Perp DEX trading volume drops 34% to $21B as traders sit on their hands

Decentralized perpetual futures exchanges are experiencing a notable cooldown. Trading volume across perp DEXs has fallen 34% over the past six months, landing at roughly $21 billion in daily aggregate volume. But here’s the thing: open interest has only declined about 10% over the same stretch. That gap tells an interesting story. Traders aren’t closing out their positions en masse. They’re just not opening new ones at the pace they were six months ago. ## The numbers paint a clear picture Monthly perp DEX volume peaked at $1.36 trillion back in October 2025. By March 2026, that figure had cratered to $699 billion. As of early August 2026, aggregate 24-hour volume for perp DEXs has been ranging between $17.7 billion and $20.5 billion. The protocol-level breakdown reveals a familiar pattern of winner-take-most dynamics. Hyperliquid and Aster have been dominating the landscape, with their combined 30-day volumes exceeding $496 billion. ## Why volume dropped but positions didn’t The divergence between trading volume and open interest is the most telling data point here. A 34% volume drop paired with only a 10% decline in open interest suggests something specific about trader behavior...