Crypto World
AAVE Crypto Swap Costs Nearly $50M Lost: ETH MEV Pocketed $9.9M
When a trader wipes out $50M in seconds, the industry usually assumes a bridge hack or a sophisticated exploit. Late on Thursday (March 12), however, a crypto whale incinerated nearly their entire balance with a single click of AAVE crypto swap.
The user attempted to swap $50M worth of USDT for AAVE in a single on-chain transaction. Due to a complete lack of liquidity for an order of that magnitude, the trade suffered catastrophic slippage, returning just 324 AAVE crypto, worth roughly $50,000, for the $50M spent.
Poor fellow swapped $50m -> $35k on eth mainnet — deebeez (@deeberiroz) March 12, 2026
https://t.co/fYRYqGzXlt pic.twitter.com/QGW8NnTikh
Data from the transaction shows the wallet interacted with the Aave interface via CoW Swap. According to Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov, the interface explicitly “warned the user about extraordinary slippage and required confirmation via a checkbox.”
In a statement on X, CoW Swap confirmed that clear price-impact warnings were displayed and that the transaction followed the signed parameters. This comes down to user error and a lack of self-preservation in not using MEV bot protection.
How a Single Swap Cost One Whale $50M While Buying AAVE Crypto
The mechanics behind this loss are brutal but standard. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) rely on liquidity pools. When a buy order exceeds the available liquidity at the current price, the automated market maker (AMM) moves the price up the curve to fill the order.
To fill the $50M order, the protocol had to buy available AAVE at astronomically higher prices, resulting in an average entry price that wiped out the capital immediately.
This highlights why institutional players typically break such trades into thousands of smaller chunks or use OTC (over-the-counter) desks.
While Ethereum is quickly cementing itself as the backbone of institutional settlement, this event shows that the user interface layer still allows for catastrophic human error. Smart contracts do not judge the wisdom of a trade; it only executes the parameters signed by the wallet.
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What This Reveals About DeFi Market Structure
This event exposes the dangerous reality of “fat finger” trades in DeFi, where human intervention or flagging systems would likely pause such an anomaly in traditional finance.
Current liquidity on Aave, or almost any single DEX pool, cannot absorb $50M in a single tick without massive price distortion.
Interestingly, the AAVE crypto token is up +5% over the past 24 hours, a price surge that may have been buoyed by an unfortunate user who bought $50,000 worth of the token for $50M.
We have seen similar risks highlighted recently, as just yesterday, the Bonk.fun website was hijacked leading to user funds being drained.
While that incident involved malicious actors, the AAVE swap shows that users can cause similar losses to themselves without a compromised platform.
What Happens Next for the Whale and How to Avoid Their Mistake
There is no reversal button on the blockchain. However, Kulechov noted that Aave Labs is attempting to contact the user to return approximately $600,000 in fees collected from the transaction.
While a sympathetic gesture, it represents slightly more than 1% of the lost funds. For the broader market, the lesson is stark: liquidity warnings are not suggestions.
If the interface warns of “Extraordinary Slippage,” take note. And even for smaller transactions, let alone five-figure ones, always enable MEV protection when executing trades, protecting users from sandwich attacks and being front-ran.
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The post AAVE Crypto Swap Costs Nearly $50M Lost: ETH MEV Pocketed $9.9M appeared first on Cryptonews.
ETH is currently close to the buying zone, but the sell side is miles away.
Ethereum’s ETH is gaining steam on the day after the world’s largest asset manager launched a staked ETH tracking its performance in the US.
The token is currently challenging the $2,100 level after a 3% daily increase, but one popular analyst, who has focused on the longer term, laid out what he called a dream trade for ETH.
When to Buy and Sell ETH
Ali Martinez, the crypto analyst with nearly 165,000 followers on X, noted in a recent post that the accumulation zone is close by. He believes investors should accumulate the largest altcoin at levels around $1,070. Although the asset slipped below $1,500 last year, it has not traded anywhere near Martinez’s buy target since December 2022, at the end of the bear market.
If investors are indeed able to purchase ETH at these low levels, then the ‘dream’ profit-taking scenario would be at over $8,600. It’s worth noting that the altcoin has never even come close to such peaks. It would have to stage a 300% surge from its current level (or 700% from the accumulation zone) and smash through its 2025 all-time high of almost $5,000 to materialize Martinez’s trade.
