Top 10 Decentralized Exchanges for Leveraged Trading

With several historic collapses of exchanges and billions in funds lost, the crypto industry has been looking to go decentralized for a while. While leading decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap, Sushiswap, and 1inch have come a long way since EtherDelta (the first ever, kind of shitty DEX), they still come with several drawbacks that make them rather unattractive for professional trading: they’re slow, crazy expensive, and they only allow spot trading.

Fortunately, a new generation of decentralized exchanges is now entering its prime. Onchain futures or derivatives exchanges combine sophisticated trading functionalities, including up to 100x leverage, low fees, almost instant order settlement, as well as various order management tools with the security of trading from a personal wallet.

Among the DEXs and onchain futures or derivatives trading protocols, certain platforms distinguish themselves with their strong features and capabilities designed especially for leverage trading. This article will examine the defining characteristics of the leading decentralized exchanges for leverage trading, focusing on their liquidity, trading functionalities, fees, and other relevant aspects.

The best crypto DEXs for leveraged trading

1. Bitoro Network

An up-and-comer in the world of onchain crypto trading, Bitoro Network is a decentralized derivatives exchange that provides the best liquidity across crypto DEXs by aggregating liquidity from some of the biggest crypto trading protocols, such as Orderly Network, dYdX, and others. Bitoro enables anyone to trade highly liquid perpetual futures contracts on more than 100 popular crypto trading pairs.

Just like with first-generation DEXs, Bitoro never takes custody of its users’ funds—instead, your coins always stay within your private wallet. Perhaps most importantly, when entering a trade, their unique trading aggregator mechanism always chooses the best blockchain infrastructure (currently supporting Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, and Base) to execute your order at the lowest possible fee. This also makes Bitoro one of the cheapest crypto futures trading platforms around.

Bitoro USPs

• Has the deepest trading liquidity of any decentralized crypto exchange. Trade liquidity from major onchain futures exchanges from a single platform.
• Lightning-fast order execution and cost-efficient trading thanks to optimized order routing
• Earn Bitoro points and Orderly Merits for two airdrop allocations until mid-2024

2. SynFutures

SynFutures V3 is another novel version of a perpetual decentralized exchange. It aims to transform the derivatives market through its innovative Oyster Automated Market Maker (AMM) technology. SynFutures provides a transparent and secure platform allowing users to trade any asset using real-time pricing information, making derivatives trading accessible to everyone.

SynFutures USPs

• Provides a user-friendly platform for trading derivatives on a wide range of assets, granting access to a previously exclusive market.
• Oyster AMM integrates the most favorable elements of conventional order book systems and automated market makers.
• The platform guarantees openness and eliminates the need for trust in its trading ecosystem.

3. dYdX

dYdX v4 introduces the dYdX Chain, a blockchain network based on Cosmos SDK with CometBFT consensus. This platform provides faster and more final trades, a matching engine and decentralized order book, and an open and honest reward structure using dYdX for trading and USDC for staking. Users can trade several cryptocurrencies on the site, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Solana, using a margin trading strategy with a leverage of up to 20X.

dYdX USPs

• The platform substantially enhances transaction speed and certainty, with a remarkable throughput of over 2000 transactions per second (tp/s).
• It offers a transparent trading environment.
• Users and community members can accumulate rewards in DYDX and USDC by engaging in trade operations, staking their assets, and actively participating in governance.

4. PancakeSwap V2 (BSC)

PancakeSwap (V2) is a DEX operating on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Principally, it facilitates smooth exchanges of BEP-20 tokens through its automated market maker (AMM) system. The platform enables users to acquire LP tokens and participate in yield farming for CAKE, its utility token, by utilizing Syrup Pools with flexible or fixed-term staking. The trading fees are quite competitive, and the perpetual futures exchange allows users to engage in leveraged trading up to a maximum of 150X.

PancakeSwap USPs

• It boasts competitive trading fees compared to conventional exchanges, appealing to traders seeking to optimize their profits.
• Offers diverse avenues for traders to generate passive income through yield farming and staking.
• It provides several supplementary functionalities and products.

