As crypto perpetual futures boom, Ethereum’s role is shifting
Perpetual futures have grown fastest on chains built for speed, low fees, and high-frequency trading, not on Ethereum mainnet. Ethereum was designed more for secure settlement than latency-sensitive trading, so perps moved to layer-2s like Arbitrum and Base, and to rivals like Solana and Hyperliquid. Arbitrum gained early traction after GMX launched there, while Solana benefits from heavy retail trading activity and Hyperliquid from a purpose-built perps chain. Ethereum’s L2 strategy improves performance but fragments liquidity and users across networks, making trading less seamless than on single-chain venues. Even so, Ethereum remains important as the settlement, collateral, and DeFi base for many onchain markets. As institutions look at onchain derivatives, the key issues are execution, custody, liquidity, and capital efficiency. The likely long-term split is execution on faster chains, with Ethereum anchoring settlement and collateral.