The dream trade for Ethereum $ETH:
• Accumulate near $1,070
• Take profits around $8,670 pic.twitter.com/lBY8ThOsB7— Ali Charts (@alicharts) March 13, 2026
Bullish News for ETH
Fellow analyst CW outlined two factors that could propel ETH to new peaks soon. First, they noted that there’s a notable uptick in the Ethereum active addresses, which “indicates bullish market movements.” A similar pattern was visible near the bottom at the aforementioned bear cycle in 2025, and ETH’s price went on a roll in the following months.
The increase in $ETH active addresses indicates bullish market movements.
Although the price of $ETH has fallen, the network has actually become more active.
This pattern has been observed consistently near the bottom since 2022. This is expected to be due to increased… pic.twitter.com/FLwikGFfsn
— CW (@CW8900) March 13, 2026
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In a separate post, the analyst outlined that Ethereum’s realized capitalization (calculated by the total value of all ETH coins based on the price when they last moved, rather than the current market price) has turned positive again. This, according to their estimations, is a clear signal about “the start of a full-scale bull market.”
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Singapore-based MetaComp said Friday it completed a new funding round backed by Alibaba, as the company expands its stablecoin payment infrastructure.
MetaComp completed a Pre-A+ round backed by Alibaba, bringing the cumulative total to $35 million across two rounds in three months, according to the announcement.
The latest round also featured the European early-stage venture capital investor Spark Venture, with Beijing-based 100Summit Partners serving as exclusive financial adviser.
MetaComp previously announced closing a $22 million Pre-A funding round in December 2025 from investors including Eastern Bell Capital, Noah, Sky9 Capital, Freshwave Fund and Beingboom Capital.
The raise adds to signs of investor interest in regulated stablecoin infrastructure for cross-border payments in Asia.
MetaComp’s StableX Network to expand worldwide
Founded in 2018, MetaComp serves global financial institutions and high-net-worth individuals by offering hybrid fiat and stablecoin payment solutions and access to traditional and tokenized wealth management products.
With the new capital, MetaComp plans to expand its StableX Network, a platform that connects regulated financial institutions, stablecoin issuers and other partners through blockchain-based infrastructure.
Related: Stablecoin payments startup Kast raises $80M at $600M valuation: Report
MetaComp said the network will expand across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, where it sees growing demand for compliant, real-time cross-border settlement.
“MetaComp was built on a single conviction: that the future of cross-border finance is neither purely traditional nor purely digital — it’s the integrated Web2.5 architecture where fiat rails and stablecoin networks operate as one,” MetaComp co-president Tin Pei Ling said.
Alibaba explores stablecoin projects despite China’s crackdown on issuance
Alibaba’s backing is notable given earlier reports that the company was exploring deposit-token technology for overseas transactions even as mainland China kept tight restrictions on stablecoin issuance.
In February, the government reiterated its stance, saying foreign and domestic companies cannot issue stablecoins pegged to the national currency without approval.
The stablecoin market is projected to reach $2 trillion by 2028, according to institutions including Standard Chartered.
Magazine: Is China hoarding gold so yuan becomes global reserve instead of USD?
Key Takeaways
- Nvidia’s annual GTC 2026 event takes place March 16–19, beginning with Jensen Huang’s keynote address on Monday.
- Analysts are looking for clarity on component supply chains—specifically wafers, memory, and optics—and Vera Rubin chip rollout timelines.
- Projected free cash flow for this fiscal year stands at $178 billion, which would set an unprecedented record for corporate profitability.
- Of the 70 analysts tracking NVDA, 93% maintain Buy ratings, with consensus price targets around $267–$273, suggesting ~45–49% potential gains.
- Despite rising earnings estimates, Nvidia shares have remained relatively stagnant in 2026, trading near $185 with roughly 1% year-to-date decline.
Nvidia (NVDA) enters what many consider its most critical week of 2026. The company’s flagship GTC conference begins Monday, March 16, and continues through March 19. Chief Executive Jensen Huang is scheduled to open the event with his keynote presentation—likely sporting his iconic leather jacket.
Shares have traded sideways for several months, lingering around the $185 mark since August of last year. An 8% pullback materialized earlier this year before the stock rebounded. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s profit projections have continued trending upward.
