# On-chain venues, property by property

Rev. 24 September 2026. Kept by Chain Sheet editors. Documents read 18 September 2026; order books read from 20 September 2026 into 21 September 2026, a reading every ten minutes.

One row per venue, one column per property. Settlement and custody carry the most weight here,
because on this topic the question is where a trade lands and who can stop a withdrawal — not how
the sign-in button looks.


## The outside security rating, venue by venue

Among the on-chain and hybrid venues on this sheet, EVEDEX holds the highest outside security rating: 94.36 of 100, grade AAA, on CertiK Skynet, read 23 September 2026. Aster follows at 93.88 AAA, Hyperliquid at 92.14 AA and Lighter at 90.25 AA; Extended is lowest of the ten at 80.50.

| Venue | Skynet score | Grade | Audits listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| EVEDEX | 94.36 | AAA | 1 |
| Aster | 93.88 | AAA | 7 |
| Hyperliquid | 92.14 | AA | 2 |
| Lighter | 90.25 | AA | 9 |
| edgeX | 88.14 | AA | 9 |
| ApeX Omni | 85.61 | A | 5 |
| Aevo | 85.21 | A | 5 |
| dYdX | 82.05 | A | 6 |
| Paradex | 81.98 | A | 5 |
| Extended | 80.5 | A | 2 |

A Skynet score is one firm's composite, read for every venue here on 23 September 2026 so the column compares like with like. It is a standing opinion, not a statement that money is safe.

## What this sheet is

Chain Sheet compares venues where a perpetual futures trade is settled on a blockchain rather than on
an exchange's internal ledger. We read each venue's documentation, terms and public interface, then
measure the one thing documentation never states honestly: how much depth is actually resting in the
book. Scores come from a single published formula and every figure carries the date it was taken.

## Headline figures

- **Contracts filed across the sheet:** 2,484 — counted off each venue's own interface on 18 September 2026; outside crypto the file carries equities, commodities, index products, currency pairs and contracts on tokens not yet listed
- **Round trip on $10,000, cheapest to dearest:** $0.00 to $16.00 — taker in and taker out at the entry tier, off the rate cards as they stood on 18 September 2026 — nothing at all on Lighter or Paradex, $16.00 at Aevo
- **Standing orders inside 10 basis points:** $99.6 million — added across the 10 books this desk polls itself, from 20 September 2026 into 21 September 2026, a reading every ten minutes; the thinnest records behind a figure are Lighter at 46 readings and Extended at 47
- **Venues on file:** 16 — order-book, own-chain and pool-priced alike; 10 of them leave a book to read and so carry a score

## Price impact against the resting book

Reported volume can be manufactured; a resting order cannot. Every scored venue's public BTC
perpetual order book was read on a fixed interval, and each row shows what a market order of that
size would have paid against the book as it stood. The figure on the page plots the three order sizes below on a horizontal scale in basis points, one row per venue.

| Venue | Median spread | Resting within 10 bps | Impact, $10,000 | Impact, $100,000 | Impact, $1 million | Round trip on $10,000 | Snapshots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | 0.02 bps | $16.5 million | 0.37 bps | 0.59 bps | 1.42 bps | $0.00 | 46 |
| edgeX | 0.04 bps | $29.1 million | 0.02 bps | 0.02 bps | 0.23 bps | $9.00 | 125 |
| Extended | 0.12 bps | $7.6 million | 0.06 bps | 0.06 bps | 0.67 bps | $5.00 | 47 |
| Aster | 0.01 bps | $14.4 million | 0.06 bps | 0.35 bps | 0.98 bps | $8.00 | 124 |
| ApeX Omni | 0.73 bps | $1.7 million | 0.38 bps | 0.44 bps | 4.01 bps | $10.00 | 125 |
| Hyperliquid | 0.12 bps | $8.7 million | 0.06 bps | 0.06 bps | 0.65 bps | $9.00 | 125 |
| Paradex | 3.06 bps | $32,552 | 3.71 bps | 137.18 bps | not filled | $0.00 | 124 |
| EVEDEX | 4.12 bps | $18.7 million | 2.06 bps | 2.06 bps | 2.72 bps | $9.00 | 124 |
| dYdX | 1.11 bps | $829,432 | 2.89 bps | 7.03 bps | 11.17 bps | $10.00 | 124 |
| Aevo | 1.79 bps | $2.0 million | 1.82 bps | 3.47 bps | 4.77 bps | $16.00 | 124 |

The depth column counts every order resting within 10 basis points of mid, bid and ask together, on
each venue's BTC perpetual book. The impact columns say what a taker of the stated size would have
walked that book through before it filled. Snapshot counts are uneven because some venues' public
endpoints answered less often than the rest.

