Centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs) saw perpetual futures trading volume decline to $4 trillion in July, the lowest level in 31 months and a threshold last seen in December 2023. Perpetual futures — derivative contracts with no expiry date that allow traders to speculate on price movements with leverage — account for the majority of crypto derivatives activity, making the decline a key barometer of leveraged market participation.

Binance maintained its leading position among CEXs with $1.4 trillion in monthly perpetual futures volume, according to analytics platform CryptoRank in a Friday X post. OKX ranked second with $607 billion, followed by Bybit with $300 billion.

Perpetual futures volumes had shown signs of recovery between April and June before declining across all major trading venues in July. The drop in futures activity coincided with a 23.6% decline in daily spot crypto trading volume over the same period, falling from $17.8 billion on July 1 to $13.6 billion on July 31, according to data from Coinglass. The simultaneous pullback in both spot and derivatives markets points to a broad reduction in trading activity rather than a simple rotation between spot and leveraged positions.

DEX Perpetuals Volume Nears One-Year Low

Perpetual trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) also weakened, falling to $531 billion in July — a 21% decline from the $676 billion recorded in June 2026 and the lowest level since June 2025, according to DefiLlama. DEX perps volume has been trending downward since reaching $1.36 trillion in October 2025. The parallel decline across centralized and decentralized venues indicates the slowdown is not isolated to any single trading venue type.

Open interest on DEXs declined to $17.9 billion in July, down from a peak of $19.4 billion in September 2025. Open interest — the total value of active, unsettled contracts — can indicate whether new capital is entering or exiting the market. Lower open interest alongside falling volumes is consistent with traders closing positions and reducing exposure rather than rolling into new bets.

Hyperliquid Leads DEX Activity Amid RWA Growth

Hyperliquid was the top-performing DEX, reporting $199 billion in trading volume over the past 30 days. Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have become an increasingly significant share of Hyperliquid's activity, accounting for 32% of its second-quarter trading volume and generating 6.6% of the protocol's $169 million quarterly revenue, as previously reported. The growth of RWA trading on Hyperliquid comes as traditional financial assets such as equities, commodities, and fiat currencies are increasingly represented as on-chain tokens, expanding the range of instruments available to crypto-native traders.

Tokenized assets became Hyperliquid's largest trading category for the first time last month, with RWAs representing 52% of total weekly trading volume between July 13 and July 19, according to further reporting. Whether RWA demand continues to offset the broader decline in perpetuals volumes across DEX venues remains an open question for traders watching on-chain derivatives markets in the coming months.