Analysts project free cash flow for the fiscal year concluding in January 2027 will reach $178 billion—representing an 85% increase year-over-year. For perspective, Saudi Aramco established the historical benchmark for free cash flow in 2022 at approximately $150 billion. Should Nvidia achieve current consensus estimates, it would claim the title of most profitable corporation ever recorded.
Looking further ahead, analysts anticipate that milestone will be surpassed again, with free cash flow projections climbing to $233 billion in fiscal 2028.
Investor Focus Areas
Analyst scrutiny will concentrate on several critical topics. Supply chain visibility tops the list. Nvidia must demonstrate that its upcoming Vera Rubin chip deliveries remain on schedule and customer orders are being fulfilled according to commitments. Any indication of delays would likely trigger market volatility.
AI infrastructure spending sustainability represents another major concern. Tech giants including Amazon and Alphabet are projected to deploy $660 billion toward AI infrastructure throughout this year. Amazon’s capital expenditures alone have surged from approximately $50–$60 billion annually to an estimated $190 billion for the current year. Barclays research suggests total AI-related capital spending across the industry could reach $1 trillion by 2028.
Product development strategy also demands attention. The AI semiconductor landscape is transitioning from model training applications toward inference workloads—the deployment of trained models in production environments. This evolution creates different chip requirements.
Inference operations consist of two distinct phases: prefill, where input tokens are processed simultaneously (optimized for parallel GPU architecture), and decode, which generates output sequentially and benefits from purpose-built hardware designs.
Groq Integration Strategy
Nvidia invested approximately $20 billion last year to license intellectual property from Groq, an emerging chip company, while bringing its engineering team in-house. Groq develops LPUs—language processing units—engineered specifically for cost-effective, high-efficiency decode operations.
Market participants will be seeking specifics on how Groq’s LPU architecture integrates into Nvidia’s broader chip strategy going forward. This acquisition positions the company to compete more effectively against cloud providers building proprietary silicon.
Truist Securities anticipates “comments around market sizing and growth rates, along with product introductions, to be a modest positive for the stock.”
UBS characterizes the disconnect between its optimistic Nvidia earnings forecasts and the stock’s current discounted valuation as “seemingly unsustainable.” Nevertheless, UBS maintains that a transformative catalyst emerging from the conference appears “hard to see.”
Trading at 17 times projected earnings for next fiscal year, Nvidia currently commands a valuation multiple below the S&P 500 average. Among 70 analysts providing coverage, 93% assign Buy recommendations.
Consensus price targets cluster around $267–$273, implying potential appreciation of 45% to 49% from present levels.
Bitcoin (BTC) may approach a market bottom, with a macro model tied to the US and China’s benchmark 10-year bond yields hinting at a potential rally toward $100,000 in the months ahead.
Key takeaways:
-
Bitcoin whales show signs of accumulation that were seen near the 2023 market low.
-
BTC holds key long-term support while “oversold,” increasing the chance of a recovery.
History rhymes? BTC flashes ‘precise’ bullish cross
The model, shared by analyst AO, applies a Stochastic RSI oscillator to the product of US10Y and CN10Y.
When overlaid with Bitcoin’s historical price action, the indicator shows that bullish crossovers from oversold levels have historically appeared near major BTC market bottoms.
For instance, in 2013, the crossover preceded a 8,700% surge in Bitcoin prices. Similar signals appeared before the 2017 bull run (+1,900%), the 2020–2021 cycle (+600%), and the 2023 rebound (+350%+).
In March, the Stoch RSI flashed another “extremely precise” bullish crossover, according to analyst Crypto Rand, who said the signal suggests Bitcoin is “going way higher.”
Whale behavior backs case for a Bitcoin bottom
Onchain data tracking Bitcoin whales support the macro outlook discussed above.
For instance, Bitcoin wallets holding between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC resumed accumulation during the recent price decline, resembling the behavior seen near earlier market bottoms.
For instance, the same cohort began buying in early 2023 near the price lows before Bitcoin went on to rally more than 350%.
Related: STRC may help Strategy reach 1M Bitcoin milestone before BlackRock
Similar accumulation phases by large holders also appeared before the 2017 and 2020 bull runs. This setup may improve Bitcoin’s odds of bottoming out earlier than some analysts predict.
