Perp DEX Weekly Position Shifts: Key Moves Worth Your Attention

The perpetual derivatives exchange landscape continues to show compelling activity this week, with major players repositioning amid market volatility and impressive protocol metrics emerging across multiple platforms.

Whale Position Adjustments Reveal Market Sentiment

On-chain analysis provides a fascinating window into how major market participants are adjusting their stance. Several significant movements caught attention on August 15:

One major wallet (0x7fdaf) has been systematically trimming its ETH short positions, offloading approximately $1.66 million and $7.79 million in successive transactions over a six-hour window. Despite these cuts, the position carries a mark-to-market loss around $5.27 million, with exposure at a $7,304 liquidation threshold.

Interestingly, another whale (0x5d2f4) has taken a contrarian approach, increasing BTC short holdings despite bearish positioning. The wallet added $850,000 to its short stack, now facing a substantial $9.02 million paper loss with a liquidation level near $127,873—a move that draws particular attention given current market conditions.

A third major player (0x5648A) reduced ETH long exposure by selling 830 coins valued around $3.95 million, currently showing a minimal $44,600 unrealized loss with a $4,091 liquidation price.

Hyperliquid Dominates Performance Metrics

The platform continues commanding market attention with multiple impressive data points:

$HYPE Token Momentum: Currently trading at $25.26 with a +1.79% 24-hour change, the token has proven resilient through recent macro data releases, declining less sharply than both Bitcoin (-0.43%) and Ethereum (-0.64%).

Buy-Back Intensity: Over the past 24 hours, approximately 168,000 $HYPE tokens were repurchased at an average price of $46.02, representing a total expenditure near $7.72 million—the highest repurchase volume on record.

Liquidity Provider Economics: The HLP (Hyperliquid Liquidity Provider) segment boasts over $430 million in total value locked, maintaining an attractive 16% annual percentage rate. Notably, the protocol generated over $600,000 in revenue within just 15 minutes yesterday, underscoring strong market activity and capital efficiency.

Record Protocol Revenue: Hyperliquid’s 24-hour fees and total revenue reached historic peaks of $7.48 million and $6.96 million respectively, demonstrating the platform’s growing dominance in the perpetual derivatives space.

Rising Competitors Gaining Ground

edgeX Performance: Trading volume surpassed $2 billion in a 24-hour period, while its liquidity pool (eLP) carries approximately $150 million in TVL with an impressive 34% monthly APR. Yesterday’s protocol revenue exceeded $750,000, maintaining first place in daily earnings among Perp DEXs.

Lighter’s Growth: The platform has expanded derivatives offerings, launching five-fold leverage products for four tokens: GMX ($8.61), DYDX ($0.17), MNT ($1.05), and ETHFI ($0.69). The LLP (Lighter Liquidity Provider) now manages over $880 million TVL with an extraordinary 80% APR, achieving a 2.5% daily return on August 15.

Emerging Alternatives: Drift has introduced a syrupUSDC deposit product offering 30% APY, while Pacifica—a Solana-based perpetual exchange founded by FTX COO Constance Wan—has gained traction with daily trading volume exceeding $50 million and over 1,000 active users despite its recent launch.

Broader Market Dynamics

Seven-day average trading volumes show significant growth across nearly all major Perp DEXs, with Hyperliquid, Jupiter, and Orderly leading percentage increases. Open interest metrics reflect renewed participant interest, while protocol revenue rankings demonstrate the competitive intensification in this segment.

Notably, Hyperliquid’s 24-hour revenue surged past $7 million, propelling the platform to second place in protocol earnings—a position worth monitoring as these platforms battle for market dominance through improved yields and user adoption.