Vertex (VRTX) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that combines spot trading, perpetuals, and a money market into a single vertically integrated platform. It features a hybrid model of a central limit order book (CLOB) and an automated market maker (AMM), enhancing liquidity as positions from LP markets are integrated into the order book. As a non-custodial platform, Vertex ensures that users always maintain control over their assets. The protocol is distinguished by its low-latency trading capabilities and efficient liquidity utilization across a diverse range of DeFi assets. This efficiency is bolstered by an offchain sequencer architecture, which mitigates MEV and supports exceptionally fast trading speeds. Vertex launched Edge in 2024, which aims to consolidate liquidity cross-chain into the application’s order book.
Vertex's main value proposition is bundling three of the most sought-after DeFi services: AMM, perpetual DEX, and money market into a single DEX. This integration allows users to engage with different financial primitives within one interface. As of this quarter, Vertex is live on Arbitrum, Blast, Mantle, Sei, Base, Sonic, Abstract, and Avalanche.
For a complete primer on Vertex, refer to our Initiation of Coverage report.
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Total value locked (TVL) measures the onchain capital currently deposited into Vertex, but it only captures part of the picture. Since Vertex routes most liquidity through an offchain order book, TVL reflects passive capital and does not represent the full scope of trading activity.
In Q1, TVL declined from $98.6 million to $58.7 million, a 40% drop. While the decrease is notable, it aligns with broader market trends. Other perp DEXs saw similar pullbacks, including dYdX (down 39%), Hyperliquid (down 34%), and GMX (down 26%).
TVL remains a valuable reference point, but for Vertex, it is one of several indicators rather than a single measure of protocol performance.
Activity metrics trended lower in Q1 after increased usage and adoption throughout 2024. Daily trades increased 13.2% QoQ to 86,160, indicating growing trading frequency. However, daily active addresses fell 63% from 356 to 130 during the same period.
The sharp spike in active addresses in Q1 reflects the launch of Vertex on Abstract. That day, 91% of users transacted through Abstract, likely driven by its XP incentive program. Abstract XP is a points-based system that rewards users for onchain activity, including trading on Vertex. 91% of users were trading on Abstract that day.
This divergence between rising trade counts and falling active addresses indicates a concentration of activity among power users. These sophisticated traders typically execute multiple trades per session and maintain larger positions. The data suggests that Vertex is developing a core user base of professional and semi-professional traders who value its cross-chain capabilities and technical features.
Vertex offers both perpetual and spot markets, though perpetuals dominate activity. Across both market types, Vertex averaged $241.1 million in daily volume during Q1 2025, a 19.3% decrease from Q4's daily average volume of $299 million. Perpetual markets generated $152.7 million daily average volume, accounting for 99% of all trading activity. For the quarter, perpetual volume totaled $13.7 billion, representing approximately 1.4% of all onchain perpetual volume ($989.9 billion) in Q1. Vertex's market share decreased from 3.7% in Q4, reflecting increased competition in the perpetual DEX market.
In Q1, Vertex had $241.1 million in average daily volume across chain deployments, a QoQ decrease of 19%. Broken down by deployment, across the chain deployments on Vertex, Sei remained the highest-volume chain for the second consecutive quarter with $116.7 million daily average volume. Sei held its lead after overtaking Arbitrum with $149 million in daily average volume in Q4 2024.
The standout development this quarter was Sonic on Vertex’s rapid ascent. In its first full quarter live, Sonic became the second-largest deployment by volume, averaging $60.5 million in daily trades and contributing 21% of total protocol volume. Vertex was the first major perp DEX to launch on Sonic, giving it early dominance over the network’s derivatives activity. As part of Sonic Season 1, Vertex launched a five-week rewards program from February 26 through April 1, 2025. A total of 1.75 million S tokens ($857.5 million at quarter end) were allocated, with 350,000 S distributed weekly based on taker volume across eligible markets.
Traders were eligible to earn up to 100% of their taker fees back in S tokens. Alongside S token rewards, users also earned Sonic Points and Sonic Gems, which serve different purposes within the Sonic ecosystem:
Vertex on Base posted the highest QoQ growth rate, with daily volume rising 3.5% to $353,809. Despite the improvement, it still accounted for less than 1% of the total volume.
In contrast, Vertex on Blast and Mantle saw sharp pullbacks. Blast declined 76% QoQ to $7.2 million, and Mantle dropped 61% to $7.4 million. Together, they made up 6.9% of volume, down from 17% last quarter. This decline underscores a broader rotation of activity toward newer deployments like Sonic, which are benefiting from fresh incentive programs and user momentum.
BTC-PERP remained the clear anchor of trading activity on Vertex in Q1. Its daily average volume rose 6.9% QoQ to $134.9 million, increasing its share of total protocol volume to 56%, up from 42% in Q4. This growth came despite a broader market cooldown, suggesting traders leaned more heavily into BTC markets as a relatively stable venue.
