HYPE's Momentum Isn't Over Yet: PerpDEX Points Round Two, These Projects Are Still Boardable
- Key Takeaway: The crypto perpetual contract (PerpDEX) sector is entering a new wave of points-based incentive campaigns. More than a dozen projects, including Variational, Extended, RISEx, and Lighter, are competing for users through points or token programs. Some of these projects are approaching the final points accumulation phase before their TGE (Token Generation Event), offering users a window for interaction and participation. However, attention should be paid to Sybil attack screening and cost control.
- Key Elements:
- Variational leads with approximately $60.3 million in total funding. Its Omni points program is scheduled to conclude distribution in Q3 2025. Over-the-counter quotes for individual points are around $10-20, with high returns accompanied by high interaction difficulty.
- Extended cleared approximately 5.04 million abnormal points in August. The current cumulative points stand at around 64.67 million, leaving only 5.33 million before reaching the 70 million cap. Given the weekly distribution pace of 600,000 points, the room for new users to accumulate points is already quite limited.
- RISEx (RISE Chain) is backed by early-stage project endorsement from Vitalik and the Aave founder. The first season of the Ignite points campaign launched on July 20. Its scoring system is complex and dynamically adjusted, with a relatively low barrier to entry at present.
- Lighter has partnered with Robinhood to allocate 11 million LIT tokens. Users trading perpetual contracts through the Robinhood Wallet can earn 2x points. Its public funding totals approximately $89 million.
- Entropy has secured $14 million in funding, focusing on RWA and pre-IPO perpetual contracts. Although no official points program has been announced, backend fields have already hinted at its arrival. The current taker fee rate on its proprietary market is only 0.008%, making it suitable for arbitrage strategies and early record accumulation.
- Arcus (Robinhood Chain) has no official points program yet, but token hints have already emerged, with a possible future allocation reserved for the dYdX community.
- Other opportunities include Trasia, GTE (led by Paradigm with $15 million in funding), Perpl (a dual-points mechanism on Monad), and HelloTrade (founded by former BlackRock team members), all of which are in early interaction or waitlist stages.
A big green candle, and armies of traders come running. After a period of silence, the PerpDEX points season is about to enter its second phase.
Variational
Variational is the project with the largest funding round among those still running official points programs. It completed an approximately $50 million Series A round in May this year, led by Dragonfly, with participation from Bain Capital Crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and others. Its previous $10.3 million seed round was co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Peak XV, bringing total public funding to approximately $60.3 million. Variational follows a request-for-quote (RFQ) derivatives model, while Omni packages this institutional-grade liquidity into a perpetual contract product that ordinary traders can use.
Variational's Omni points program launched in December 2025, retroactively granting 3 million points to early users. The team plans to allocate approximately 50% of tokens to the community. Points are now settled weekly, and the team has committed to ending points distribution by the end of Q3 this year at the latest, which can be viewed as the final observation phase before TGE. Currently, over-the-counter quotes for single points range between $10 and $20.
For new users, Variational is currently the project that can deliver results fastest, but interactions to earn points are relatively difficult at this stage, and cost control is essential.
Extended
Extended was developed by the former Revolut team. The project completed a $6.5 million funding round in 2024, with investors including Tioga Capital and Semantic Ventures. In July this year, Extended completed a $12.5 million strategic round led by eToro, with participation from Jump Crypto and Alber Blanc, bringing total public funding to approximately $19 million.
Extended's Season 1 points program has been running since April 2025. Under the current rules, 600,000 points are distributed weekly, with a total cap of 70 million. Points primarily come from three types of activities: regular trading, providing liquidity to Vaults, and inviting real users.
The key thing to watch here is the determination of invalid trades—commonly referred to as "witch hunting." In August, Extended slashed approximately 5.04 million abnormal points involving cross-account wash trading, self-referrals, sybil addresses, and coordinated multi-account volume farming. After the adjustments, cumulative points stand at approximately 64.67 million, leaving only about 5.33 million before hitting the 70 million cap. At the current weekly emission rate of 600,000 points, the room left for new users is relatively limited.
