Author: fiyalkin, Crypto KOL
Compiled by: Felix, PANews
Original Title: 9 Perp DEX Projects Poised for Airdrops in 2026
Recently, crypto KOL fiyalkin compiled a list of Perp DEX projects that might conduct token launches in 2026, including brief introductions and key data. These projects are all in the early stages of development and have not yet issued tokens. Details are as follows.
1. Variational
Variational is a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) derivatives trading protocol built on Arbitrum, focusing on the on-chain trading, settlement, and clearing of generalized derivatives such as perpetual contracts, options, and futures.
Multiple applications have been developed based on the Variational protocol, including Omni for simple perpetual contract trading and Pro for advanced traders and institutions.
Unique tech stack:
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Zero fees on all position trades, only $0.1 fee for deposits and withdrawals
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Loss Rebate: When users close losing trades on the Omni platform, there is a 2-4% chance of an immediate full rebate of the loss.
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Extensive market coverage: Omni supports emerging markets like RWA, volatility (485 markets total)
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Ample liquidity: Omni's liquidity management system aggregates liquidity from CEXs, DEXs, DeFi, and OTC channels.
The project's points program has been live for less than a month. Early traders have already shared 3 million points, with an additional 150,000 points distributed weekly. The current circulating points are about 3.3 million. Considering points programs typically last about six months, this is still a very early stage.
Currently, the Variational protocol's Open Interest (OI) is $670 million; daily trading volume is $1.5 billion; weekly traders number 12,000.
Additionally, Variational raised $11.8 million from institutions including Coinbase, Dragonfly, and Bain Capital Ventures between 2024-2025.
2. Ethereal
Perp DEX platform Ethereal is deeply integrated with Ethena Labs' synthetic dollar USDe, aiming to build a "one-stop DeFi application" centered around USDe.
Furthermore, Ethereal is the first DEX where margin earns daily yield, meaning users' margin earns yield even while holding open positions, thus compounding returns on every trade.
Ethereal is deployed as an EVM appchain with the following configuration:
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Settlement via Arbitrum One
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Arbitrum execution environment
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Celestia data availability
Current Ethereal Open Interest is $45 million, daily trading volume is approximately $80 million, and the total number of traders is 8,000.
3. Hibachi
Hibachi is a privacy-focused trading platform. Raised a $5 million seed round in March 2025 from Dragonfly, Electric Capital, and Echo. Team members are from Citadel, Tower Research, IMC, Meta, Google, Hashflow, etc.
Hibachi has now launched social features and upgraded chart annotation functions, among others. Since the beta release last June, cumulative trading volume has exceeded $6.7 billion, daily trading volume is $7 million, Open Interest (OI) is approximately $1.5 million, and daily active traders exceed 2,000. It has launched a new points system and has not yet issued a token.
4. Cascade
Cascade is a 24/7 neo-broker offering perpetual markets covering cryptocurrencies, US stocks, and private assets, with zero trading fees. Currently, access is available to some invited depositors, with a public launch expected in early 2026. Initially, the platform will offer over 10 perpetual markets, with the product lineup to be expanded gradually.
The project has raised $15 million from investors including Polychain Capital, Variant, Coinbase Ventures, and Archetype, and has established partnerships with Arbitrum, Base, Chainlink, and Pyth Network.
5. Pacifica
Perp DEX platform Pacifica is built on Solana, aiming to combine CEX speed with DeFi transparency and non-custodial security. Pacifica was founded in January last year, is completely self-funded, and has no venture capital. Team members are from companies like Binance, FTX, Coinbase, NFTperp, as well as financial institutions like Jane Street, Fidelity, and AI companies like OpenAI, DeepMind, ByteDance.
Current Pacifica Open Interest is approximately $71 million, daily trading volume is $600 million, and the total number of traders is 33,000.
6. Extended
Extended is a Perp DEX built by the former Revolut team, aiming to integrate cross-asset collateral, unified margin, Perps, spot, and lending into one application. Besides cryptocurrencies, Extended also offers RWA/TradFi markets like EUR, S&P 500, using USDC as collateral.