ETH-PERP held its position as the second most traded market. Daily average volume declined 20% QoQ to $72.1 million, but its overall volume share remained steady at 30%. Together, BTC-PERP and ETH-PERP accounted for 86% of all Vertex volume, up from 72% in Q4. The rise in concentration underscores a risk-off environment where traders focus on the deepest, most liquid markets.
Beyond the top two, no other individual market captured more than 5% of total volume. A minor but notable shift occurred in LTC-PERP, which climbed 36% QoQ to $1.6 million in daily average volume. This made it the sixth most traded market, overtaking WIF-PERP and WBTC.
Trading activity became more top-heavy overall. Volume share from markets outside the top six fell sharply, down 67% QoQ from 20% to just 8.5%. This growing concentration highlights a preference for majors during periods of volatility and may suggest a short-term cooling of speculative interest in long-tail assets.
Open interest on Vertex averaged $69.4 million in Q1, marking a modest 4% decline QoQ. However, the end-of-quarter snapshot told a more dramatic story. OI fell 46% from $72 million at the end of Q4 to $39 million by the end of Q1. The sharp pullback reflects a wave of position unwinding in March, as traders responded to increased macro-driven volatility. This dynamic was most visible in the February peak. On February 17, OI reached $109 million, its highest point of the quarter, before declining 64% over the following weeks.
Broken down by deployments, the daily average OI was:
BTC-PERP continued dominating open interest on Vertex, marking its third quarter as the protocol’s largest market. Daily average OI for BTC-PERP rose 13% QoQ to $39.8 million, accounting for 57% of total average open interest. By quarter-end, its share had climbed even further to 65%, a clear signal that traders remained most comfortable deploying leverage in the BTC market amid choppy conditions.
ETH-PERP followed with $13.9 million in average OI, a modest 1.6% QoQ increase. Combined, BTC-PERP and ETH-PERP accounted for 77% of Vertex’s OI in Q1, up from 69% last quarter. This rising concentration mirrors similar patterns observed in volume and fees: risk gravitated toward majors as uncertainty increased.
SOL-PERP ranked third by open interest but declined in absolute and relative terms. Its daily average OI fell 18% QoQ to $2.1 million, and its share of protocol-wide open interest dropped 15% QoQ to just 3%. The drop suggests that while SOL remains a favored asset, traders were rotating toward more stable markets during Q1.
SUI-PERP was a bright spot among long-tail markets. It recorded the highest growth in OI this quarter, increasing 45% QoQ to $894,142. The bump in interest coincided with Phantom wallet’s announcement of native Sui support on January 29. That integration likely catalyzed new exposure strategies, as SUI-PERP open interest jumped 77% in February alone. While still a minor contributor in dollar terms, SUI-PERP illustrates how product integrations and ecosystem events can drive niche derivatives markets meaningfully higher. Overall, open interest by market became more top-heavy in Q1.
The Vertex protocol earns from trading fees. There are two types of trading fees on Vertex:
As such, fees that accrue to Vertex are taker fees net of maker fees.
In Q1, daily average fee revenue declined 28% QoQ, falling from $27,704 to $19,471. On an annualized basis, protocol fees totaled approximately $7.09 million. While this headline contraction reflects lower overall trading activity, the breakdown by deployment tells a more strategic story.
Sonic emerged as the leading fee-generating chain, accounting for 49% of all protocol revenue in its first full quarter. Daily average fees on Sonic reached $9,710—nearly half the protocol’s entire fee base. This outcome validates Vertex’s expansion approach: early-mover advantage on newer chains combined with well-targeted incentives can drive immediate returns.
Sei, which had led in Q4, contributed $6,921 in daily average fees in Q1—a 67.8% drop from the previous quarter. Despite the decline, it remained the second-highest revenue source, underscoring its continued relevance within the protocol’s ecosystem.
There were even brief instances on Sei where net fees turned negative, a function of the protocol’s fee structure. Because fees are net of maker rebates, if maker volume greatly outweighs taker activity on a given day, the rebate costs can exceed the fees collected from takers. This likely occurred on days when incentive-driven maker activity dominated, pushing Vertex into net outflows. While unusual, this is a known side effect in early-stage or incentive-heavy environments where makers are actively farming rebates.
Together, Sonic and Sei generated 85% of all fees on Vertex this quarter. This level of concentration suggests that protocol earnings are highly sensitive to the success of specific deployments, but it also shows how new chains can quickly shift the economic center of gravity when incentives and user traction align.
Fee generation on Vertex continues to mirror trading activity, with BTC-PERP and ETH-PERP maintaining dominance. Together, these two markets accounted for over 84% of all protocol fees in Q1, up from 73% in the previous quarter. The increase reflects their share of trading volume and the larger ticket sizes and higher frequency of taker activity typically observed in these pairs. “Other” markets (all non-specified markets on Vertex) accounted for 15% of fees in Q1 (down 30% QoQ), signaling that Vertex’s long-tail markets generate meaningful fee revenue on the platform.
