After StandX's Exit, Reviewing 9 Potential "Opportunities" in the Perp DEX Space

Author: Jae, PANews

On October 15, StandX's announcement put the brakes on the rapidly advancing decentralized perpetual contract exchange (Perp DEX) sector.

Unlike the common soft exit strategy of "high valuation token issuance and allowing secondary market sell-offs," StandX chose a relatively dignified approach: gradually ceasing operations, abandoning the planned token generation event (TGE), and compensating community users with a one-time DUSD airdrop. Nevertheless, users who had long been accumulating StandX points will undoubtedly bear losses.

As the tide recedes, it is also a time for reassessment. PANews has compiled nine mainstream Perp DEX protocols currently on the market, exploring potential opportunities in the next round of Perp DEX airdrop markets from the perspectives of protocol fundamentals, point mechanisms, and potential risks.

Mature Sector: An Intense Competitive Battlefield Under High Certainty

These types of protocols have mature product forms, stable trading volumes, and clear backgrounds, making them recognized as "top students" in the market. However, a common issue is that the point activities have entered the mid-to-late stages, with early benefits being devoured by many players, leading to rapidly declining marginal returns for newcomers.

Variational: Token Distribution Expectations Relatively Certain

Variational boasts a luxurious background: founded by former executives from Genesis Global Trading's engineering and quantitative research teams, it has raised over $61.8 million, with top-tier institutions like Bain Capital Crypto, Dragonfly Capital, and Coinbase Ventures all involved. Its retail application, Omni, is deployed on Arbitrum, providing perpetual contract trading through an RFQ pricing model.

Among the Perp DEXs that have yet to hold a TGE, Variational has already gained a significant lead: a TVL of approximately $291 million, a 30-day trading volume of $81.465 billion, and an open interest of $999.7 million.

In terms of incentive mechanisms, Variational promises to allocate 32% of its genesis airdrop to point holders, which is considered a very high standard among venture capital-led projects. The protocol quantifies users' trading contributions through the Omni Points system and operates with a rare "zero trading fee" and "loss refunds" mechanism. Under this mechanism, eligible loss orders can receive real-time funding compensation ranging from 1% to 15%, reducing the hidden friction costs for retail participants.

However, its point program has entered a sprint phase, with many early users having accumulated substantial points, significantly diluting the profit margins for new entrants.

Extended: Fierce Competition in the Old Points Pool

Extended carries the genes of traditional finance, developed by the former crypto business team of European digital bank Revolut, and completed a strategic financing round of $12.5 million led by retail brokerage giant eToro in mid-year. The protocol has a zero order fee and a taker fee of about 0.025%, making it highly competitive on the fee front.

Currently, Extended has a TVL of approximately $119 million, a 30-day trading volume of $7.12 billion, and an open interest of $92.98 million.

Its point program has reached its final stage: a total of approximately 69.24 million points have been accumulated, nearing the threshold of 70 million points, with a weekly point distribution cap of 600,000.

It is worth noting that Extended had previously reduced points for some accounts in August, indicating that it has significant discretion over the point rules; combined with the total point amount nearing the ceiling, new participants face relatively low unit capital output.

Pacifica: A Hot Target in the Solana Ecosystem

Pacifica is deployed on the Solana chain and was co-founded by former FTX COO Constance Wang along with technical personnel from Jane Street, Binance, OpenAI, and DeepMind. Its most distinctive feature is that the protocol relies on its own business revenue for operation, without external venture capital financing, resulting in a relatively clean token structure.

Currently, Pacifica has a TVL of approximately $24.19 million, a 30-day trading volume of $1.0751 billion, and an open interest of $60.31 million, achieving high turnover with a small scale.

In terms of point rules, Pacifica allocates 10 million points every Thursday, strictly emphasizing real trading and implementing post-facto penalties for behaviors such as wash trading, false orders, and witch attacks. The community generally expects the early airdrop ratio to be close to 30%.

However, Pacifica's point algorithm uses a dynamic black-box design, making it difficult for users to accurately calculate the input-output ratio, resulting in lower transparency.

Nado: The Ink Offshoot of the Kraken Ecosystem

Nado is deployed on the Ink chain of the Kraken ecosystem and is developed by former members of the Vertex team. The resources from Kraken and the Ink ecosystem may provide Nado with synergies in users, funds, and trading scenarios, while Vertex's technical accumulation also helps enhance product competitiveness. Currently, Nado has a TVL of approximately $50.79 million, a 30-day trading volume of $1.034 billion, and an open interest of $41.04 million.

Its main value lies in the qualification for the INK token airdrop: The Ink team has listed trading records and liquidity provision activities on Nado as important assessment criteria for the INK token airdrop. Early high-activity traders can also receive the "Templars of the Storm" official NFT, enjoying point bonus rights. Currently, the protocol is in its second season of point activities, distributing 950,000 points weekly.

It should be noted that the competition for points has entered the mid-to-late stage, making it difficult for new users to achieve sufficiently high marginal returns against the historical point accumulation of early players.

New Season Window: Participation Dividends for Early Layouts

These types of protocols have short activation times for point activities and low competition saturation, providing new participants with opportunities to narrow the gap with top players. Correspondingly, the maturity of the protocols is lower, and uncertainty is higher.

