Innovation and Opportunities of Decentralization in Perpetual Futures DEX

Perpetual Futures Decentralized Exchange (Perp DEX) is a promising and innovative sector. Although projects like dYdX, GMX, and Synthetix dominate the main market share, several competitive new projects have recently emerged, such as Aark Digital, Drift, Zeta, MYX, Hyperliquid, and Jupiter. These projects achieve cold start through means such as points, providing potential opportunities for early participants.

Aark Digital

Aark Digital is a Perp DEX based on Arbitrum, using a virtual liquidity pool model and a parallel market maker architecture. Its main features include:

• Aggregate the liquidity of CEX and DEX to prevent price manipulation.
• Supports a full-margin cross-margin model with multiple types of collateral.
• Efficient settlement process to address on-chain delays and Gas issues

Aark Digital incentivizes users to participate through a liquidity soft-lock program and mining activities.

Drift

Drift is a decentralized trading platform based on Solana, offering various functions such as spot, leverage, and Perptual Futures trading. Its features include:

• Various liquidity mechanisms, including virtual automated market makers, DEX limit orders, and timely auctions.
• Insurance Fund Mechanism
• Supports multiple collateral types as margin, automatically earning deposit income
• Liquidity providers can use leverage

Drift currently attracts users through weekly lottery events.

Zeta

Zeta is a derivatives protocol on Solana that provides Perptual Futures trading services. It adopts a fully on-chain limit order book model, similar to dYdX. Zeta implements a Z-Score point system that rewards users with tokens based on trading volume.

MYX

MYX is an innovative Perptual Futures protocol that employs a unique matching pool mechanism to address the liquidity constraints of traditional Perp DEXs. Its features include:

• Theoretically, an unlimited open interest can be achieved.
• When the long-short balance is achieved, liquidity providers do not bear risks.
• Possible advantages of zero slippage, no borrowing fees, etc.

MYX is conducting the second phase of testing, and users participating in the test can receive rewards.

Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid is a decentralized Perptual Futures exchange running on its own Layer 1, supporting trading of various long-tail assets. It offers order book trading and a Vault with multiple market-making strategies. Hyperliquid has launched a points system, distributing 1 million points weekly for 6 months.

Jupiter

Jupiter's JLP is a GLP product similar to GMX on Solana, providing Perptual Futures trading services through a bundle of assets. Although the innovation is not high, it is exceptionally popular in the Solana ecosystem, possibly related to its high valuation and potential airdrop.

Summary

The Perp DEX field still has a lot of room for growth, with new projects showcasing diversity and innovation. Early participation may bring opportunities, but security risks should also be considered. Even leading projects like dYdX, GMX, and Synthetix have encountered attacks, and the risks of new projects may be even higher. Investors should carefully assess the advantages and potential risks of each project.