Extended is already live on the Ethereum L2 network Starknet mainnet, supports over 50 trading pairs and leverage up to 100x. Open Interest (OI) is approximately $200 million, daily trading volume is about $1.5 billion, and daily active users number 4,200.
Extended has completed a $6.5 million funding round, with investors including Tioga Capital, Semantic Ventures, StarkWare, etc.
7. Nado
Nado is a high-performance central limit order book (CLOB) DEX platform built on Ink L2 (an EVM-compatible L2 network launched by Kraken), developed by the former Kraken team. It combines CEX-level speed with DeFi non-custodial security, offering a unified trading experience for spot, perpetual contracts, and money markets.
Nado's main features:
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Trade spot and perpetual contract markets: Supports major currencies like BTC and ETH, with perpetual contracts offering up to 20x leverage.
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Nado Engine: Nado's core is a high-performance off-chain sequencer and on-chain risk engine, settled via Ink L2. New trades enter the order book instantly with 5-15 ms latency and are batched for on-chain settlement.
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Unified Margin: Use your entire portfolio in one unified margin account as collateral for spot, perpetuals, and money markets.
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Money Markets: Deposits automatically earn yield, borrow for margin using flexible collateral like wETH or USDT0, and easily achieve quick looped positions with spot margin trading.
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Low Fees: Taker fees as low as 1.5 basis points, maker rebates up to -0.8 basis points, with tiered increases based on volume. The more you trade, the lower the fees.
Current Nado Open Interest is approximately $90 million, daily trading volume is $500 million, and daily traders number about 2,000.
8. TradeXYZ
TradeXYZ is a Perp trading platform focused on RWA and traditional financial assets, built on Hyperliquid L1's HIP-3 protocol. Developed by the Unit.xyz team, it aims to realize a 24/7 global capital market for "trading any asset, anywhere, anytime".
Its maximum supported leverage is as follows:
Domande pertinenti
QWhat is the key feature of Variational that allows users to potentially get a full refund on losing trades?
AVariational's Omni platform has a 'Loss Refund' feature where users have a 2-4% chance of receiving a full refund on their losses immediately when closing a losing trade.
QWhich Perp DEX project is built as an EVM appchain and integrates Ethena Labs' synthetic dollar USDe to offer yield on margin?
AEthereal is the Perp DEX that is built as an EVM appchain and deeply integrates Ethena Labs' USDe, allowing users to earn yield on their margin even while holding open positions.
QName the Solana-based Perp DEX that was self-funded and has a team with backgrounds from major CEXs and AI companies.
APacifica is the Solana-based Perp DEX that is completely self-funded, with a team from Binance, FTX, Coinbase, Jane Street, Fidelity, OpenAI, DeepMind, and ByteDance.
QWhat type of assets does the crypto market does the Perp DEX TradeXYZ primarily focus on trading?
ATradeXYZ primarily focuses on trading Real World Assets (RWA) and traditional finance (TradFi) assets, such as silver, Nasdaq-tracking futures (XYZ100), and forex pairs like EUR/USD and USD/JPY.
QWhich project on the list is built on the Hyperliquid L1's HIP-3 protocol and aims to create a 24/7 global capital market?
ATradeXYZ is the project built on Hyperliquid L1's HIP-3 protocol, developed by the Unit.xyz team, with the goal of enabling a 24/7 global capital market for trading any asset.
Letture associate
GitHub, Transfixed by AI
On the night of February 9th, GitHub suffered a major outage caused by a simple configuration change—reducing a cache refresh interval from 12 to 2 hours—that triggered a cascade of failures. This was not an isolated event, but part of a broader pattern. In early 2026, GitHub experienced at least 8 major incidents, failing to meet its promised 99.9% availability. These outages stemmed from structural issues: explosive growth in load, tight service coupling, and insufficient protection against abnormal traffic.
