DEX trading volume tops $1T for the first time in July, Hyperliquid leads record perp surge

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.

Decentralized exchanges (DEX) reached $1 trillion in monthly trading volume for the first time in July.

According to DefiLlama data, spot trading volume grew 29.4% and reached nearly $514 billion last month, bested only by January’s all-time high of $568 billion.

At the same time, perpetual futures’ monthly volume increased 33.6% to register a new all-time high of $487 billion, with Hyperliquid registering a new record in monthly perpetual trading.

BNB dominance on spot

For the third consecutive month, BNB Chain dominated spot trading volumes. The chain’s volumes grew 15.3% and totaled $196.3 billion in July, representing 38.2% the monthly total.

PancakeSwap was the main driver behind growth, which amounted to $188.2 billion in spot trading volume. The BNB-native exchange volume is larger than the other four top DEXs combined, which is approximately $168 billion.

Uniswap registered the second-largest spot volume among DEXs in July, with $96.4 billion. Meanwhile, Solana-based decentralized exchanges wrapped up the top five.

Raydium, Meteora, and Orca registered $31.8 billion, $20 billion, and $19.5 billion, respectively. The five largest blockchains by volume remained the same between June and July, with just one slight change.

Runner-ups

Ethereum registered the second-largest monthly volume at nearly $86 billion, growing 49.3% from June, while Solana slid from second to third place in monthly spot trading volume despite growing 36.6% to reach $85.1 billion. 

Base and Arbitrum maintained their posts from June as the fourth- and fifth-largest blockchains by spot trading volume, respectively. 

Base’s volume increased by 46.8% and reached $41.6 billion, the first time the layer-2 blockchain surpassed $40 billion since January. At the same time, Arbitrum was the only chain in the top five with one-digit growth, reaching $19.2 billion in volume after jumping 7.4%.

Hyperliquid’s perpetuals reign

Hyperliquid became the first blockchain to surpass the $300 billion threshold in perpetual volume, reaching $323.4 billion in July after a 48.3% growth.

The volume surpasses Ethereum’s $48.7 billion by a large margin, which held the spot of the second-largest chain in perpetual trading volume last month. Despite the difference, Ethereum has grown by almost 56% since June.

The difference is even larger when decentralized exchanges for perpetual’s volumes are considered. Hyperliquid reached $313.4 billion, dominating 64.3% of the market and posting 16 times Jupiter’s volume of $19.4 billion.

Solana, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum wrap up the top five in perpetuals with $37.2 billion, $21.6 billion, and $19 billion in volumes, respectively.