DEX Perp Volume Ripped Past $1 Trillion for Second Month as Spot Traders Quietly Fled to CEX

Key Insights

• On-chain perpetual futures volume on decentralized exchanges remained above $1 trillion in November 2025, marking the second consecutive month of trillion-dollar perp trading.
• The DEX-to-CEX ratio for perpetual contracts reached an all-time high of 18.4% in November and climbed to 22.2% by December 5.
• Spot market activity showed the opposite trend, with the proportion of volume traded on DEX platforms dropping from 17.4% to 11.4%.

On-chain trading volume across spot and perpetual markets totaled $1.71 trillion in November 2025, according to the latest blockchain news data.

The figure represented an 11% decline from October, which had registered an all-time high for combined on-chain volume.

Despite the month-over-month drop, the resilience of perpetual contracts stood out against a sharper retreat in on-chain spot trading activity.

Perpetual futures accounted for $1.3 trillion of November’s total volume, declining just 4% from the previous month.

Spot markets, by contrast, generated approximately $400 billion in volume, a 29% drop that underscored a pronounced shift in trader preferences.

The divergence between the two segments highlighted a clear bifurcation in how market participants approached decentralized and centralized venues across different product types.

Lighter Overtakes Hyperliquid in Monthly Perp Volume

For the first time since August 2024, Hyperliquid did not lead the monthly aggregate for perpetual contract volume on decentralized platforms.

According to DefiLlama data, Lighter recorded $290.6 billion in perp volume during November, surpassing Hyperliquid’s $237.9 billion.

Aster also moved ahead of Hyperliquid with $248.9 billion in trading activity, marking a rotation among the leading crypto perp DEX venues.

The shift reflected both Hyperliquid’s growing competition and the maturation of alternative platforms that had scaled their infrastructure and liquidity pools throughout 2025.

Additionally, Lighter and Aster benefited from aggressive incentive campaigns, as the Hyperliquid airdrop reset expectations and made DeFi users chase new airdrop rewards.

Spot Traders Return to CEX, Perp DEX Users Stay

The proportion of spot volume traded on DEX platforms relative to centralized exchanges fell sharply in November, dropping from 17.4% in October to 11.4%, according to The Block data.

The November figure marked the second-lowest DEX-to-CEX ratio for spot markets in 2025 and represented the largest percentage decline recorded during the year.

Traders appeared to favor the deeper liquidity, tighter spreads, and faster execution speeds offered by centralized venues when transacting in spot assets.

The retreat from decentralized spot trading suggested that, despite improvements in DeFi infrastructure, centralized exchanges retained structural advantages for certain use cases.

Institutional participants and high-frequency traders often prioritized the speed and capital efficiency offered by centralized platforms, especially during periods of heightened volatility or liquidity fragmentation during blockchain news cycles.

While spot traders pivoted toward centralized exchanges, perpetual futures activity on DEX platforms continued its upward trajectory.

The DEX-to-CEX ratio for perps climbed steadily throughout 2025, reaching an all-time high of 18.4% in November.

By December 5, the ratio had advanced further to 22.2%, indicating that the migration toward decentralized perpetual contracts showed no signs of slowing as the year drew to a close.

Two primary factors drove sustained growth in perp DEX usage. First, farming programs on perpetual platforms remained robust even after the sharp market correction observed on October 10.

Traders continued to chase yield opportunities tied to point systems and token airdrops, with newer venues launching aggressive incentive structures to compete for market share.

In this framework, a material portion of the volume boom reflected incentive-driven behavior rather than purely organic user migration.

However, CoinGecko’s latest DEX-to-CEX ratio study cautioned that volumes could moderate if those programs wound down, raising questions about the durability of the growth trend once farming rewards diminished.

Second, as highlighted by Grayscale’s mid-2025 research, a foundational demand drives the growth of decentralized perpetual futures.

Traders gravitated toward these platforms for self-custody, on-chain auditability, broader global access without KYC barriers, seamless integration with third-party tools, and faster listings of new contracts compared to centralized venues.

Those structural advantages continued to resonate with participants navigating the evolving crypto derivatives landscape in late 2025.

As a result, decentralized perpetual contracts maintained trillion-dollar monthly volumes for the second consecutive month, even as spot traders retreated to centralized exchanges.

The divergence highlighted distinct user preferences across product types and suggested that DeFi derivatives had reached a level of maturity and liquidity capable of sustaining institutional-grade activity.

Whether the momentum persisted beyond the current incentive cycle remained an open question as the market entered the final weeks of 2025.