Rise of the perps 🟢

Decentralized perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid was Decrypt's Project of the Year—but experts are split on the rise of perps.

Author

Stacy Jones
December 19, 2025

đź“ť What you need to know

Decrypt’s Project of the Year is decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, which helped popularize perpetual futures, easily accessible leverage, and decentralized exchanges specializing in the investment strategy.

It’s not just that Hyperliquid itself experienced huge growth in 2025, it also helped spawn a new class of crypto companies known as perp DEXs—short-hand for decentralized exchanges specializing in perpetual futures. For better or worse, perpetual futures have become the new frontier for retail traders to gamble with life-changing sums of borrowed money in the hopes of striking it rich.

“This can be seen as a new dawn for financial nihilists,” Dr. Amin Samman, senior academic in international political economy at City, University of London, and the author of “Currency of Nihilism,” told Decrypt.

Decrypt’s 2025 Project of the Year: Hyperliquid

Perpetual futures, leverage, decentralization, and financial nihilism: just some of the things that made Hyperliquid the project of the year.

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