edgeX: perpetual dexs rating breakdown
4 chains
It earns its place on flow rather than on architecture: $3.82m of thirty-day fees from just $72m of collateral is the most intensely traded capital in this study, which tells you real activity is happening rather than incentives being farmed.
It earns its place on flow rather than on architecture: $3.82m of thirty-day fees from just $72m of collateral is the most intensely traded capital in this study, which tells you real activity is happening rather than incentives being farmed.
How the score is built
Each criterion is scored 0–10 and weighted. The median column is the middle score across every entry in this ranking, so a row reads as a position rather than a number.
| Criterion | What we measured | Weight | Score | Category median | Rank | Weighted gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What happens when the rules cost the house money | — | 30% | 5 | 7 | 7 of 8 | -0.60 |
| Depth and where the flow actually is | $3.82m 30-day protocol fees · sourced · 2026-08-27 · source$72m value locked · sourced · 2026-08-27 · source | 25% | 4 | 5 | 6 of 8 | -0.25 |
| What a position really costs | 63% fees per dollar of collateral, annualised · computed · 2026-08-27 | 22% | 7 | 6.5 | 3 of 8 | +0.11 |
| Who holds the collateral | — | 15% | 6 | 7 | 7 of 8 | -0.15 |
| Markets and access | — | 8% | 6 | 6 | 2 of 8 | 0.00 |
Measured 27 August 2026 · weights and method · decided by what happens when the rules cost the house money, worth -0.60 points against the median
What happens when the rules cost the house money: 5/10
Every intervention on record: forced settlements, delistings, socialised losses, auto-deleveraging events and oracle changes, with dates and amounts. Hyperliquid settled an entire manipulated market at a chosen price and delisted it by validator vote in March 2025, then reimbursed users from a foundation. That is a specific, documented answer to “who decides”, and it is worth more than any decentralisation claim on a landing page.
Scored 5 of 10 against a category median of 7, which places it 7th of 8 among perpetual dexs on this criterion. At a 30% weight that is 0.60 points below the median contribution of the weighted total. The best score in the category is 8, the worst 5.
Depth and where the flow actually is: 4/10
Collateral and vault value locked at a stated timestamp, alongside thirty days of protocol fees as the closest public proxy for real flow. Depth on a perpetual venue is not a comfort — it is what decides whether your stop fills near your stop.
Scored 4 of 10 against a category median of 5, which places it 6th of 8 among perpetual dexs on this criterion. At a 25% weight that is 0.25 points below the median contribution of the weighted total. The best score in the category is 10, the worst 4.
What a position really costs: 7/10
Published taker and maker fees, plus the funding mechanism as documented — and then our own division: thirty days of protocol fees, annualised, per dollar of collateral held. That last number is the intensity of extraction at each venue, and no fee page shows it.
Scored 7 of 10 against a category median of 6.5, which places it 3rd of 8 among perpetual dexs on this criterion. At a 22% weight that is 0.11 points above the median contribution of the weighted total. The best score in the category is 9, the worst 5.
Who holds the collateral: 6/10
Whether margin sits in a contract you can verify or on a company balance sheet, who runs the sequencer or validator set, and how upgrades and market listings are authorised. A venue where a small set of operators can pause, list or settle is a custodian with extra steps.
Scored 6 of 10 against a category median of 7, which places it 7th of 8 among perpetual dexs on this criterion. At a 15% weight that is 0.15 points below the median contribution of the weighted total. The best score in the category is 9, the worst 6.
Markets and access: 6/10
Markets listed, chains supported, and the practical route in and out — a venue that only accepts one collateral asset on one chain is narrower than its market count suggests.
Scored 6 of 10 against a category median of 6, which places it 2nd of 8 among perpetual dexs on this criterion. At a 8% weight that is exactly level with the median of the weighted total. The best score in the category is 9, the worst 4.
Its nearest neighbours in this ranking
Questions about this score
Why does edgeX collect so much in fees relative to its size?
+
Because its collateral turns over extremely fast — $3.82m of fees over thirty days against $72m of collateral, which annualises to roughly 63% of the capital at risk. High turnover means genuine activity rather than parked incentives, and it also means the fee burden per dollar of deposited capital is the heaviest we measured in this category.
Who runs edgeX and what can they change?
+
We could not establish it from public documentation to the standard we apply elsewhere in this rating, which is itself the finding. Operator identity, upgrade authority and insurance arrangements are the three things that decide what happens to your margin in a crisis, and on this venue they are not clearly published.