BTC technicals hint at rebound toward $100,000
Bitcoin’s weekly chart is also showing early signs of a potential rebound.
Over the past month, bears failed to push BTC decisively below its 100-week simple moving average (100-week SMA, the blue line), a level that has often marked the price bottom in past cycles.
Following the March 2020 test, Bitcoin rebounded by more than 1,000% from that support line, while a similar bounce in 2019 preceded gains of over 300%.
Additionally, BTC’s relative strength index (RSI) has slipped into oversold territory below 30, suggesting that the price has fallen too far, too fast, increasing the chances of a recovery.
A decisive rebound from the 200-week SMA could send the BTC price toward $100,000 by August, where the 50-week SMA and 1.618 Fibonacci level converge.
Conversely, some analysts warned about a potential bull trap if Bitcoin fails to rise above the $78,000 resistance level, which is key for a bullish trend reversal.
Below the spot price, the areas of interest include the 200-week exponential moving average at $68,300 and the $60,000-65,500 support zone.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision. While we strive to provide accurate and timely information, Cointelegraph does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information in this article. This article may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Cointelegraph will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your reliance on this information.
One of the major crypto conferences in Dubai has been rescheduled for next year.
One of the largest annual crypto-oriented events, Token2049 in Dubai, has reportedly been rescheduled for next year.
According to Wu Blockchain, the Dubai TOKEN2049 conference will be hled on the 21st and 22nd of April in 2027. It was originally supposed to take place in April this year.
Per the official statement:
This decision was not taken lightly. Preparations for the event were progressing strongly. However, ensuring the global crypto industry can gther safely, and at the scale and quality that define TOKEN2049, remains our top priority.
Exclusive: The Dubai TOKEN2049 summit, originally scheduled for April 29-30, 2026, has been postponed to April 21-22, 2027. This comes after several locations in Dubai were attacked by Iranian drones and shrapnel, prompting many in the crypto industry to evacuate. pic.twitter.com/aSl4qbRKKr
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) March 13, 2026
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The price of XRP is stabilizing near a key technical level even as institutional flows weaken, raising questions about the token’s next move.
Summary
- XRP spot ETFs recorded about $6.08 million in daily net outflows, signaling softer institutional demand.
- The token is trading around $1.41, consolidating after falling from highs near $1.90 earlier this year.
- Momentum indicators such as the RSI near 50 and a rising Awesome Oscillator suggest bearish pressure may be fading.
The Ripple token (XRP) was trading around $1.41 on March 13, gaining roughly 2.4% on the day, according to data from Crypto.News. The token has been consolidating in a narrow range after declining from highs near $1.90 earlier this year, suggesting that the market is searching for a new directional catalyst.
Institutional sentiment appears to be softening. Data tracking XRP spot exchange-traded funds shows daily net outflows of about $6.08 million, while total net assets across these products remain close to $967 million.
The chart indicates that after several sessions of inflows earlier in March, ETF activity has turned negative with multiple red days in a row, signaling that some institutional investors may be reducing exposure or locking in profits following previous gains.
Despite the cooling ETF demand, XRP has managed to maintain support above the $1.40 level, an area that traders are closely watching as a potential pivot for the next move.
XRP price analysis
From a technical perspective, momentum indicators suggest that bearish pressure is gradually fading. The relative strength index (RSI) currently sits near 50, reflecting neutral momentum and a balance between buyers and sellers.
Meanwhile, the Awesome Oscillator has steadily climbed toward the zero line after spending several weeks in negative territory, a shift that typically indicates weakening downside momentum and the possibility of a trend reversal.
Additional support for market sentiment could come from developments around Ripple, which recently launched a $750 million share buyback program aimed at repurchasing shares from early investors and employees.
While the buyback does not directly affect XRP supply, it is often viewed by market participants as a sign of confidence in the broader ecosystem surrounding the token.
Technically, XRP faces immediate resistance near $1.45 to $1.50, a zone that has repeatedly capped recent rallies.
A decisive breakout above that level could open the path toward $1.60 and potentially $1.70, while failure to hold above $1.30–$1.35 could expose the token to renewed downside pressure.
Crypto World
Can Ethereum price rally continue above $2100 as BlackRock’s staked Ethereum ETF launches?
