points plus APY by providing liquidity to the vaults.
Unlock a referral link after reaching $10,000 in trading volume. Earn 10% of commissions and 2.5% of points from referrals' points.
Pacifica
@pacifica_fi is a Solana-native hybrid perpetual DEX currently in closed beta. Despite its early stage, it has already attracted significant volume, at times surpassing established Solana DEXs such as Jupiter and Drift, and ranks among the top perp DEXs by daily trading activity.
Given that previous perps on Solana like Drift and Zeta had good airdrops and Pacifica’s self-funded status, the project has a higher-than-average likelihood of a meaningful airdrop.
Key Features:
Hybrid architecture: Off-chain CLOB + on-chain settlements/deposits/withdrawals on Solana.
Up to 50x leverage on markets
AI trading assistant
Liquidation care boosts for points.
Market Performance:
TVL: $47M
24h Perp Volume: $839.6M
30d Perp Volume: 19.95B
Open Interest: $92.8M
Points Program:
Pacifica launched a consecutive trading points bonus on January 2, 2026, offering up to 23% bonus points. The bonus increases by 2% daily, reaching 10% after five days. High trading activity can further enhance rewards, with fee discounts and bonuses reducing the cost per point to approximately $0.15.
Access the Pacifica website using an invite code to enter the closed beta.
Connect your wallet and deposit funds, then open positions to generate trading volume and accumulate points.
Join the referral program to obtain your own access code.
Reya
@reya_xyz, developed by Reya Labs, is a trading-optimized modular L2 built on a customized implementation of Arbitrum Orbit. Rather than operating as a single DEX, Reya functions as a foundational execution layer with shared liquidity that multiple trading front ends can build on.
By centralizing liquidity at the network level, Reya aims to solve liquidity fragmentation.
Key Features:
Features a trading-specific based zk rollup
Strong security with verifiable order execution and settlement, via zk-proofs, with trades settled on Ethereum
Features rUSD (yield bearing stables), powered by Reya's unified liquidity framework.
Market Performance:
30d Perp Volume: $13.7B
Cummulative Perp Volume: $95.7B
Open Interest: $22.5M
TVL: $32.4M
Point Program:
Reya Chain Points (RCP) are the points system used to track meaningful contributions to ReyaChain and RCP converts to $REYA at TGE.
The supply will change slightly each week across the three actions of trading, staking and signal, particularly as trading activity grows. However, trading actions are generally the most rewarded, with points distributed on a weekly basis on Monday at midday GMT.
Visit the Reya network website and connect a compatible wallet to deposit or bridge USDC.
Deposit liquidity into the LP vaults via the “Stake” tab, which will convert rUSD into srUSD, and lock your capital to earn loyalty points as well as a 4.8 APY.
Open trading positions to increase your volume and maximize points.
Share your referral link, as referrers earn 10% of the trading volume points generated by their referees.
Variational
@variational_io is a peer-to-peer trading protocol for perpetuals and generalized derivatives, built on Ethereum's Layer-2 network, Arbitrum. It automates the full trade cycle from trading to clearing for secure bilateral trading of options, futures, and perpetuals
Variational operates two main applications: Omni, a retail-focused platform for leveraged perpetuals trading, and Pro, a platform for advanced traders of nonlinear derivatives.
Key Features:
RFQ (Request-for-Quote) P2P: instead of order books
Vertically integrated market maker called the Omni Liquidity Provider (OLP).
Zero fees
Loss refunds
In 2026, Omni grew from testnet to one of the largest perps platforms in crypto garnering attention via its loss refund feature.
Growth Metrics:
Cumulative volume: $30B
Weekly volume: $11.4B
Open Interest: $1.1B (Top 5 in Perp DEXs)
Point Program:
Variational Omni officially launched its loyalty program and retroactively distributed 3 million points to existing traders. Users earn base points based on activity, and an additional point is awarded for every 10 referral points. Points are distributed every Friday at 0:00 UTC, and users can maintain their reward tiers by staying active.
Go to the Variational website.
Create an account and connect your wallet.
Deposit USDC or other supported assets.
Farm points by generating trading volume; the higher the volume, the more points you earn.
Reward tiers based on past 30 days’ activities on Omni offer benefits like loss refund odds boosts, increased loss refund referral rates, points boosts, and more.
Nado
Built on Ink (Kraken's Ethereum L2), @nadoHQ is an all-in-one CLOB DEX for spot, perps & money markets powered by unified margin. Currently in Private Alpha, the platform is limited to invited users only, but anyone can join the waitlist.
Key Features:
Spot & Perps all in one DEX: Introducing Unified Margin
Nado’s liquidity provider NLP deploys idle funds into Nado’s orderbook to earn APY
On Nado, orders match in 5–15 ms
Market Performance so far:
30d Perp Volume: $13.8B
TVL: $52M
Open Interest: $142.8M
Points Program:
After Private Alpha the platform will be open for airdrop farming.
