Singapore, July 24, 2026 — RISEx, a fully on-chain perpetuals exchange built on the high-throughput RISE Chain, has launched Ignite: Season 1, its core loyalty and ecosystem points program, according to a Chainwire announcement.

The exchange, backed by Galaxy Ventures and Vitalik Buterin, said the public rewards program follows an invite-only beta phase that generated more than $3 billion in cumulative trading volume. RISEx described the launch as the next step in its broader ecosystem rollout as the protocol works toward long-term community ownership and a future token distribution.

RISEx said launch week concluded with the distribution of Season 0 retroactive points to users who traded on a merit-based, invite-only venue without any guarantee of rewards.

The company said 100% of RISE points are allocated to RISEx users, including traders, liquidity providers and builder code integrators. RISEx said RISE is an exchange chain and RISEx is its product, meaning the network’s incentive weight is routed through the venue where activity occurs rather than being divided across a broader ecosystem.

The launch comes as decentralized perpetuals exchanges continue to compete with centralized derivatives venues. In that market, liquidity depth, execution quality, custody design and incentive durability are central operating issues for exchanges trying to retain active traders beyond a launch campaign. 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, and marks the platform’s move into a broader growth phase.

Ecosystem traction

Before opening public rewards, RISEx said its closed beta developed liquidity and user engagement over a three-month period. The exchange reported more than $3 billion in cumulative trading volume processed since genesis, more than $26 million in open interest, more than $15 million in total value locked and more than 15,000 registered users acquired through a merit-based referral network.

RISEx attributed the figures to DUNE.

Product before incentives

“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

RISEx said Ignite is structured around its product roadmap and its commitment to the RISE mission. As the exchange releases products and reaches milestones, the season is designed to move with it. AutoYield, Permissionless Portfolio Margin and equity listings are part of the platform’s stated plan to bring full-scale composable finance on-chain.

The exchange said this structure is intended to align rewards with product progress rather than a fixed marketing calendar that could require overspending early or reducing rewards later, which it said would penalize early contributors and active traders.

Week 1 of Ignite began on Monday, July 20, 2026, at 00:00 UTC. RISEx said it 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 reiterated that 100% of RISE points are allocated to RISEx users, including traders, liquidity providers and builder code integrators.

Ignite mechanics

RISEx said Ignite is designed to reward genuine, long-term ecosystem participation over Sybil farming and artificial wash trading. The program evaluates user contributions across multiple health metrics rather than trading volume alone.

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

The exchange said it will not publish the exact methodology and weightings, describing the approach as a measure to protect the program from being gamed. That makes the weekly settlement schedule and retroactive allocation checks the main public reference points for participants seeking to understand how the program is being administered. RISEx also said qualifying participants in its affiliate program can receive additional incentives, including fee rebates, point boosts and other benefits.

On-chain exchange architecture

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

With its core perpetual exchange engine stabilized, RISEx said its mid-term product roadmap is shifting toward native EVM Spot trading, AutoYield and Permissionless Portfolio Margin.

The company said traders can clear the gate, check their 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 says it delivers centralized-exchange execution speeds with full self-custody and features an on-chain order book that shares state and liquidity with the 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 an Ethereum Layer 2 designed for high-performance DeFi. RISE Labs says the network delivers 5 Ggas/s throughput and Web2-like latency through its proprietary Shreds architecture. The network is backed by Galaxy Ventures, Vitalik Buterin, Finality Capital Partners, EtherFi, OrangeDAO, DACM, P2 Ventures, Stani Kulechov and other digital asset investors.

Media contact: Grigory Prelovskiy, [email protected]