Retail Traders Drive DEX Growth While Institutions Prefer Centralized Platforms
Decentralized exchanges are gaining strong traction among retail traders and quantitative firms while institutional players maintain their preference for centralized platforms. According to Cointelegraph, Bitget Wallet chief marketing officer Jamie Elkaleh stated that platforms like Hyperliquid see their strongest adoption "coming from retail traders and semi-professional quants."
Retail users participate primarily due to airdrop cultures and points systems offered by DEX platforms. Quantitative trading firms prefer these venues for their "low fees, fast fills, and programmable strategies," Elkaleh explained. However, institutional trading desks continue relying on centralized exchanges due to their fiat banking integration, compliance services, and prime brokerage offerings.
The execution quality gap between DEXs and centralized exchanges is closing rapidly. Order-book based DEXs such as Hyperliquid, dYdX v4, and GMX now deliver latency and depth that used to be exclusive to centralized platforms, according to Elkaleh.
Competition Drives DEX Innovation and Volume Growth
The intensifying competition between perpetual DEX platforms has led to record-breaking trading volumes and rapid market share shifts. Aster has emerged as a major challenger to Hyperliquid's dominance, with recent data showing Aster processing $47 billion in perpetual volume compared to Hyperliquid's $17 billion over a 24-hour period.
DL News reports that Aster runs on BNB Chain and has backing from YZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs. The platform has captured significant market share through aggressive incentive campaigns that recently pushed its daily perpetual volume to record levels. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has also promoted the project publicly, helping drive adoption.
BNB Chain and Solana-based DEX protocols recently achieved $60-70 billion in daily turnover, benefiting from fast settlement times, smooth user onboarding, and token incentives. We previously reported that an $11 billion Bitcoin whale purchased $216 million worth of Ethereum on Hyperliquid, demonstrating the platform's capacity to handle large institutional-scale transactions.
DEX Market Share Battle Reshapes Trading Landscape
The perpetual DEX sector is experiencing unprecedented growth that reflects broader shifts in cryptocurrency trading infrastructure. Crypto.news data shows Aster surged 20% to reach a new all-time high of $2.12, driven by its success in overtaking Hyperliquid in 24-hour trading volume. The platform processed $21.89 billion compared to Hyperliquid's $9.72 billion during recent peak activity.
Market analysts view this competition as part of a broader decentralization trend affecting traditional finance. According to BeInCrypto, perpetual trading volume on decentralized exchanges reached an all-time high of $898 billion in Q2 2025. The DEX-to-CEX volume ratio hit a record 0.23, reflecting significant movement toward decentralized trading infrastructure.
Despite rapid DEX growth, both platform types face ongoing coexistence rather than displacement. Elkaleh noted that DEXs remain the future of crypto-native trading while centralized exchanges continue providing essential fiat liquidity and user onboarding services. Hybrid models blending both platform strengths may emerge over the next decade, creating balanced ecosystems where different trading venues serve complementary roles in cryptocurrency markets.
