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 expanding sector of perpetual futures, or '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 extremely fast, low-cost, and high-frequency trading. According to AJ Warner, chief strategy officer at Offchain Labs, 'Perps require 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.