This unprecedented load is driven by AI Agents. In 2025, GitHub handled ~1 billion commits. By 2026, weekly commits reached 275 million, projecting to ~14 billion for the year—a 14x increase. AI tools like Claude Code now contribute 4.5% of all public repository commits, with weekly submissions surging 25x in just three months. AI-generated pull requests jumped from 4 million to 17 million per month in half a year. Unlike human developers, AI Agents work continuously, generating commits at a scale that overwhelms infrastructure designed for human rhythms.
The surge also shattered GitHub's business model. Copilot's flat-rate pricing, based on assisting human developers, became unsustainable as Agentic AI sessions consumed resources worth hundreds of dollars for a few dollars in fees. In response, GitHub imposed usage limits and, by June 1st, shifted to a pay-per-use "AI Credits" system.
Facing this new reality, GitHub realized a 10x scaling plan was insufficient. It announced a need to *redesign* its architecture for 30x current scale—decoupling services, adding fault isolation, and improving change management to prevent cascading failures. Other platforms like Stripe and AWS are facing similar challenges with AI Agents.
Fundamentally, GitHub is transitioning from a human collaboration platform to an "exhaust pipe" for automated AI workflows. Its detailed post-mortem reports aim to maintain trust during this turbulent rebuild. The February outage was not just a technical glitch, but a signal of the software industry's entry into a new, AI-driven era.
marsbit5 min fa
marsbit5 min fa
Visualizing Musk's Wealth: $3.6 Million Per Hour, Average Person Needs 11 Million Years of Work
Elon Musk is on the verge of becoming the world's first trillionaire, with a current estimated net worth of $970 billion. This wealth, largely tied to equity in SpaceX and Tesla, translates to him accumulating roughly $992 per second or $3.6 million per hour on average over his 31-year career. His fortune surpasses the annual GDP of over 125 countries and represents about 3% of U.S. GDP, double the relative wealth of historical figures like John D. Rockefeller.
For perspective, an average U.S. household earning the median income would need to work over 11 million years to amass a comparable sum. Musk's wealth could buy approximately 2.4 million average American homes, all 32 NFL teams plus every NBA team, or over 10,000 private jets with operating costs.
The analysis highlights the staggering scale and concentration of modern wealth, driven by successes in electric vehicles, space exploration, and artificial intelligence.
marsbit8 min fa
marsbit8 min fa
Both Suffer Massive Losses Exceeding $90 Billion, Which Is in Greater Peril: Strategy or Bitmine?
Facing massive paper losses exceeding $90 billion each amidst a sharp market downturn, "Digital Asset Treasury" (DAT) giants Strategy and Bitmine find themselves in a precarious position, but with different underlying risks.
Strategy, heavily invested in Bitcoin (BTC), faces significant financial strain. Its strategy relies heavily on debt, including convertible notes and preferred stock (STRC) requiring substantial dividend payments. With its cash reserves dwindling and BTC offering no staking yield for cash flow, Strategy's high leverage makes it vulnerable. A continued price decline could force asset sales to meet obligations, potentially creating a negative feedback loop. Its market value has already fallen sharply.
In contrast, Bitmine, an Ethereum (ETH) holder, appears on firmer financial ground. It primarily funds its purchases through equity offerings (like ATM programs), avoiding debt pressure. It also generates income by staking a large portion of its ETH holdings. While not immune to market drops and shareholder dilution concerns, Bitmine maintains more flexibility, recently announcing a new preferred share offering to raise further capital.
The core divergence lies in their financing: Bitmine uses equity (investor money), while Strategy uses debt (borrowed money). Consequently, Bitmine currently faces less immediate liquidity pressure than Strategy, which must navigate the dual challenge of servicing debt/dividends and a declining core asset (BTC) price.
marsbit12 min fa
marsbit12 min fa
Both Suffer Losses Exceeding $9 Billion, Which Is More at Risk: Strategy or Bitmine?