RISEx
RISEx is the core perpetual contract product on RISE Chain and has not separately disclosed its funding. After RISE Chain received a $4 million investment from Galaxy Ventures in 2025, its total funding reached $8 million. Early investors also include Vitalik and Aave founder Stani.
RISE Ignite Season 1 began accumulating points on July 20, 2026, with 200,000 RISE Points distributed weekly, and the campaign is scheduled to end by Q2 2027 at the latest. RISEx users can earn all RISE points generated by the product, covering traders, liquidity providers, and developers who integrate Builder Codes.
RISEx's scoring methodology is more complex than simply looking at trading volume. The system comprehensively evaluates trading maturity, fees and slippage, negative price deviation, maker and taker volume, position size and holding duration. The weights are not disclosed and are adjusted weekly. Referrers can additionally earn 10% of their referred users' points.
RISEx's advantage is that the season has just started over a month ago, making points relatively easier to earn, and the depth is also more friendly.
Lighter & Robinhood Wallet
Lighter has raised approximately $89 million in public funding, with its latest $68 million round co-led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Robinhood.
Lighter and Robinhood have set aside 11 million LIT tokens for the community. Users who meet regional requirements and trade perpetual contracts through the Robinhood Wallet can earn 2x Lighter points; trading directly on Lighter's web interface on Robinhood Chain counts at 1x. Points are converted into corresponding LIT allocations according to the campaign terms.
Entropy
Entropy is a HIP-3 deployer on Hyperliquid, focused on RWA and pre-IPO perpetual contracts. The project completed a $14 million seed round led by Ribbit Capital. Team members come from Citadel Securities, Optiver, Polymarket, and Millennium.
Entropy has not yet officially announced a points program, but points-related fields have already appeared in the product's backend. The real-time API responses from Entropy show a pointsMultiplier field in user tier configurations; the responses also include referral rebate ratios and a reward policy version called referrals-boosted-launch.
Entropy launched with only two markets initially, with both participant numbers and competition intensity at low levels. The same underlying assets can be hedged between TradeXYZ and Entropy, reducing one-sided price risk while leaving early trading records.
Trader @yourQuantGuy believes that Entropy's most immediate opportunity right now comes from fee subsidies. Entropy's proprietary market is in Hyperliquid Growth Mode, with a taker fee rate of only 0.008%. When using a top-tier Tier 4 invite code, the referrer can return the entire rebate to the trader, resulting in an effective near-zero fee. This provides lower trial-and-error costs for cross-platform spreads and funding rate arbitrage.
Arcus
Arcus is a PerpDEX on Robinhood Chain, developed collaboratively by dYdX Labs and Robinhood. Robinhood Crypto is a strategic investor in Arcus.
Arcus currently has no official points program. However, dYdX Foundation CEO Charles hinted at an Arcus token in a tweet, stating that in the future, "if" there is an Arcus token, a portion will be reserved for the dYdX community.
Other Projects to Participate In
Trasia
Trasia is a HIP-3 exchange led by Multicoin, focused on Asian assets, and has already launched its invite program.
GTE
GTE is developing a full-chain order book trading platform covering perpetual contracts, spot markets, and Agent APIs. The project has raised approximately $25 million in public funding, with its latest $15 million Series A round led exclusively by Paradigm, while the previous three rounds totaled approximately $10 million.
Currently, GTE only offers a waitlist. Users can increase their waitlist points by registering, reserving a username, following official channels, and inviting active users.
Perpl
Perpl is a perpetual contract trading platform on Monad, having completed a $9.25 million funding round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Ergonia, Mirana, HashKey, L1D, CMS, and Breed.
Perpl has already launched on Monad mainnet and is currently distributing both Perpl Points and mPoints. The team has been issuing 50,000 Perpl Points and 50,000 mPoints weekly and has announced that the mPoints reward allocation has been unlocked to $1 million.
HelloTrade
HelloTrade was founded by former digital asset team members involved in BlackRock's IBIT, ETHA, and BUIDL. The project completed a $4.6 million seed round in 2025, led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Mirana Ventures. The product is currently in its Alpha phase, and users can apply for early access.
