CoinGecko’s latest report on crypto perpetuals shows a market that is still led by centralized venues, but with weaker activity and a rising on-chain challenge. The top 11 perpetual CEXs averaged $4.69 trillion in monthly trading volume in the first four months of 2026, down from $7.11 trillion in 2025, a decline of 34%. Over the same period, the top 12 perpetual DEXs averaged $611.57 billion per month, up from $531.65 billion in 2025.
Listing pace differs sharply across major exchanges
MEXC and BingX listed the most perpetual contracts between January 2025 and April 2026, adding 879 and 565 markets respectively. That worked out to 55 and 35 new listings per month on average. At the other end, six of the top 11 CEXs listed fewer than 20 contracts a month on average, and Crypto.com added the fewest. Binance also leaned more heavily into perpetuals than spot, launching 305 perpetual markets over the past 16 months versus 125 spot listings, with many tied to memecoins and AI-related tokens.
Open interest recovered in April, but trading stayed soft
Open interest on the top 11 perpetual CEXs climbed after a weak stretch, though turnover did not follow. After peaking at $185.38 billion in 2025 and then dropping sharply after the October 10 liquidation event, aggregate CEX open interest showed signs of recovery in March and April 2026. As BTC rebounded from $65,000 to $80,000 during April, open interest rose from $76.52 billion at the start of the month to $85.76 billion by month-end, up 12.1%. Trading volume stayed lower, with March and April posting $4.5 trillion and $4.4 trillion, both below February’s $4.8 trillion.
BTC and ETH still dominate the main contracts
Even with many new markets going live, volume and open interest remained concentrated in large-cap assets. In 2025, BTC pairs posted an average daily trading volume of $69.31 billion, and at the January 2025 peak they accounted for 65.3% of total perpetual activity. By the end of April 2026, BTC-related volume had fallen 43% from early 2025 levels to $428.1 billion, while its share dropped to 50.2%. ETH’s share rose from 21.2% in January 2025 to 57% in August that year, then eased to 35.6% by April 2026. The top five major pairs — BTC, ETH, SOL, DOGE and XRP — saw total open interest fall from $79.1 billion to $60.4 billion, though they still represented 70.4% of total open interest across the top 11 CEXs.
Hyperliquid remains central to DEX expansion
Perpetual DEXs expanded rapidly in 2025, with the DEX-to-CEX volume ratio climbing from 3% in January 2025 to a peak of 13% in November, before slipping back to 10% in April 2026. Hyperliquid was the clearest driver. In April, it recorded $190.2 billion in volume, equal to about 3.9% of all perpetual exchange trading, ranking ninth overall. It also held 59.1% of perpetual DEX open interest, or roughly $7.88 billion, putting it fifth among all perpetual exchanges.
The DEX share of total open interest also moved higher. Total crypto open interest fell from $120.35 billion at the start of 2025 to $99.09 billion by the end of April 2026, yet the DEX portion rose from 3.6% to 13.5%. Since early October 2025, DEXs have consistently held more than 10% of aggregate open interest.
RWA perpetuals became a larger part of the market
The report also highlighted strong growth in RWA perpetuals. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, total RWA perpetual volume reached $524.79 billion, which was 67.7% higher than the full-year total for 2025. April volume came in at $333.56 billion, equal to 63.6% of first-quarter activity. At present, RWA perpetuals account for about 7.1% of trading volume and 5.6% of total open interest. In April, RWA spot volume was $21.47 billion, while perpetual volume was more than 15 times larger.