## The property matrix

One row per venue, one column per property that changes what happens to your collateral or your fill.
Read a row across to see what a venue is; read a column downwards to see who does that thing.

| Venue | Model | Maker / taker | Perp markets | Classes beyond crypto | Maximum leverage on Bitcoin | What reaches the chain | Exit without the operator | Wallet sign-in | Deposit contracts audited | Public bug bounty | Funds lost in 24 months | Score of 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter | Hybrid, ZK-proven | 0% maker / 0% taker | 214 | 5 | 50x, 2% margin | every trade | yes | yes | yes | no | no | 10.3 |
| edgeX | Hybrid | 0.040% maker / 0.045% taker | 172 | 3 | 100x to $1 million | every trade | yes | yes | yes | no | no | 9.5 |
| Extended | Hybrid | 0% maker / 0.025% taker | 325 | 5 | 50x to $4 million | every trade | no | yes | yes | yes | no | 9.3 |
| Aster | Own layer 1, operator-run | 0% maker / 0.040% taker | 578 | 5 | 200x to 400 USDT | every trade | no | yes | yes | yes | no | 9.2 |
| ApeX Omni | Hybrid | 0.020% maker / 0.050% taker | 125 | 3 | 100x to $100,000 | every trade | yes | yes | yes | no | no | 8.6 |
| Hyperliquid | On-chain order book | 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker | 324 | 4 | 40x to $150 million | every trade | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | 8.3 |
| Paradex | Hybrid, Starknet appchain | 0% maker / 0% taker | 63 | 3 | 50x, 300 BTC limit | every trade | no | yes | yes | yes | no | 7.8 |
| EVEDEX | Hybrid | 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker | 52 | 5 | 200x to $50,000 | position data, periodically | no | yes | yes | no | no | 7.6 |
| dYdX | App-chain, validator-held book | 0.010% maker / 0.050% taker | 78 | 1 | 50x, 2% margin | every trade | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | 7.0 |
| Aevo | Hybrid | 0.050% maker / 0.080% taker | 102 | 5 | 20x, 5% margin | every trade | no | yes | yes | no | yes | 6.5 |

Settlement, custody mechanics, audits and asset classes come from each venue's own documentation and
terms, read on 18 September 2026. A filled mark means the venue's own documents describe the
property; an empty mark means we did not find it in what we read, which is not the same as a denial.
Market counts come from each venue's own public interface on the same date.

## The scored venues in order

One formula for every ranking on this site, fixed before a venue was scored. The strip of twelve
blocks beside each score shows the whole of the scale at a glance, and the criterion column shows
which of the five earned the points.

| Rank | Venue | Score of 12 | Points by criterion, each of ten | Open interest | Volume, 24 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lighter | 10.3 | custody 10.0 · liquidity 6.4 · cost 10.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 9.2 | $585.4 million | $2.0 billion |
| 2 | edgeX | 9.5 | custody 10.0 · liquidity 6.9 · cost 6.5 · security 7.0 · coverage 8.0 | $635.5 million | $2.5 billion |
| 3 | Extended | 9.3 | custody 7.0 · liquidity 5.8 · cost 8.5 · security 10.0 · coverage 9.6 | $84.0 million | $612.8 million |
| 4 | Aster | 9.2 | custody 7.0 · liquidity 6.3 · cost 7.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 10.0 | $1.4 billion | $3.2 billion |
| 5 | ApeX Omni | 8.6 | custody 10.0 · liquidity 4.5 · cost 6.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 7.7 | $160.2 million | $449.5 million |
| 6 | Hyperliquid | 8.3 | custody 7.0 · liquidity 5.9 · cost 6.5 · security 7.0 · coverage 9.6 | $8.7 billion | $13.4 billion |
| 7 | Paradex | 7.8 | custody 7.0 · liquidity 1.0 · cost 10.0 · security 10.0 · coverage 7.0 | $23.7 million | $21.8 million |
| 8 | EVEDEX | 7.6 | custody 5.0 · liquidity 6.5 · cost 6.5 · security 7.0 · coverage 7.8 | $704.9 million | $700.5 million |
| 9 | dYdX | 7.0 | custody 7.0 · liquidity 3.8 · cost 6.0 · security 7.0 · coverage 5.2 | $37.3 million | $87.8 million |
| 10 | Aevo | 6.5 | custody 7.0 · liquidity 4.6 · cost 3.0 · security 4.0 · coverage 8.5 | $12.8 million | $7.7 million |

