Singapore, Singapore, July 24, 2026 — Chainwire

RISEx, a fully on-chain perpetuals exchange built on the high-throughput RISE Chain, has officially launched Ignite: Season 1, its core loyalty and ecosystem points program. The launch follows an invite-only beta phase that generated more than $3 billion in cumulative trading volume and marks the next stage of RISEx's broader ecosystem rollout as the protocol works toward long-term community ownership and future token distribution. Points-based loyalty programs have become a widely adopted mechanism across decentralized finance protocols, commonly serving as a bridge to formal token launches by quantifying and rewarding early user participation before a distribution event.

The platform, backed by Galaxy Ventures and Vitalik Buterin, said launch week concluded with the distribution of Season 0 retroactive points. Those points recognized users who traded on a merit-based, invite-only venue without any guarantee of a reward.

RISEx said the program includes a feature it describes as distinct from competing venues: 100% of RISE points are allocated to RISEx users, including traders, liquidity providers and builder code integrators. RISE is an exchange chain, and RISEx is its product. Rather than dividing rewards across a broader ecosystem, the network's incentive weight is routed through the venue where trading activity takes place.

The launch comes as decentralized perpetuals continue to compete with centralized derivatives venues. On-chain perpetuals exchanges such as Hyperliquid, GMX, and dYdX have grown into a meaningful segment of the crypto derivatives market, demonstrating sustained demand for self-custodial trading alternatives. RISEx said the public opening of its rewards system follows the live deployment of its core exchange infrastructure, including cross-asset netted margining and native Real-World Asset (RWA) trading — a category that has attracted growing institutional interest as tokenization of traditional assets gains traction — and represents the platform's transition into a broader global growth phase.

Ecosystem Traction

Before opening public rewards, RISEx said its closed beta built liquidity and user engagement over three months. According to figures cited by the project, the platform processed more than $3 billion in cumulative trading volume since genesis, reached more than $26 million in Open Interest (OI), recorded more than $15 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), and accumulated more than 15,000 registered users through a merit-based referral network.

Source: DUNE

Product First, Incentives Second

"Much to the frustration of our growth team, I was adamant that we would not launch an incentives program until our core exchange engine reached absolute stability," said Sam Battenally, CEO and co-founder of RISE Labs. "Too often, points programs are deployed prematurely to mask unfinished infrastructure or buy empty, temporary volume. We spent the last few months doing the hard engineering work instead by stabilizing core features like reduce-only GTC and bootstrapping deep, quality liquidity. If you are fueling the engine, it has to perform. Now that our core architecture is fully live, optimized, and performing at a world-class level, we are ready to scale."

Ignite Season 1 Structure and Timeline

Ignite is designed to run according to RISEx's product roadmap. As the exchange ships products and reaches milestones, the season is intended to move with it. RISEx said AutoYield, Permissionless Portfolio Margin and equity listings are part of a larger plan to bring full-scale composable finance on-chain.

The project said the structure is intentional, with rewards tied to product progress rather than to a marketing calendar that could require a program to overspend early or reduce rewards later, potentially penalizing early contributors and active traders.

Week 1 of Ignite began on Monday, July 20, 2026, at 00:00 UTC. RISEx will distribute 200,000 points per week, settled every Tuesday, with the first weekly distribution scheduled for July 28, 2026, at 14:00 UTC. Ignite is expected to end no later than Q2 2027.

RISEx said 100% of RISE points are allocated to RISEx users, including traders, LPs and builder code integrators.

Ignite Mechanics

Ignite is structured to reward long-term ecosystem participation while discouraging Sybil farming and artificial wash trading. The program evaluates user contribution across multiple health metrics rather than trading volume alone.

Qualifying activity includes higher-order activity, total costs such as fees, slippage and negative markouts, trading volume, and open interest and hold time. Referrers earn an additional 10% of their referee's points.

RISEx said the exact methodology and weightings are not published in order to protect the program from being gamed. For eligible participants, the affiliate program offers additional incentives, including fee rebates, point boosts and other benefits.

Institutional-Grade Architecture

RISEx says it delivers centralized-exchange execution speeds while preserving full self-custody by using RISE Chain, an EVM-compatible Layer 2 network that the project says delivers 5 Ggas/s throughput and 1-millisecond latency. Because the exchange and the underlying blockchain share the same state, RISEx says users have access to a fully on-chain order book in which collateral and interconnected DeFi positions exist within a single, atomic execution environment.

With the core perpetual exchange engine stabilized, the platform's mid-term roadmap is moving toward the launch of native EVM Spot trading, AutoYield and Permissionless Portfolio Margin.

Traders can clear the gate, check retroactive allocations and begin earning Season 1 points by visiting rise.trade.

About RISEx

RISEx is a fully on-chain perpetuals exchange built on RISE Chain. The platform is designed to deliver centralized-exchange execution speeds with full self-custody and features an on-chain order book that shares state and liquidity with the full RISE DeFi ecosystem in a single transaction. RISEx offers institutional-grade crypto perpetuals with flexible collateral and plans to expand into equities, forex and commodities.

About RISE Chain

RISE Chain is a next-generation Ethereum Layer 2 purpose-built for high-performance DeFi, delivering 5 Ggas/s throughput and Web2-like latency through its proprietary Shreds architecture. Developed by RISE Labs, the network is backed by Galaxy Ventures, Vitalik Buterin, Finality Capital Partners, EtherFi, OrangeDAO, DACM, P2 Ventures, Stani Kulechov and other digital asset investors.

Contact: Grigory Prelovskiy, [email protected]