Ethereum’s price rallied to a weekly high of $2,144 on Friday following the strong debut of investment manager BlackRock’s staked Ethereum ETF.
Summary
- Ethereum price broke past the $2,100 resistance level on March 13.
- BlackRock’s staking ETF ETHB pulled in $15.5 million in trading volume on launch day.
- A bullish SMA crossover is close to confirmation on the daily chart.
According to data from crypto.news, Ethereum (ETH) price shot up nearly 6% to $2,144 during Friday morning Asian time before stabilizing around $2,100 at the time of writing. At this valuation, the second-largest crypto asset by market cap sits 11% above its weekly low and over 18% from its lowest point in February.
The rally gained momentum after BlackRock recorded a very strong debut with its iShares Staked Ethereum ETF (ETHB) on Nasdaq. The first Ethereum ETF from the world’s largest asset manager to include staking pulled in around $15.5 million in trading volume on its first day.
For context, the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) operates by holding spot Ethereum and dynamically staking between 70% and 95% of its reserves directly on the Ethereum network. This structure allows investors to receive 82% of staking rewards through monthly distributions. This largely differs from existing Ethereum ETFs, where investors forego staking rewards, making those older products much less appealing.
As such, there is a strong possibility that investors could begin rotating their capital from other ETH ETFs, including BlackRock’s own ETHA, which offers no staking, into the new ETHB.
Investors who have previously stayed on the sidelines due to the lack of yield could now also enter the market while enjoying the added benefits of staking rewards. This shift, driven by those who finally see the ETF as a productive asset, could likely act as a fresh catalyst to sustain the current uptrend.
Meanwhile, besides the ETF news, a sharp drop in crude oil prices provided extra tailwinds. Brent crude dropped 7% today, renewing investor demand for risk assets, including Ethereum, as they rotate away from traditional safe-haven assets.
On the daily chart, technical indicators seem to suggest that Ethereum’s price could sustain its rally above $2,100 in the short term.
Notably, the 20-day moving average appears to be close to confirming a bullish crossover with the 50-day moving average. Meanwhile, the Aroon Up remains at 35.71%, which is comfortably above the Aroon Down at 7.14%. Ethereum’s RSI has also yet to enter the overbought area.
This suggests there is still room for the uptrend to continue before any potential exhaustion or reversal occurs.
For now, $2,200 could act as the immediate resistance that traders will be watching closely for signs of a breakout. A move above that level could act as a definitive confirmation of a positive shift in market sentiment.
A rally above that mark would also invalidate a major bearish pattern. As previously reported by analysts at crypto.news, the price has been forming a bearish flag pattern over multiple months.
Bearish flag patterns are considered some of the most bearish formations in technical analysis. If ETH falls towards $1800, it would confirm the pattern.
Despite clear warnings, a trader confirmed a massive $50M swap and received just 324 Aave tokens
A user attempted to purchase the AAVE token with $50 million worth of Tether through the Aave interface on March 12, but the trade executed poorly after the user accepted a warning about extreme slippage.
According to Aave Labs founder and CEO Stani Kulechov, the transaction involved a single order of significant size placed through the Aave interface, which integrates routing infrastructure provided by CoW Swap. Because of the unusually large order size, the interface displayed a warning about extraordinary slippage and required explicit confirmation before the swap could proceed.
$50M Trade Gone Wrong
The warning appeared as a confirmation checkbox, which the user had to manually accept before completing the transaction. Kulechov said the user confirmed the warning on a mobile device and chose to proceed with the trade despite the slippage notification. Due to the execution conditions and the liquidity available through the routing path, the user ultimately received only 324 AAVE tokens in return for the $50 million USDT order.
Kulechov stated that the transaction could not have moved forward without the user explicitly acknowledging the warning and confirming acceptance of the associated risks through the interface. He said the routing infrastructure functioned as designed and that the integration with CoW Swap followed standard practices commonly used across the DeFi sector.
However, the final execution was significantly worse than what would typically be expected in a more liquid market environment. Kulechov noted that events involving high slippage can occur in DeFi when users attempt to execute trades that are far larger than the liquidity available in the relevant markets, although he said the scale of this specific transaction was significantly larger than what is normally seen in the space.
