The most liquid perp DEX in the BTC snapshots is edgeX, with a median
$29.5 million of resting orders within 10 basis points of the mid price across 109 readings of its book. This
page ranks 8 venues by measured depth, not reported volume. Thin books liquidate leveraged positions faster.
What the numbers say
01Deepest book: edgeX, a median $29.5 million within 10 bps.
02Tightest spread: Aster, a median 0.01 bps.
03Smallest impact on a $1 million market order: edgeX, 0.23 bps from mid.
04Thinnest book: dYdX, a median $845,322 within 10 bps.
WeightsTrading cost25Liquidity25Custody and settlement20Security record15Market coverage10Access5how we rate
Most liquid perp DEX ranking by BTC order-book depth
Ordered by measured depth, not by reported volume or the overall score. Depth is what rests within 10 basis
points of the mid price on both sides of the BTC book, as a median of the snapshots.
Entry-tier fees on the BTC perpetual; market counts as each venue's own interface reports them. Equal totals hold the same rank. Availability is decided by each venue's terms, not by this desk. Facts as of 18 September 2026; Scores use one formula for the whole site, fixed on 18 September 2026.
Order-book readings
Every BTC perpetual book on this page was polled on a ten-minute tick, 18 September 2026 12:02 UTC to 19 September 2026 09:10 UTC. The figures are medians of all successful snapshots, and the last column is how many snapshots stand behind each row.
Venue
$10,000 round trip, taker
Median spread
Median depth, 10 bps
Depth scale
Impact, $100,000 order
Snapshots
edgeX
$9.00
0.04 bps
$29.5 million
0.02 bps
109
EVEDEX
$9.00
4.12 bps
$18.3 million
2.06 bps
111
Lighter
$0.00
0.01 bps
$16.9 million
0.60 bps
114
Aster
$8.00
0.01 bps
$16.1 million
0.38 bps
113
Hyperliquid
$9.00
0.12 bps
$9.6 million
0.06 bps
114
Extended
$5.00
0.12 bps
$7.4 million
0.06 bps
114
ApeX Omni
$10.00
0.71 bps
$1.8 million
0.38 bps
114
dYdX
$10.00
1.23 bps
$845,322
6.95 bps
114
Spread and depth are read straight from each venue's public order-book endpoint; price impact is what a market order of that size would pay against the book as it stood. No accounts were opened and no orders were placed.
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
Median depth $29.5 million, spread 0.04 bps, impact 0.02 bps on $100,000 and 0.23 bps on $1 million (109 snapshots). edgeX batches every state change into rollup contracts on its
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
Median depth $18.3 million, spread 4.12 bps, impact 2.06 bps on $100,000 and 2.67 bps on $1 million (111 snapshots). EVEDEX matches orders off-chain on a central order book, with settlement on Arbitrum (EVEDEX documentation as of 18 September 2026).
Criterion scores before the weights, each out of ten
Trading costLiquidityCustody and settlementSecurity recordMarket coverageAccess
Median depth $845,322, spread 1.23 bps, impact 6.95 bps on $100,000 and 11.90 bps on $1 million (114 snapshots). dYdX commits validator-matched trades to its own chain (dYdX docs, checked 18 September 2026).
Depth is the dollar value of orders resting within 10 basis points (0.1%) of the mid price, bids plus asks. Impact is how far the average fill of a market order lands from mid. Reported volume says how much traded, not what your order would meet: CoinMarketCap put the 24-hour volume of Hyperliquid at $13.4 billion on 22 September 2026, yet its BTC book held $9.6 million within 10 bps in the snapshots. The window is short so far — a median of 114 readings a venue, 109 on edgeX, which is the fewest — and the order updates as it grows. Leverage shortens the distance between the entry price and the liquidation price, and the whole margin sits inside that distance. Depth decides how cleanly that distance is crossed: the thinner the book, the further from the mid price a forced close fills.
How the readings were taken
Two kinds of number reach this screen. Depth, spread and price impact are ours — every BTC perpetual
book polled on a ten-minute tick, 18 September 2026 12:02 UTC to 19 September 2026 09:10 UTC, no account opened and no order sent, each median printed with
the count of readings behind it. The rest is read off each venue's own documentation and trading terms
on 18 September 2026: rate cards, market lists, leverage ladders, sign-in and access rules, audit
history. Six weighted criteria, fixed on 18 September 2026 and unmoved since, turn those readings into the
8 totals on this page (How we rate). This page orders venues by median depth within 10 bps; the score column is the
site-wide score from How we rate.
Custody, settlement and the security record are marked off documents, and a document is a statement of
intent — none of it has been put under stress here. The fee column is the entry-tier rate a new account
is quoted, with volume tiers, rebates and cashback left out of it. Depth was read on the BTC book
alone, the deepest contract every one of these venues runs, so a venue that reads well on this screen
can still be thin in a smaller market. Venues priced from an oracle or a pool never had a resting book
to read, and carry their facts without a total on the perp DEX list.
FAQ
Which crypto has the most liquidity?
Bitcoin. Every venue on this page quotes its deepest perpetual on BTC, which is why BTC is the book read. In the
snapshots edgeX held a median $29.5 million within 10 bps, against
$26.8 million on Binance's BTC book read the same way.
Which dex has the most volume?
Hyperliquid. CoinMarketCap put the 24-hour volume of Hyperliquid at $13.4 billion on 22 September 2026, ahead of $3.2 billion for Aster and $2.0 billion for Lighter. Volume counts what traded; the depth on this page is what a new
order would meet.
Is high or low liquidity better crypto?
High liquidity. A deep book fills market orders close to the quoted price and stops out leveraged positions less violently. In the snapshots a $100,000 BTC market order moved the price 0.06 bps on Hyperliquid but 6.95 bps on dYdX, a gap that grows with order size.
Which Perp DEX has the highest volume?
Hyperliquid, with $13.4 billion of 24-hour volume on CoinMarketCap on 22 September 2026. Highest volume and
deepest book are different tests: in the BTC snapshots edgeX held the most orders
within 10 bps of the mid price, at $29.5 million.
Which DEX is best for perps?
On liquidity alone, edgeX leads this page. On our site-wide score, which also weighs fees, custody, security, market count and access, Lighter leads with 8.5/10. The two lists differ because measured depth is only one quarter of the overall score.
cex futures vs perp dexes, what are the real tradeoffs?
Depth is one tradeoff. Binance's BTC book held a median $26.8 million within 10 bps in the snapshots,
against $29.5 million on edgeX, the deepest venue here. In return,
perp DEXs keep collateral in contracts and ask for no identity documents.
What are the top 5 dex?
By measured BTC depth within 10 bps in the snapshots, the top five are edgeX, EVEDEX, Lighter, Aster and Hyperliquid. By reported open interest on CoinMarketCap, Hyperliquid leads at $8.7 billion, and the two rankings rarely match because open interest measures positions, not resting orders.
Spaces Research — Updated: — write to editorial@spacesdao.org