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Solana’s goal to serve as “internet capital markets” or “decentralized Nasdaq” for the global financial system is an ambitious one. It is perhaps somewhat embarrassing then that the chain lacks a perps DEX that can compete with the big boys like Binance and Hyperliquid. For now.

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Perp DEX wars

Hyperliquid’s stronghold over the perps DEX market is facing its first meaningful tests.

On Sunday, Lighter briefly surpassed Hyperliquid in 24-hour perpetual volumes (though Hyperliquid has reclaimed that spot). Lighter is a central limit order book (CLOB) perps DEX built as an app-specific zk rollup on Ethereum.

Close behind is Aster, a BNB Chain perps DEX that vaulted into prominence overnight, thanks to post-TGE hype and a series of promotional tweets from former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Volumes, however, tell only one side of the story. Lighter, for instance, has yet to launch its token and is likely benefiting from airdrop-motivated trading. 

By open interest, Hyperliquid remains the clear leader at ~$15.3 billion, per Blockworks Research data. In comparison, Lighter’s open interest is estimated to be far lower at $500-$1.26 billion, with Aster at $368 million.

Forward’s trading volumes

Forward Industries’ (FORD), the biggest Solana treasury with $1.6 billion raised, saw relatively muted trading volumes of its stock last week: roughly $14.7 million Friday and $19.3 million on Thursday.

These volumes are a small slice compared to its Solana treasury peers, and tiny next to Ethereum DATs. For context, the largest Ethereum DAT, Bitmine Immersion Technologies, saw $4.3 billion in trading volumes on Friday alone.

Thin volumes may hamper Forward’s ability to sell new shares without tanking the stock price, a move that the company plans to undertake after announcing last week’s $4 billion at-the-market equity offering.

The good news is FORD still trades at a relatively high mNAV of 1.56, as of Friday’s closing.

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Katana was built by answering a core question: What if a chain contributed revenue back into the ecosystem to drive growth and yield?

We direct revenue back to DeFi participants for consistently higher yields.

Katana is pioneering concepts like Productive TVL (the portion of assets are actually doing work), Chain Owned Liquidity (permanent liquidity owned by Katana to maintain stability), and VaultBridge (putting bridged assets to work generating extra yield for active participants).

Solana ETF action:

The SSK SOL ETF by Rex Shares’s SOL ETF (SSK) saw its highest weekly net flows last week of about $38.1 million.

Helius Medical DAT:

The Pantera Capital-backed Helius Medical Technologies (HSDT) is commencing its SOL treasury strategy.

The company announced today its acquisition of 760,190 SOL ($$169 million) at an average cost of $231. As of this morning, SOL is trading at $223.

Following last week’s $500 million private stock offering, Helius now holds ~$335 million in cash.

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