In response to the incident, the exec said the Aave team sympathizes with the user and will attempt to establish contact with them. He added that the protocol plans to return approximately $600,000 in fees that were collected from the transaction. Kulechov said that while maintaining the permissionless nature of DeFi remains important, the industry can still build additional guardrails to help reduce the likelihood of similar incidents in the future.
User Freedom vs Protection
CoW Protocol, which is a DEX aggregator, took to X and explained that “preventing users from making trades removes choice and can lead to terrible outcomes in some situations.” It also added that trades like these demonstrate that “DeFi UX still isn’t where it needs to be to protect all users. As a team, we are now reviewing how we balance strong safeguards with preserving user autonomy.”
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The platform asserted that it will refund any fees sent to CoW DAO.
The incident quickly drew reactions across the crypto community. A popular crypto analyst, Autism Capital, described the event as a “teachable moment about money.”
Meanwhile, another crypto commentator, KJ Crypto, questioned the motivation behind such a large purchase attempt and tweeted that it raises questions about why someone would want to acquire $50 million worth of Aave in a single transaction.
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The Bitcoin Policy Institute said it plans to review and respond to an upcoming proposal from the Federal Reserve that could shape how U.S. banks treat Bitcoin under international banking standards.
Summary
- The Bitcoin Policy Institute plans to review and comment on an upcoming Federal Reserve proposal on Basel rules.
- The proposal will open a 90-day public comment period for industry feedback.
- Current Basel guidance assigns Bitcoin a 1250% risk weighting, discouraging banks from holding or servicing the asset.
Bitcoin Policy Institute to weigh in as Fed prepares Basel proposal for banks
According to Conner Brown, the Federal Reserve is expected to issue a public proposal next week outlining how American banks should implement risk-weighting guidance under the Basel Accords.
The proposal will apply to the largest U.S. banks and will open a 90-day public comment period, allowing industry participants, policy groups and financial institutions to submit feedback before the rules are finalized.
Brown said the institute intends to participate in the process to ensure regulators “get Bitcoin’s treatment right.”
Under the Basel framework, Bitcoin (BTC) is currently assigned a 1250% risk weighting, which effectively treats the cryptocurrency as a highly risky asset on bank balance sheets. Such a requirement forces banks to hold significantly higher levels of capital against Bitcoin exposure compared with most traditional assets.
Critics argue that this classification makes it difficult for banks to provide financial services to Bitcoin users and companies, as the capital requirements can discourage institutions from interacting with the sector.
“The Federal Reserve just announced that next week they will issue a public proposal for how banks should implement Basel risk weighting guidance,” Brown said in a post on X, adding that the think tank would review the document and submit a formal public comment.
The upcoming consultation comes as policymakers in the United States continue to debate how digital assets should fit within the global banking regulatory framework.
Industry advocates say the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s proposal could play a key role in determining whether traditional financial institutions expand or limit their engagement with Bitcoin-related services in the future.
In crypto’s latest infrastructure race, blockchains are competing to host perpetual futures exchanges. Many are now launching or incubating decentralized derivatives markets themselves, even as centralized platforms continue to dominate.
Derivatives make up most of today’s crypto trading activity, often accounting for the majority of total volume. On Tuesday, Bitcoin (BTC) spot trading volume across centralized exchanges reached about 55,230 BTC while derivatives volume totaled more than 506,600 BTC, according to CryptoQuant.
Perpetual decentralized exchanges, or perp DEXs, now act as core infrastructure as they give traders, market makers and institutional participants access to leveraged products, according to Nina Rong, executive director of growth at BNB Chain.
“When these players are active on a chain, they bring liquidity, hedging activity, and arbitrage flows, which significantly increase overall onchain volume and strengthen the ecosystem’s trading environment,” she told Cointelegraph.
While several blockchains are exploring their own derivatives venues, launching one does not automatically translate into meaningful or sustained trading activity. Derivatives liquidity has historically consolidated around a small number of dominant exchanges rather than spreading evenly across platforms.
Blockchains begin building or incubating their own perp DEXs
The logic is quite straightforward. If derivatives drive a large share of crypto trading volume, a perp DEX can help a blockchain attract more trading activity.
“In many ways, it has become a competitive race: the chains that host the largest number of successful derivatives platforms are more likely to attract and sustain higher trading volume within their ecosystem,” said Rong.