5. Vertex

Vertex Protocol is an innovative decentralized exchange protocol that operates on Arbitrum, providing a single application where users can access spot trading, perpetual, and a money market. Being an advanced DeFi trading technology that offers low-latency trading, effective liquidity utilization, and an on-chain automated market maker (AMM), Vertex reduces gas fees and Miner Extractable Value (MEV) while guaranteeing that users maintain control over their assets.

Vertex USPs

• Vertex provides an extensive range of functionalities, such as spot trading, perpetual swaps, and a money market, all accessible through a unified platform.
• It facilitates high-speed trading and efficient transactions at a reduced cost.
• The platform guarantees that users always have full control of their assets.

6. Helix

Helix is a decentralized order book that enables limitless cross-chain trading of crypto assets. The platform offers advanced features such as leading rebates, decentralized stop-limit orders, and on-chain order matching. One of its key advantages is that it operates without any gas fees or slippage. Helix, backed by the Injective Labs team, offers an interoperable platform that facilitates trading various assets such as Cosmos, Ethereum, and Solana. For simple asset management, it also features a portfolio option. Users can also trade on certain markets with a leverage of up to 20 times their initial investment through Helix’s leverage trading feature.

Helix USPs

• Helix offers a genuinely decentralized exchange experience.
• The platform is notable for its competitive fee structure.
• It enables traders to leverage tiny amounts of cash to control larger positions, potentially amplifying gains.

7. ApeX

ApeX is a DEX designed for precise trading in decentralized derivatives markets. Among its many perpetual contract markets are BTCUSD, ETHUSD, AVAXUSD, and others; these exchanges have seen 53 million trades and a trading volume of more than $50 billion. With ApeX Pro, customers may execute cross-margined perpetual contracts compatible with several blockchains, provide leverage of up to 30x, and guarantee fast settlement.

ApeX USPs

• Individuals enjoy complete ownership and management over their finances, eliminating the need for dependence on third-party custodians.
• It enables customers to execute transactions rapidly and effectively by providing high-speed trading capabilities.
• ApeX emphasizes the implementation of advanced privacy and security measures.

8. GMX

GMX is probably the best-known decentralized derivatives platform on Arbitrum and is perhaps considered to be one of the founding fathers of this new generation of crypto exchanges. Having facilitated close to $200 billion in trading volume and serving north of 500,000 customers, it is undoubtedly a leader in its field. However, GMX misses several features of the latest crypto futures exchanges, such as an aggregation mechanism to increase liquidity. On a separate note, GMX also generates income for liquidity providers through different trading activities such as market making, swap fees, and leverage trading.

GMX USPs

• Tried and tested exchange for crypto futures trading
• The platform’s design is simple and suitable for many users, including experienced traders and beginners.
• Large number of trading pairs available

9. Futureswap

Like many others on this list, Futureswap leverages an automated market maker system to offer high-leverage trading on the Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Avalanche platforms. It appears to be a reliable platform designed for both new and experienced traders. As of April 2024, Futureswap has facilitated more than $4 billion in trading volume. However, the platform offers only a very small number of trading pairs and may thus not meet the requirements of many traders.

Futureswap USPs

• Sleek UX that is easy to navigate, even for novice traders
• Boasts one of the lowest fee structures.
• Futureswap provides a beginner-friendly interface that makes it easy for novice and experienced traders to navigate the platform.

10. Mango Markets

Mango Markets is another interesting solution for on-chain leverage trading. The platform is based on the Solana blockchain and Serum protocol, which is undoubtedly one of the fastest-growing blockchain infrastructures in 2024. In addition to perpetual leverage trading, Mango provides a comprehensive platform that includes spot market, derivatives assets, as well as lending and borrowing services. One of its few downsides is that it only allows leverage trading of up to 20x, and it also can’t access networks outside of Solana.

Mango USPs

• First derivatives trading platform on Solana
• Very competitive fees and fast order execution
• Lending and borrowing are built into the platform

The bottom line

The attributes demonstrated by the leading decentralized exchanges for leverage trading epitomize the advancement and development of decentralized finance. These platforms give conventional exchanges a decentralized option and equip traders with the tools and infrastructure to navigate leverage trading. Regardless, all traders must conduct their own research before using any decentralized exchange platform.