As Bitcoin and Ethereum prices drop significantly, two major corporate treasury holders, Strategy and Bitmine, are facing massive unrealized losses—approximately $100 billion and $90 billion, respectively. The article compares their financial health and underlying risks. Bitmine, holding over 5.4 million ETH, relies primarily on equity financing (like ATM offerings) and has substantial cash reserves, alongside staking income from its ETH holdings. It plans a $300 million perpetual preferred stock offering. In contrast, Strategy, holding Bitcoin, is burdened by significant convertible debt and preferred stock dividends, with cash reserves covering only about six months of its annual dividend obligations. Strategy's leverage is higher, and it faces potential liquidity pressure if BTC prices fall further, possibly forcing asset sales. While both companies are under pressure, Bitmine’s financial structure appears more resilient, whereas Strategy’s high leverage makes it more vulnerable to continued market declines.
Odaily星球日报16 min fa
Odaily星球日报16 min fa
Where the AI Bubble Really Is: Which Layer of Players Are Naked
AI Bubble: Where It Really Is and Who's Swimming Naked
This analysis dissects the AI industry not as a single entity but as a five-layer pyramid, arguing that bubbles are concentrated in specific tiers, not uniformly distributed.
**Key Distinction from the 2000 Dot-com Bubble:** Unlike 2000, where companies had stock prices before revenue, today's leading AI players have massive, contract-backed revenue driving their valuations. Core infrastructure demand is real, with every GPU running at full capacity for paying customers.
**The Five-Layer Pyramid & Bubble Assessment:**
* **L0 (Fab/Manufacturing) & Top L4 (Leading AI Apps): NO BUBBLE.** Companies like TSMC, NVIDIA, major cloud providers (Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon), and top AI labs have real revenues and orders. Supply is tightly constrained by TSMC's disciplined capacity control and physical limits like power/land for data centers, preventing a supply glut.
* **L1 (Memory): BATTLEGROUND.** Sky-high HBM margins could signal a new structural cycle or a classic "boom before bust." The oligopoly of three major players may enforce supply discipline, making this a high-stakes bet.
* **L2 (Interconnect/Optical Modules): BUBBLE TERRITORY.** Companies like Lumentum and AAOI have seen stock surges (4-10x) far outpacing revenue growth. This hardware segment has lower physical barriers to expansion than fabs, allowing speculation. It mirrors the 2000 bubble's epicenter—optics.
* **L3 (Infrastructure/"GPU Landlords"): VULNERABLE.** GPU leasing companies profit from the current compute shortage but own no long-term moat. Their business model relies on a temporary bottleneck that will ease as big tech expands and new tech (e.g., potential space-based data centers) emerges.
* **L4 Long Tail (VC-backed Startups): STRONG BUBBLE SIGNALS.** VC funding concentration in AI is twice that of the 1999 peak. Many startups with little revenue use the valuation logic of successful giants to justify their own, creating high risk of a "valuation crunch" when funding dries up.
**Critical Risks to Monitor:**
1. **GPU Depreciation & Accounting:** Companies extending the assumed useful life of GPUs artificially boost profits. The true economic life depends on future generational leaps from NVIDIA.
2. **"GPU Credit" & Off-Balance-Sheet Leverage:** Emerging structures where shell companies borrow to buy GPUs and lease them out (with chipmakers sometimes investing) move debt off major balance sheets. This echoes the "vendor financing" of 2000 and the securitization risks of 2008, though currently small-scale.
3. **TSMC Abandoning Caution:** If the primary supply bottleneck (TSMC's conservative capacity planning) breaks, runaway supply could trigger a bust.
4. **Algorithmic Efficiency Breakthrough:** A major leap in software efficiency could drastically reduce the need for raw compute hardware, undermining the investment thesis.
**Conclusion:** The AI boom is expensive and has frothy areas, but its core is underpinned by real demand and physical supply constraints. The bubble risk is layered: most present in optical components, GPU leasing, and the long-tail startup ecosystem, while the foundational chip manufacturing and leading application layers remain relatively solid—for now.
marsbit24 min fa
marsbit24 min fa
