-- As crypto finance enters its second half, DeFi is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Earlier waves were driven by liquidity mining, stablecoins, and yield aggregators, but by 2025 the narrative has shifted from “yield” to “efficiency”—from passive asset storage to intelligent derivatives and structured trading. The main battleground is now decentralized derivatives exchanges (Derivatives DEXs).
CEXs have scale and depth but limited transparency, while DEXs are closing the trust gap. DEX market share in global spot trading rose from 2.4% in 2023 to over 25% by mid-2025, while CEX volumes fell 28% year-on-year. DeFi’s structure has evolved: productive assets (staking yield, stablecoins, synthetic assets) rose from 38% to 63% of total TVL in 2024, while annualized capital turnover increased from 0.8× to 1.5×, reflecting a shift from static storage to dynamic utilization.
Market stratification has emerged: top-tier protocols (Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Curve) hold 70–75% of liquidity; mid-tier derivatives-focused platforms (Hyperliquid, MUX, Aevo, dYdX) capture 20–25% of trading volume; emerging innovators (structured products, AI trading, cross-chain aggregation) are under 10% but grow fastest, with quarterly compounding above 45%.
Capital efficiency has become the new battleground. Traditional AMM capital utilization was 8–15%, while order-book and composable margin systems reach 45–60%, delivering 4–6× higher throughput. Unlike CEXs, which rely on centralized credit, DEXs rely on on-chain structures and protocol trust. Post-2025, the market seeks CEX-level performance without sacrificing decentralization—ushering the era of Performance-Fi. By September 2025, weekly global derivatives DEX volume exceeded $95B, a 178% year-on-year increase, yet still under 10% of CEX derivatives, showing vast growth potential. Projects like PopChain’s PFDEX are well-positioned for this structural shift.
The DEX sector mirrors early Internet de-platformization: growth is accelerating, but structural differentiation is key. As of August 2025, the top 10 DEXs account for 95% of market share; Uniswap and PancakeSwap together hold ~65%, anchoring liquidity in Ethereum and BNB ecosystems, respectively. Yet quality remains underdeveloped: most top DEXs are confined to AMM spot markets, limited by throughput, high slippage, cross-chain isolation, and suboptimal UX.
2025 marks the Performance-Era DEXs:
Hyperliquid achieves near-CEX speeds via on-chain order books.
Aerodrome optimizes stablecoin LP yield on Base.
Raydium and Meteora rebuild Solana liquidity in high-concurrency environments.
DEX/CEX volume ratios are now 20% for spot and 8% for perpetuals, with perpetual DEX share rising since mid-2024. Hyperliquid’s breakout in 2023 signaled the Perps DEX era.
PopChain’s PFDEX redefines high-performance derivatives through three layers:
Performance Layer: Built on PopChain L1, parallel execution and hybrid matching (off-chain matching + on-chain settlement) enable sub-second latency with full verifiability; clearing, margin, and liquidations are transparent.
Product Layer: Expands derivatives beyond finance—Hash Power Futures, AI Data Indices, and behavioral options transform behavior into tradable assets.
Ecosystem Layer: PFDEX integrates with PopChain ConnectFi, PenFolds, and Probly, linking trading data to tokenomics, governance, incentives, and risk control.
PFDEX transforms DEXs from financial tools into ecosystemic coordination layers, where identity, reputation, and activity influence leverage, fees, and rewards, turning trading into a credit-building process. High-performance L1 blockchains like PopChain support diverse derivatives, robust cross-chain flows, and integration with content, compute, and governance.
Capital efficiency is enhanced via Composable Margin Architecture, dynamically factoring risk correlations and volatilities, improving utilization 40–55% in high volatility and reducing inactive margin below 20% in stable periods. High-frequency market making maintains depth at lower costs, with annualized capital efficiency approaching 18–25% for high-liquidity pairs. This also optimizes market order, recording risk assumption and reward distribution on-chain.
DEX trust is being reconstructed: $38B migrated from CEXs to on-chain protocols in 2024–2025, with 55% into stablecoins/staking, 25% into derivatives, and the rest into RWAs and hash power finance. Institutional preference for auditable on-chain clearing rose from 30% in 2022 to 62% in 2025. Trust now relies on algorithmic, social, and economic dimensions, enhancing capital retention—Hyperliquid reaches 82%, compared to ~47% for smaller DEXs.
PFDEX exemplifies this ConnectFi vision, unifying trading, identity, compute, content, and prediction within a self-reinforcing economic network. It bridges the gap between CEX efficiency and DEX transparency, turning capital into circulating, productive assets and setting the standard for next-generation structured yield.
In sum, PFDEX represents the second-generation DEX, focusing not only on liquidity but on system-wide coordination, transforming decentralized derivatives into an autonomous, performance-oriented, and trustable financial ecosystem.
Contact Info:
Name: Bella Li
Email: Send Email
Organization: PFDEX
Website: https://popchain.ai
Release ID: 89174826
If you encounter any issues, discrepancies, or concerns regarding the content provided in this press release, or if there is a need for a press release takedown, we urge you to notify us without delay at error@releasecontact.com (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our expert team will be available to promptly respond within 8 hours – ensuring swift resolution of identified issues or offering guidance on removal procedures. Delivering accurate and reliable information is fundamental to our mission.
