CEX perpetual futures volume falls to $4T, lowest since late 2023

Crypto perpetual futures trading volume on centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs) fell to $4 trillion in July, marking a 31-month low last seen in December 2023.

Perpetual futures volumes briefly recovered between April and June before declining across all major venues in July.

The 31-month low in perpetual futures activity came as daily spot crypto trading volume fell 23.6% between July 1 and July 31, from $17.8 billion to $13.6 billion, according to analytics provider Coinglass.

Perps volume on DEXs nears one-year low

Perpetual trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) fell to $531 billion in July, the lowest level since June 2025 and a 21% decline from the $676 billion seen in June 2026, according to data aggregator DefiLlama.

Perpetuals trading volume on decentralized exchanges. Source: DefiLlama

Perps trading volume on DEXs has trended lower since the $1.36 trillion seen in October 2025.

Open interest on DEXs has also fallen to $17.9 billion in July from a peak of $19.4 billion in September 2025. Open interest measures the total value of active, unsettled contracts and can indicate whether new capital is entering or exiting the market.

Hyperliquid was the leading DEX with $199 billion in reported trading volume over the past 30 days. A growing share of Hyperliquid’s trading volume has come from tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), which accounted for 32% of Hyperliquid’s second-quarter trading activity, generating 6.6% of the protocol’s $169 million quarterly revenue. 

Tokenized assets became Hyperliquid’s largest trading category for the first time last month, with RWAs accounting for 52% of its total weekly trading volume between July 13 and July 19.