Hyperliquid volume dominates while dYdX and GMX face constraints

Hyperliquid volume surge

HYPE reached $92.34 on October 30, 2026, following a 16.51% price surge. The asset follows a $13 billion airdrop distribution from the 2022 – 2026 cycle. Hyperliquid commands a 24-hour reported volume of $13.709 billion, which eclipses the $248.72 million reported by GMX. Its 30-day reported volume reached $226.25 billion, dwarfing the $27.183 billion produced by GMX over the same period. The protocol holds $3.47 billion in open interest against its $19.63 billion market cap. While the platform captures 6% of the market, its HIP-3 markets generate nearly $800 million in daily volume, accounting for 20% of the total platform volume. Takers pay a fixed fee of 2.5 basis points, while makers receive a 0.2 basis points rebate. Hyperliquid ranks as the 10th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The protocol distributes 60% of fee income to the HLP vault and 40% to the insurance fund. You should watch the HYPE/USDT perpetual chart closely as it tests the $80 resistance level.

dYdX network security

dYdX v4 faces severe validator concentration because ten of its sixty active validators control two-thirds of the protocol voting power. The top three validators hold one-third of the voting power, while the single largest validator controls 24%. Such concentration makes the protocol vulnerable to liveness issues if a top validator goes offline. The dYdX chain holds $150 million in USDC, with $100 million arriving in the single week preceding this report. Currently, 114 million DYDX tokens, valued at $456 million at a $4 market price, stay staked to validators. This staking level has effectively plateaued in recent weeks despite growing deposits. To address security, the community treasury holds 230 million DYDX, but only 80 million tokens remain vested and available for distribution. The community treasury could stake 20 million DYDX through Stride to diversify the stake weight among active validators. Because a malicious actor needs only one-third of the network voting power to halt the chain, the concentration of power among a few entities presents a significant threat to user deposits. Because a malicious actor must contribute at least $912 million in staked DYDX to reach two-thirds of voting power, the current $456 million stake remains insufficient to prevent a coordinated attack. The current staking APR on dYdX stands at 21.32%.

GMX liquidity and competition

GMX implemented a 180-day unstaking timelock on October 28, 2026, for GMX and esGMX tokens on both Arbitrum and Avalanche. This move locks user capital for six months, which creates a significant liquidity barrier for traders. On the same day, GMX launched a Solana revenue buyback to purchase GMX for the staking rewards pool. The GMX v2.2 roadmap includes gasless transactions, a network fee subsidy pool, and multichain virtual accounts. Will the GMX v2.2 feature suite provide enough of a boost to counter the rise of orderbook models? The protocol’s daily transaction fees sit around $100,000, matching the revenue of Vertex Protocol. The GMX roadmap also includes cross-margin capabilities and market aggregation to group similar perpetual markets. Vertex Protocol captures 15% to 30% of daily trading volume and uses a zero-fee policy for makers.