It is unknown whether Nado will conduct a platform-specific airdrop, but we can be certain that early users will receive INK airdrop points rewards for activity, as denoted by the “airdrop” tag associated with Nado on Ink’s website homepage.
II. Farming Strategy: Funding Rate Arbitrage
Perpetual markets have become the most traded financial market in crypto. Weekly Open Interest (OI) of perp markets regularly exceeds $5-$1B, significantly growing bigger in the past year.
When farming perps, it's advisable to use altcoins with lower marketcaps to generate higher reward points compared to high marketcap assets. Although the tradeoff is risky. Low marketcap tokens translate to high volatility and a greater probability of capital loss if positions are poorly managed.
For less experienced users, or those unwilling to risk active trading just for an airdrop, funding rate arbitrage is a proven strategy to generate volume while staying profitable or at least breaking even
What Is Funding Rate Arbitrage?
Funding rate arbitrage is a form of cash-and-carry trade in perpetual futures markets.
Funding rates are the cost of holding positions. When the funding rate is positive, long positions pay a funding fee to short positions. When the funding rate is negative, short positions pay a funding fee to long positions and in most Perp markets, funding rates are usually positive.
How the strategy works:
Open long positions on one DEX.
Open matching short positions on another DEX.
Capture funding rates.
Generate consistent volume for points accumulation and rewards.
In short, assume:
BTC spot price: $50,000
BTC perpetual price: $50,100
Funding rate: +0.01% every 8 hours (positive)
You do the following:
Long $10,000 BTC on one DEX + Short $10,000 BTC on the another
If BTC goes up or down, gains and losses offset.
But with a +0.01% funding rate, your short position receives funding
$10,000 × 0.01% = $1 every 8 hours. If funding remains positive: $3 per day, $90 per month
All without being affected by the volatile price of BTC
The idea behind opening long and short positions on different DEXs rather than on the same platform is to avoid sybil detection and possible blacklisting. Funding rate arbitrage allows users to farm Perp DEXs without relying on price movement.
It works well because it allows for profit even with moderate leverage. Additionally, traders are not really concerned about volatile price action and can easily generate consistent trading volume to accumulate points.
Key Risks to Understand:
Although funding rate arbitrage reduces risk exposure, it is not failure-proof, as some risks are unavoidable. Risks such as liquidation on the short leg and the funding rate turning negative. Therefore, it is necessary to apply these practical steps to further minimize risks.
Constantly monitor positions. Actively manage open positions to avoid liquidation.
Stop-loss (SL) and Take-Profit (TP) are sure proofs to avoid liquidation, especially from short positions.
Avoid high leverage.
III. Funding rate bot and tools:
Tracking funding rates takes effort. Technical farmers use bots, but even less experienced airdrop users can benefit from using these tools. They visualize the best funding rate arbitrage opportunities across major Perp DEXs.
For instance, it shows the APR along with the specific action required to achieve it (e.g., taking a long position on one exchange and a short on another).
@LorisTools: A complete dashboard and screener that aggregates funding rates across CEX and DEX platforms, effective for cross-exchange arbitrage discovery.
@Arbitraxdexs: Still in the development stage but useful for token APR, spreads and funding differentials across exchanges.
@cexchange_sh: Has an inbuilt funding rate arbitrage aggregator focused on the funding rate strategy between DEX pairs.
@fundingviewapp: A funding rate arbitrage strategy finder. It helps traders identify historically profitable arbitrage pairs and calculate average APRs over multiple timeframes
@p2p_army_here: another arbitrage scanner tool with embedded analytics tools to identify funding rate spread across exchanges. It also provides real-time scans for funding differences, historical rate tables and alert features.
@dextrabot serves as an automated platform focused on airdrop point farming and copy trading across perpetual DEXs like Lighter, Aster, Hyperliquid, Extended, and Variational, emphasizing low-cost strategies such as delta-neutral bots and grid trading.
Conclusion
2025 was, in every way, a defining year for Perp traders and exchanges. From successful airdrops to the October 10-11 market crash (the largest single market crash in crypto history). Auto-deleveraging (ADL) loops were triggered, resulting in huge losses even for traders operating the funding rate arbitrage strategy.
However, Perp DEXs are still on the rise, but this time around traders should be cautious.The key takeaway is that where you trade is as important as what you trade. Properly review documentation for new exchanges to avoid falling victim to predatory exchanges.
This article empowers you with the tools needed to begin your Perp DEX farming journey, and beyond this point, experience and discipline are your guides.
Critics often point out that most emerging protocols are just trying to become “the next Hyperliquid.” Personally, I don’t think that is an issue. Perp DEX are not competing with each other but their centralized counterparts. As Perp DEXs continue to rise, there are still opportunities, which will only get more difficult with time.
Remember, the greatest regret in crypto is fading trends.