TxFlow: A Key Player to Watch in the New Season

TxFlow is a dedicated L1 and Perp DEX focusing on trade execution, claiming to support high-frequency trading concurrency of up to 250,000 TPS and single-block finality. Like Pacifica, it adheres to the principle of "zero investor token distribution," with no private placement rounds, and the tokens are more tilted towards the community.

Currently, TxFlow has a TVL of approximately $30.09 million, a 30-day trading volume of $377.3 million, and an open interest of $30.35 million.

On October 12, TxFlow officially launched its first season of point activities, distributing 1.25 million points weekly to traders, with additional points for referral activities. As a newly launched season, it is one of the targets with the least competitive pressure in the current market.

However, the independent blockchain architecture requires users to cross-chain their assets to the dedicated network, which may incur higher friction costs than the EVM ecosystem; the actual throughput capacity and stability of the network still need to be verified.

RISEx: Clear Mechanism but Longer Cycle

RISEx is deployed on the Ethereum L2 RISE Chain, supported by $7.2 million investments from Vitalik Buterin, Galaxy Digital, and Finality Capital. Currently, RISEx has a TVL of approximately $20.61 million, a 30-day trading volume of $342 million, and an open interest of $36.37 million.

On July 20, RISEx launched the "Ignite Season 1" point program, distributing 200,000 points weekly, with the activity cycle potentially lasting until the second quarter of 2027, which could be a "points marathon."

The lengthy point cycle will continue to consume users' funds and time, and the fixed weekly point total cannot predict future token value, making the cost-effectiveness of time and returns relatively uncertain.

Perpl: A Potential Target in the Monad Ecosystem

Perpl is a Perp DEX tailored for the high-performance parallel EVM chain Monad, having completed $9.25 million in financing led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Mirana Ventures and HashKey. Currently, it is still small in scale, with a TVL of approximately $3.31 million, a 30-day trading volume of $539 million, and an open interest of $9.25 million.

On June 10, Perpl launched the mPoints point activity, distributing 50,000 points weekly, which users can earn through trading, providing liquidity, and referrals. Its participation logic is to bet on the explosive dividends of the Monad ecosystem.

However, ecosystem heat does not equate to trading depth, and whether the actual growth of the Monad ecosystem can support Perpl's trading volume remains highly uncertain.

Narrative Additions: Incremental Dividends Linked to Major Ecosystems

The value of these protocols goes beyond their own, as they are linked to the narrative dividends of top ecosystems, enjoying the spillover effects of ecosystem growth.

Arcus: A Pioneer in RWA on the Robinhood Chain

Arcus is deeply incubated by dYdX Labs and jointly developed with Robinhood Crypto, focusing on self-custodied tokenized stock perpetual contracts. It inherits years of architectural experience and tens of millions of dollars in financing from the dYdX team while also obtaining an entry ticket to the Robinhood Chain ecosystem.

Currently, Arcus has a TVL of approximately $58.73 million, a 30-day trading volume of $9.276 billion, and an open interest of $99.21 million. On October 1, Arcus launched its first season of point activities, distributing 250,000 points weekly, with zero fees for spot trading. The founder of dYdX has also publicly stated that future token allocations for Arcus will be tilted towards the dYdX community.

If the Robinhood Chain accommodates a large amount of on-chain securities and derivatives trading demand in the future, Arcus, as one of the first native protocols, will enjoy a strong first-mover advantage. Compared to older protocols that have already gone through multiple rounds, its early participation space is more ample.

Ondo Perps: May Not Have Independent Token Issuance Opportunities

Ondo Perps is developed by RWA leader Ondo Finance, with the main feature being that it allows traders to use tokenized US stocks and ETFs as collateral to open leveraged perpetual contracts. Currently, Ondo Perps has a 30-day trading volume of $4.272 billion and an open interest of $95 million.

On July 23, Ondo launched its point program, distributing 5 million Ondo Points weekly, allocated based on trading volume and position size. In addition to points, the platform also has a weekly USDC reward pool and referral commissions, allowing participants to earn both points and USDC rewards simultaneously.

It is important to note that Ondo Points are more akin to loyalty points, and the official has never promised to exchange them for ONDO or new tokens at a ratio. Moreover, the ONDO token has already circulated, and its nature differs from those protocols that are "yet to issue tokens, wash points, etc.," so one should not have overly high expectations for independent new tokens.

The Second Half of the Airdrop Game: Judgement is Key

Overall, Variational, Extended, Pacifica, and Nado represent relatively mature products but face intense point competition as potential airdrop projects; TxFlow, RISEx, Perpl, and Arcus provide opportunities for the next phase.

The exit of StandX does not mean the end of the Perp DEX airdrop era, but it serves as a reminder to the market: trading volume can be rapidly amplified through incentives, points can be continuously issued, but what is truly scarce is the ability to fulfill promises, retain users, and form sustainable income protocols.

The winners of the next round of Perp DEX airdrops may no longer be those who generate the most trading volume, but those who can make rational judgments between project narratives, real demand, and participation costs.