VRTX’s circulating market cap decreased 39% QoQ from $37.7 million to $22.8 million in Q1. VRTX’s market cap rank dropped from 751st to 821st amongst all tokens, indicating weaker relative performance within the broader market. The broader perp DEX sector underperformed: GMX declined 55%, and Hyperliquid fell 49%. Against that backdrop, VRTX’s trajectory was directionally in line with sector peers.
The circulating supply of VRTX increased 16% QoQ from 364.5 million to 424.4 million. As of the end of the quarter, 42.6% of the VRTX supply was in circulation. VRTX was launched with an initial total token supply of 1 billion. In June 2024, two separate burns of VRTX occurred (totaling 3 million VRTX), bringing the total token supply down to 997 million. These burns were a part of Vertex’s “Buyback & Burn Program,” which aims to use a portion of protocol revenue to reduce the supply of VRTX. Although the program did not facilitate burns in Q1, the quarter did include unlocking a portion of the VRTX supply.
One of the core functions of the VRTX token is staking. VRTX stakers contribute to protocol security and can earn staking rewards as well. Staking rewards are sourced from protocol fees and paid out in USDC. By the end of Q1, 313.9 million VRTX was staked, a 13% QoQ increase from 277.5 million. Approximately 74% of the circulating supply of VRTX is staked, down 2% QoQ.
Vertex continued its chain expansion in Q1, launching on three new networks: Sonic, Abstract, and Avalanche. These additions bring the total number of supported chains to eight networks.
Sonic went live on January 6, 2025. As a high-performance EVM Layer 1, Sonic quickly became a standout deployment in terms of volume and fee generation, helped by Vertex being among the first major perps DEXs to go live on the network.
Abstract followed on January 31, expanding Vertex’s footprint into a chain designed around gamified user incentives and onchain XP systems. This launch positioned Vertex to benefit from Abstract’s early momentum and helped traders tap into native ecosystem rewards.
The Avalanche deployment came on March 27, accompanied by a targeted trading rewards campaign—AVAX Season 1. Running through April 23, the program allocated 40,000 AVAX in taker-only incentives, with weekly caps of 10,000 tokens. Rewards are allocated to taker-only trades and capped at 100% of the fees paid.
Vertex’s V3 roadmap outlines three structural updates to its protocol architecture: expanding its multichain infrastructure (Vertex Edge), introducing a modular liquidity system (Vertex Liquidity Pool), and gradually decentralizing its sequencing layer. These efforts aim to improve distribution, liquidity depth, and system resilience as the protocol scales across more networks.
Vertex plans to extend Edge to over 25 EVM-compatible chains by the end of 2025. This would represent more than a threefold increase from its Q1 footprint. Edge functions as a cross-chain order book and routing layer; it synchronizes order books between Vertex instances on different chains. This means a taker order on one chain can be matched with maker liquidity from another, while settlement still occurs locally on each chain. Think of it as a single order book stretched across multiple base layers, without sacrificing chain-native settlement or composability.
The rationale behind this approach is consistent with broader DeFi trends: as user behavior becomes more chain-diverse, execution infrastructure must be flexible and portable. Vertex’s expansion strategy is designed to reduce dependence on any single ecosystem and to align with chain-specific incentive programs that may support user acquisition or liquidity growth.
The Vertex Liquidity Pool is a new liquidity engine designed to run alongside the existing order book. It introduces AMM-like features across spot, perpetual, and spread markets, aiming to improve market depth, broaden asset listings, and support passive liquidity provisioning.
Key features include:
This does not replace the existing order book but introduces a parallel system for markets where AMM-style provisioning is more practical. The Vertex Liquidity Pool (VLP) has not yet gone live but is slated for deployment in the coming weeks.
Vertex plans to decentralize the Edge sequencer, which handles transaction ordering and execution. The proposed architecture would introduce a network of independent nodes with redundancy and failover capabilities. The goal is to reduce single points of failure and improve resilience without materially affecting execution speed.
Q1 was a recalibration phase for Vertex following a high-growth 2024. Vertex continued to strengthen its multichain presence and protocol infrastructure. Sonic emerged as a standout deployment, quickly surpassing Arbitrum and Sei in fees and Arbitrum in volume. Meanwhile, BTC-PERP and ETH-PERP gained market share, reflecting user preference for high-liquidity majors in choppy markets.
On the protocol side, the launch of Vertex V3 and the upcoming release of the Vertex Liquidity Pool (VLP) introduce deeper integrations between spot and perps, long-tail asset support, and 100x leverage. Plans to decentralize the sequencer reinforce Vertex’s long-term strategy of balancing speed with decentralization.
VRTX staking grew modestly and remains a strong pillar of protocol alignment, while upcoming deployments and trading reward initiatives continue to attract new users. With over 25 chains targeted in 2025 and a more refined tokenomics model in place, Vertex enters the next quarter with a leaner but more durable engine.
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Youssef is a Research Analyst on the Protocol Research team. Prior to joining Messari, Youssef was a Product Analyst at Fidelity Digital Assets. Youssef graduated from Northeastern University, where he led the Northeastern Blockchain club as President.