The breakthrough of decentralized exchanges.

For years, almost all crypto trading revolved around centralized exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase. Decentralized exchanges have existed since 2017, but they long remained a niche. They were slow, complicated to use, and simply did not attract enough liquidity. For traders, the choice was clear. Centralized exchanges offered speed, convenience, and deep order books.

That picture is now fundamentally shifting. With the launch of Hyperliquid in 2023, for the first time a decentralized exchange emerged that could match centralized players in terms of speed and user experience. Within a short time, the platform attracted enormous liquidity. This year Aster followed, taking the same route and growing at record pace.

The numbers show how big this shift has become. According to The Block, the market share of decentralized exchanges in the total futures market has risen from around 4 percent in September 2024 to almost 18 percent in September 2025. Hyperliquid is the clearest example. On some days it even processes more perpetual trading volume than Binance, still the largest centralized exchange in the world.

Why are traders switching? Not only because of speed and liquidity. DEXs offer something centralized exchanges can never fully deliver. Self custody, keeping control over your own funds without counterparty risk. Transparency, with every transaction on-chain and verifiable for anyone. And accessibility, where anyone with a wallet can participate without depending on a bank or central party.

This is not just a technological improvement. It also opens up a huge market. Derivatives trading is one of the largest markets in traditional finance, and within crypto, futures determine a major share of trading activity. Until recently, decentralized exchanges played only a small role here, but now a turning point seems to have been reached. This time, investors can also participate directly through the tokens of the platforms themselves.

What once was a niche without traction is rapidly becoming a serious alternative. If this trend continues, power in crypto trading could permanently shift from centralized to decentralized exchanges, and for the first time investors can join the rise of this new generation of trading platforms from the very beginning.