Crypto leverage 50% below October peak as DEXs gain share

CoinGecko’s State of Crypto Perpetuals Report 2026 shows total crypto open interest dropped from $210 billion on Oct. 7, 2025 to $99.09 billion by the end of April 2026, leaving market-wide leverage more than 50% below its October peak.

Centralized perpetual exchanges continued to handle most derivatives trading, but their volumes eased in early 2026. The 11 largest centralized perpetual venues averaged $7.11 trillion in monthly volume in 2025 and $4.69 trillion across the first four months of 2026, a 34% decline. Binance accounted for about 33% of centralized perpetual exchange market share in early 2026, with OKX near 15%.

Perpetual decentralized exchanges recorded rapid growth in 2025, with total perp DEX volume rising to $6.38 trillion from $1.50 trillion in 2024. Monthly activity remained elevated in 2026 compared with early 2025. The top 12 perp DEXs averaged $611.57 billion in monthly volume through the first part of 2026, compared with $531.65 billion for the full year of 2025. Hyperliquid processed $190.28 billion in April 2026, a volume comparable to several large centralized platforms.

Open interest on DEXs also increased. By the end of April 2026, decentralized venues held about 13.5% of market-wide open interest, while centralized exchanges’ share fell from 96.4% at the start of 2025 to 86.5% by April 2026. CoinGecko’s report notes many traders reduced or did not rebuild leveraged positions after the October liquidations.

Exchanges added new contracts and features during the period. From January 2025 through April 2026 MEXC listed 879 new perpetual contracts and BingX added 565. Newer decentralized platforms such as Pacifica, Extended and Variational attracted users with points and rewards programs that followed initial airdrop promotions.

The report cites the Oct. 10, 2025 liquidation event as the trigger for the initial fall in open interest. It also documents the change in where derivatives activity occurs: centralized venues retain larger absolute volumes, while on-chain perpetual platforms have increased both trading volume and a share of open interest.