- Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko reveals plans for a new sharded perpetual exchange protocol called Percolator.
- The move follows a VanEck report showing Hyperliquid’s rapid growth at the expense of Solana and other major chains.
- Rival DEXs Hyperliquid and Aster continue to dominate trading volumes across decentralized derivatives markets.
San Francisco, U.S. Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs, has announced plans to build a new decentralized exchange (DEX) focused on perpetual futures trading, as competition in the decentralized derivatives sector intensifies.
Yakovenko detailed the concept, called Percolator, in a GitHub proposal published on Monday, outlining a sharded perpetual exchange protocol designed to run natively on the Solana blockchain.
A perpetual exchange allows users to trade futures contracts without expiration dates, enabling continuous price speculation. Percolator will feature two main on-chain components a Router program, managing collateral, portfolio margins, and cross-slab routing; and a Slab program, a perpetuals engine operated by liquidity providers with “fully self-contained” matching and settlement functions.
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The proposal comes as Solana faces growing competition from next-generation DEXs like Hyperliquid and Aster, which have recently expanded market share in decentralized perpetuals trading.
Hyperliquid’s explosive growth pressures Solana
Yakovenko’s announcement follows a VanEck research report released two months earlier, which highlighted Hyperliquid’s rapid growth particularly at the expense of major chains such as Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain.
According to VanEck’s July crypto market recap, Hyperliquid accounted for 35% of all blockchain revenue, gaining traction by offering “a simple, highly functional product” that has attracted and retained high-value traders.
Hyperliquid’s monthly trading volume hit a record $319 billion in July, marking a surge in decentralized trading activity as users increasingly shift from centralized exchanges to on-chain platforms. The platform’s popularity soared after its April 2024 launch of spot trading, featuring an aggressive token listing strategy and streamlined user interface.
Last week, Hyperliquid introduced its HIP-3 upgrade, allowing third parties to independently deploy perpetual futures contracts with customizable parameters. The new feature requires users to stake 500,000 Hyperliquid (HYPE) tokens — worth approximately $18.2 million to launch a market.
Aster and Hyperliquid battle for DEX dominance
Meanwhile, rival DEX Aster, built on Binance’s BNB Chain, recently overtook Hyperliquid in daily perpetual trading volume, reaching $14.5 billion — nearly triple Hyperliquid’s 24-hour figure.
Despite that, Hyperliquid remains ahead on a monthly basis, recording $309 billion in 30-day trading volume versus Aster’s $145 billion, according to data from DefiLlama.
Aster was relisted by DefiLlama earlier on Monday after being temporarily delisted due to concerns over data transparency. Its return to the rankings underscores renewed competition among decentralized derivatives platforms vying for dominance in the fast-growing on-chain trading sector.
With Percolator, Yakovenko’s Solana aims to reassert itself in this rapidly evolving market leveraging its high throughput blockchain to compete with the new wave of high-performance DEXs shaping the future of decentralized finance.
