Pacifica overtakes Jupiter's perp DEX to steal Solana derivative market top spot

Pacifica, the fastest-growing perpetual futures DEX on Solana, took the top spot for the most active trading volumes. Pacifica expanded its activity in the past few months, as it prepares for wider adoption. 

Pacifica took the lead as the most active Solana perpetual futures DEX. The platform took the #1 spot for daily, weekly, and monthly volumes, after breaking out in the past few months. Pacifica launched around the time Aster started the perp DEX wars, even though it still serves a closed user base. 

Currently, Pacifica is still expanding, with regular new listings and weekly updates on its activity. Pacifica’s transaction volume even surpassed Jupiter, which added perp DEX activity and was briefly among the leaders on Solana.

Pacifica became a part of the larger trend for Solana, expanding perpetual futures volumes in the past few months. In total, the platform achieves $1.49B in daily volumes across perp DEX markets.

Solana nearly doubled its perp DEX activity in the past three months and reached a monthly record in October. Perp DEX volumes rose to $65.3B in the past month. 

Pacifica gradually expands its liquidity

Pacifica went from a zero-volume startup to a leader on Solana within six months. The perp DEX is expanding by stages, inviting more users and increasing deposits. The market operator is joining a risky market, which also includes technical flaws. Pacifica has launched with an initial period of closed beta testing. 

Constance Wang, Pacifica’s founder and former COO of FTX, announced that the platform has increased its deposit threshold to $100K. 

Part of Pacifica’s growth comes from its point farming program, which distributes 10K points every Thursday. Pacifica has promised more farming rounds in the coming months. 

The perp DEX plans to launch a mobile version and spread to multiple chains. The market operator also plans to add a spot market and DeFi lending. 

Perp DEX posts record volumes

Perp DEX activity peaked in October, reaching a total volume of $1.36T. Hyperliquid stood out as it managed multiple on-chain liquidations on October 11. In the past few weeks, Aster surpassed Hyperliquid on reported volumes. 

Lighter was the all-time leader, though raising suspicions about the accuracy of its reported trading volumes. Lighter offers zero-fee trades, hence the high volumes. However, Lighter has the lowest value locked among major perp DEXs, not matching the high trading volume.  

Currently active perp DEXs are no longer just competing, but innovating to build their own organic user base. Pacifica has managed to join the top 10 exchanges in terms of volumes, but has not aggressively expanded its activity, and has avoided the infiltration of bots.

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