For years, Ethereum has been at the forefront of decentralized finance, pioneering on-chain financial tools such as lending protocols and tokenized assets. However, the rapidly growing sector of perpetual futures, also known as 'perps,' has primarily thrived on other platforms.
Traders often associate on-chain perpetuals with Hyperliquid or Solana rather than Ethereum, due to the latter's base layer not being optimized for the extremely fast, low-cost, and high-frequency trading required for perps. According to AJ Warner, chief strategy officer at Offchain Labs, 'Perps demand frequent transactions, fast execution, and deep liquidity, making them a natural use case for the Arbitrum platform.' The distinction has become increasingly important as decentralized perpetual exchanges mature and attract institutional attention.