The crypto landscape has seen significant growth in perpetual futures, but Ethereum's base layer was not designed to handle the high-frequency trading required for these transactions. As a result, other platforms like Hyperliquid and Solana have become popular venues for perpetual futures trading. However, Ethereum's layer-2 networks, such as Arbitrum and Base, are now providing a compromise by offering improved trading performance while preserving Ethereum's security. This shift has led to a change in Ethereum's role, with it now focusing on being a settlement and collateral layer for the broader onchain financial stack.
While institutions are taking notice of decentralized perpetuals, they require deeper liquidity, more efficient capital usage, and better execution before deploying significant trading volume onchain. Ethereum's layer-2 ecosystem is well-positioned to support this growth, and its proponents argue that it doesn't need to be the fastest platform for trading perpetuals, but rather the most trusted and deepest place to settle them.