For BNB Chain, that platform is Aster. On Thursday, it had the second-highest open interest among perp DEXs, according to DefiLlama. Rong claimed that Aster’s rise has helped BNB’s ability to maintain its market share.
Some chains are actively incubating perp DEXs instead of waiting for an external team to select their network to build on. One such example is Decibel, which went live on the Aptos mainnet on Feb. 26.
“What you actually see in the crypto ecosystem as a whole is different L1s and different blockchains starting to think about what is actually going to use the block space,” Brylee Whatley, the head of Decibel Foundation, told Cointelegraph.
“A lot of L1 teams realize they are in the best position to understand the mechanics of their own chains and build applications on top of them,” he said.
Related: Aster delisting exposes DeFi’s growing integrity crisis
Whatley added that Decibel itself was not part of the recent rush by blockchains to build perp DEXs. Aptos has been incubating Decibel for about a year, many months before Hyperliquid, Aster and Lighter vied for market dominance.
Liquidity tends to consolidate around dominant venues
Launching a perp DEX will not guarantee a fountain of eternal liquidity. According to Stephan Lutz, CEO of BitMEX, derivatives trading has historically tended to cluster around a few platforms.
“All markets (derivatives and spot) rely heavily on market makers and strong risk management systems. These participants usually favor platforms that already have liquidity and a track record,” Lutz told Cointelegraph.
This means in the long run, it is inefficient to separate trading venues per chain or coin. Given that traders often trade across multiple chains and coins, we believe that consolidation is an almost natural process.”
A similar pattern has played out in traditional financial markets over the past three decades. The shift to electronic trading in the 1990s led to a wave of exchanges and alternative platforms entering the market. Over time, liquidity often reconsolidated around venues with deeper order books, lower spreads and more reliable infrastructure, according to research published by the Bank for International Settlements.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) dominates much of the US futures market in TradFi today. The Intercontinental Exchange leads in energy derivatives and Eurex Exchange is a major venue for European index futures.
In crypto, the majority of Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) derivatives trading has historically concentrated on a few exchanges like Binance, OKX, Bybit and Deribit. More recently, decentralized platforms such as Hyperliquid have emerged as significant players for perpetual futures activity.
Centralized exchanges still provide advantages such as order handling, risk management, liquidity and trading infrastructure, while fully onchain platforms are limited by block times, leading to delays and slippage, Sidrah Fariq, head of retail sales at Deribit, told Cointelegraph.
“In addition, centralized exchanges can offer greater privacy, which can be important for institutional traders,” she added.
Meanwhile, proponents of onchain exchanges argue that decentralization and composability allow derivatives liquidity to embed itself within specific ecosystems.
Related: Why institutions still prefer Ethereum despite faster blockchains
“Your order book is on the blockchain and verifiable, and order matching follows price-time priority set by the blockchain itself,” said Decibel’s Whatley.
“When you send an order you know exactly how it’s getting matched and that it’s entering the order book fairly instead of being routed somewhere else,” he said.
The “U” shape of derivatives markets
The long-term picture for derivatives may depend on whether perp DEXs differentiate themselves across networks or simply replicate the same products. Rong of BNB Chain said networks that offer distinct features may have an advantage.
“Chains win by offering unique yield opportunities or distinctive trading venues that are not available elsewhere,” she said. But if similar platforms emerge everywhere, “the result will likely be fragmentation across multiple ecosystems, rather than a single dominant hub.”
At the same time, market dynamics may eventually push liquidity back toward a smaller set of venues. Lutz from BitMEX said market makers and professional traders tend to cluster where they can deploy capital efficiently and manage risk across many assets without jumping between platforms.
“If liquidity is too spread out across several derivatives platforms, it often leads to wider spreads and more volatile markets,” he said.
That dynamic may produce what Lutz described as a cyclical pattern for ecosystems experimenting with their own derivative platforms.
“We expect a U-shaped technical liquidity development per ecosystem,” he said, where new venues initially see a surge of activity before momentum fades.
Perpetual futures markets now influence where liquidity forms, how traders hedge risk and which platforms dominate trading activity. As blockchains compete to host those markets, derivatives trading is increasingly becoming core infrastructure for crypto ecosystems.
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