The Black Friday crash wiped $19 billion off the market — a record for liquidations. It revealed the difference in transparency between centralized and decentralized platforms. While Binance was losing stability, Hyperliquid held firm — and the October 10 crash became the industry’s most serious stress test since the fall of FTX.
The scandal around the listing on Binance and the market crash itself clearly showed one thing: centralized solutions are becoming increasingly expensive, and trust is gradually shifting toward open systems.
The Crash That Undermined Trust
According to Bloomberg, of the $19 billion in liquidations, more than $10 billion went through Hyperliquid — while Binance faced outages and was forced to compensate users for losses. The decentralized platform operated without interruption, showing stability even amid sharp volatility.
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan noted that blockchains “passed the stress test.” According to him, platforms like Hyperliquid, Uniswap, and Aave continued to operate stably, while Binance had to compensate for mistakes. He believes that decentralization helped maintain market integrity at a time when leveraged traders were being massively liquidated.
Spot trading volumes on Binance and Hyperliquid. Source: Dune
According to Dune, Binance still leads in spot trading volume. Hyperliquid‘s share does not yet exceed 10%, although the platform has been growing steadily up to mid-2025. However, the same trust crisis that emerged during the crash soon appeared in another form — in the scandal around listing fees.
Binance Under Fire for Listings
The CEO of Limitless Labs accused Binance of demanding up to 9% of a project’s total token supply and multimillion-dollar deposits for listing. Binance denied the accusations, explaining that these are refundable deposits and referred to its Alpha program. Nevertheless, the debate over the fairness of centralized listings flared up again — trust in CEX platforms came under pressure once more.
The criticism was also addressed by CZ, who stated that every exchange has its own model:
“Don’t like the fees? Build your own platform without them.”
Hyperliquid stated that their network has no listing fees, no departments, and no filters. You can launch a token freely by simply paying gas in HYPE — and projects receive up to 50% of the fees on their trading pairs.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams added that DEX platforms and AMM protocols already provide free listing and liquidity. According to him, if projects still pay centralized exchanges, it’s purely for marketing.
Hyperliquid Emerges as a Leader Among Onchain Platforms
According to DeFiLlama, the share of decentralized platforms for derivatives trading (perp DEX) grew from less than 10% in 2023 to 26% by 2025. In this segment, Hyperliquid became the clear leader. In September 2025, trading volume on the platform was about $200 billion, with a market capitalization of $13.2 billion.
For comparison, competitors’ numbers are more modest. The Aster platform showed a volume of $20 billion with a capitalization of $2.5 billion. dYdX — about $7 billion monthly and $1.5 trillion in total volume since inception.
VanEck confirmed that in July Hyperliquid received 35% of all onchain commission fees. Major partners joined the ecosystem — Circle issued native USDC on the network, and Eyenovia launched a validator and its own treasury pool in HYPE tokens. Thanks to the HIP-3 update, any developer can now create perpetual futures markets for any assets — everything works without permissions or restrictions.
According to Grayscale, decentralized exchanges have already come close to centralized ones in terms of price competitiveness. In the 2025 report, Hyperliquid is named the main breakthrough of the year. The company believes that DEX platforms will occupy a niche for illiquid assets in the future — where transparency and community governance are important.
The main advantage of Hyperliquid is efficiency. The exchange is run by a team of 10 engineers, yet it competes with Binance, which has 7,000 employees and $500 million in marketing budget. Instead of spending on advertising and listing procedures, Hyperliquid returns part of the profits to users through token value and liquidity rewards. In the VanEck report, this is called “profit without marketing expenses” — a competitive advantage that centralized platforms cannot replicate.
Monthly perpetual trading volumes on Hyperliquid and Binance. Source: The Block Data
According to the data, in August Hyperliquid‘s share of Binance‘s volume reached about 15%, after which it slightly decreased. This is a signal that traders’ interest in onchain derivatives continues to grow.
What Awaits Exchanges in the Coming Years
According to Bitwise analyst Max Shannon, annual trading volume on decentralized futures platforms could reach $20–30 trillion in the next five years — if regulators don’t get in the way. He emphasizes that with current daily volumes of $67 billion, DEX platforms will inevitably face oversight and will have to implement standardized oracles, audited insurance funds, and risk control systems.
Shannon clarifies:
“Perp-DEX platforms may fail, but their risks are transparent and fully onchain.”
A similar view was expressed by the research company OAK:
“Hyperliquid has everything to become a true financial home.”
Meanwhile, the investment fund Paradigm appealed to the CFTC to recognize DeFi transparency as a full basis for regulation. In their view, decentralized trading already meets key regulatory goals — such as impartial access and auditability.
Meanwhile, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen is confident that centralized exchanges will retain their positions if they adapt to new realities:
“Hybrid models are the future. It’s a combination of non-custodial trading, deep liquidity, and regulatory trust.”
While regulators are increasingly making moves toward DeFi and institutional players are starting to build processes on onchain infrastructure, the Hyperliquid ecosystem is becoming the most compelling alternative to the centralized model — where transparency replaces trust.