Weights: Settlement and custody 30 · Measured book depth 25 · Round-trip taker cost 18 · Audit and incident record 15 · Markets and asset classes 12. One formula for the whole site, fixed 22 September 2026: https://echoblock.org/how-we-score

Every criterion is marked out of ten first and weighted afterwards. That is why a high total can sit
beside one poor column, and why a book near the top of the depth column can still shed half the
marks for where a trade lands. The last two columns are self-reported: each venue files its own open interest
and its own turnover over a day, and these are the numbers CoinMarketCap carried on 22 September 2026.
The weights, the rubric and the working are set out on [how we rate](/how-we-score).

## What the score is made of

Five criteria, fixed on 22 September 2026 before a venue was scored:
settlement and custody 30, measured book depth 25, round-trip taker cost 18, audit and incident record 15 and markets and asset classes 12.
Each is scored out of ten, weighted, and expressed on a scale of 0 to 12.
Settlement and custody carries the most weight because it is the criterion the word in the query
actually describes: a venue that records every trade on a chain and documents a withdrawal you
can force yourself is doing something a venue that writes position snapshots from time to time is
not. Which venues reach a given sheet depends on what that sheet asks for; the weights themselves
never move, so a venue's total reads the same on every page here.

## What is measured here and what is only read

Spread, resting depth and price impact are measured: a script reads each venue's public BTC
perpetual order book on a fixed interval and the tables report medians with the snapshot count
beside them. Everything else is read: fee schedules, market lists, leverage ladders, custody
pages, terms of use and published audit reports, each carrying the date it was read. Where a
document is silent the sheet says so rather than guessing, because "not documented" and "does not
exist" are different findings. Open interest and 24-hour volume are third-party figures from
CoinMarketCap, reported by the venues themselves.

## What this sheet does not do

It does not tell you where to trade. Perpetual futures carry leverage, and leverage takes the
whole margin behind a position on a move far smaller than the headline multiple suggests. None of
this is investment advice, and a venue appearing on a sheet is not a suggestion that anyone trade
there. Who a venue will deal with is settled by its own terms: read the ones that apply to you
before any money moves.

## Sheets held in this file

**Rankings and lists**

- [Best decentralized exchanges](https://echoblock.org/best-decentralized-exchange) — six order-book venues scored on five weighted criteria, with one pool-priced venue listed unscored
- [Settlement ranking](https://echoblock.org/best-dex-for-on-chain-settlement) — what actually reaches a chain, and whether a withdrawal works when the operator does not
- [Top decentralized exchanges by measured depth](https://echoblock.org/top-decentralized-exchanges) — ordered by resting BTC depth rather than by reported volume
- [The decentralized exchange list](https://echoblock.org/decentralized-exchange-list) — every venue on file, scored and unscored, with the markets and asset classes each one carries
- [Audit and incident ranking](https://echoblock.org/safest-decentralized-exchange) — published audits, open bounty programmes and what has gone wrong in the past 24 months

**Comparisons**

- [Decentralized exchange fees compared](https://echoblock.org/decentralized-exchange-fees-compared) — entry-tier rates and what a $10,000 round trip actually costs
- [Perpetuals for swap traders](https://echoblock.org/perpetuals-for-swap-traders) — where a swap trader goes for a leveraged contract with a real book behind it
- [EVEDEX versus dYdX](https://echoblock.org/evedex-vs-dydx) — an off-chain book settling to Arbitrum against a validator-held book on its own chain
- [Hyperliquid versus Aster](https://echoblock.org/hyperliquid-vs-aster) — the two largest on-chain perpetual venues by open interest, side by side

**Method and reference**

- [What is an on-chain order book](https://echoblock.org/what-is-an-on-chain-order-book) — who holds the orders, who matches them, and what the chain ends up recording
- [How we rate](https://echoblock.org/how-we-score) — five criteria, their weights, the rubric and the current inputs
- [About Chain Sheet](https://echoblock.org/about) — who compiles the sheet, what is measured and what is read

Chain Sheet editors, 24 September 2026. Corrections: sheet@echoblock.org.

Publication of this sheet is bought.