HyperLiquid now accounts for roughly 90% of daily active users across all decentralized perpetual futures exchanges, according to a Cointelegraph post citing on-chain user data. The remaining 10% is split between dYdX, GMX, Vertex, and a long tail of smaller venues.
That ratio is the most concentrated reading the perp DEX category has produced since the segment took shape in 2021. It also lands during a softer crypto tape, with BTC at $78,929 (-1.8% over 24 hours) and ETH at $2,222 (-1.2%) as of May 16, 2026, suggesting the dominance is not a function of a broad altcoin frenzy but of where traders are actually parking their order flow.
A two-year reversal in market share
In 2024, dYdX was the default answer for decentralized perpetual futures, with GMX and Synthetix-based front-ends fighting for the next tier. HyperLiquid was a newer L1 with a custom order book and a small user base. By early 2025 the trajectory had flipped: HyperLiquid's order book matched centralized-exchange latency closely enough that traders began routing size to it, and a high-profile points program pulled in retail.
The 90% DAU figure now puts HyperLiquid past the threshold that crypto analysts typically use to label a venue as a category monopoly. For comparison, Binance commands roughly 40 to 50% of centralized perp volume depending on the week; HyperLiquid's share among decentralized venues is in a different bracket.
DAU is the harder metric to game
Volume dominance can be skewed by a handful of whales. Daily active users is harder to game and tends to track sticky retail. If HyperLiquid's DAU lead is real and durable, that points to two things: the user experience is good enough that traders return without incentives, and the order book has the depth to fill medium-size positions without slippage that would drive users back to centralized exchanges.
That has implications beyond HyperLiquid itself. A perp DEX with 90% DAU share starts to function as a price discovery venue, not just an alternative to Binance. Funding rates and basis on HyperLiquid would, in that scenario, feed into spot pricing rather than follow it.
Risks in the concentration
A single venue holding nine out of ten active users is also a single point of failure. If HyperLiquid encounters a validator issue, a smart contract bug, or a regulatory action targeting its US-accessible front-end, there is no obvious failover. dYdX has rebuilt its chain twice and still has roughly a tenth of HyperLiquid's user base. GMX runs on Arbitrum and Avalanche and serves a different trader profile.
The Bitwise spot Hyperliquid ETF, BHYP, began trading this week with in-house staking, and Grayscale amended its HYPE filing to include staking. Institutional product wrappers tracking HYPE are arriving exactly as protocol-level concentration intensifies. That combination cuts both ways: ETF inflows could deepen liquidity, but they also tie traditional finance exposure to a venue whose dominance leaves no equivalent backup.
Implications for the rest of the field
dYdX still has a working chain and a recognized brand. GMX has a token model that some traders prefer. Vertex bundles spot and perp. None of those are likely to disappear, but their growth case has narrowed: each now competes for a 10% pool rather than an open market.
Builders launching new perp DEXs in mid-2026 face a different cost structure than the 2024 cohort. The bar for fighting for share against HyperLiquid is no longer feature parity. It is either a specific geographic or asset niche, or a structural advantage in execution or fees that HyperLiquid's order book cannot match.
For traders, the practical takeaway is that liquidity has consolidated. Routing decisions that used to involve comparing four or five venues now collapse into a check on whether HyperLiquid lists the pair and at what depth.
Overview
HyperLiquid commands roughly 90% of daily active users across decentralized perpetual futures exchanges as of mid-May 2026, per Cointelegraph data. dYdX, GMX, Vertex, and smaller venues share the remaining 10%. The concentration arrives alongside live and pending ETF products tied to HYPE, raising the stakes for any operational or regulatory event affecting the protocol.
