DESK Stats 2026 — Live Volume, Open Interest & Fees

DESK Review 2026

What DESK is

DESK was previously HMX and before that Perp88. It has been rebranded multiple times since launching on Arbitrum in mid-2023. The current version runs a central limit order book with off-chain matching and on-chain settlement. The CLOB model lets DESK list a broader asset set without needing deep liquidity pools for each market. Pool-based perp DEXes need large TVL behind every pair. A CLOB can list new markets with minimal startup cost.

The rebrand to DESK added two key things: AI agent trading tools and a big expansion of asset classes. The platform now covers crypto perps, forex pairs, goods futures, and tokenized US stocks including AAPL, TSLA, and GOOGL. Among the DEX perp venues PerpFinder tracks on the perpetuals leaderboard, only Aster matches this breadth. The gasless trading model — where DESK pays gas fees for traders via an intent-based design — removes one more friction point from active position management.

Security and audits

Cantina audited DESK's core contracts. Cantina also does security reviews for Coinbase, Uniswap, and Optimism. That makes it one of the more credentialed audit firms in the EVM space. The CLOB contracts also went through a public Cantina competition, where outside researchers submitted findings for rewards. This adds community-driven review on top of the formal audit.

DESK has had a clean security record from its original launch through the current rebrand. No major exploit or fund loss has been recorded across the HMX or DESK history. That track record, paired with Cantina's work, makes the security setup one of the stronger ones in the mid-tier perp DEX group.

Fees in detail

This is where DESK sets itself apart from every other perp DEX we track. Maker fee is -1 bps: market makers get a rebate for adding bids and offers to the book. Taker fee is 1.75 bps (0.0175%). A $10,000 round-trip taker trade costs $3.50. A $50,000 position closed as a taker costs $17.50. Every rival venue costs more:

- Hyperliquid: $9 (4.5 bps) - Avantis with referral: $6.80 (3.4 bps) - Bluefin: $7 (3.5 bps) - ApeX Omni with referral: $8 (4 bps)

DESK's taker rate is less than half of Hyperliquid's. For active takers doing $1 million monthly volume, the cost gap is $1,550 vs $4,500 — a $2,950 monthly saving that adds up fast. Model your volume in the fee calculator.

Max leverage goes to 1,000x on select pairs. The multi-asset collateral system accepts several tokens for margin, not just USDC.

Volume and market position

DESK reached $60 billion in total volume and $21.5 million in fees as of its March 2025 airdrop, per Blockworks. DefiLlama tracks HMX/DESK's fee history and shows consistent fee output that placed it in the top 3 perp DEXes on Arbitrum and top 5 across all chains by revenue. That is a strong result for a protocol on a chain where larger DeFi apps dominate.

Daily volume on DESK sits in the hundreds of millions on active days. That is well below Hyperliquid's multi-billion daily average, but above most of the perp DEX tail. The DESK airdrop (38.7% of token supply to early users) drove a big volume jump during its launch period.

Trading experience

Access is at desk.exchange with no KYC. WalletConnect wallets work across both Arbitrum and Base. The interface is clean. The gasless model requires no special wallet setup — DESK handles gas through the intent design automatically.

The 100 market count spans crypto, forex, goods, and tokenized stocks. All asset classes trade from a single account using cross-margin or isolated margin. The AI agent tools let automated systems interact with the protocol via API — useful for quant traders who don't want to build on a CEX.

In our May 2026 check of DESK's BTC-PERP spread, the bid-ask on a $10,000 notional order ran at 0.5-1 bps — in line with a well-maintained CLOB on an active market.

Who DESK is for

Active takers who want the lowest fees in the DEX perp space: DESK's 1.75 bps taker is the best rate among audited protocols. For traders placing 50+ trades per month, the fee advantage vs Hyperliquid alone covers significant tool and data costs.

Market makers and liquidity providers: the -1 bps maker rebate makes quoting profitable on its own before any spread capture. Few venues globally — central or decentralized — pay makers to add bids.

Multi-asset traders who want crypto, stocks, forex, and goods in one DeFi account: DESK and Aster are the only venues we track that cover all four.

Traders who need leverage above 50x: DESK's 1,000x max is the highest among audited perp DEXes. Use the funding rates tool to check carry costs before holding high-leverage positions overnight.

Information gain vs other sources

Most reviews focus on the fee headline and the rebrand history. PerpFinder adds:

1. The full fee comparison: DESK's 1.75 bps taker is 61% cheaper than Hyperliquid's 4.5 bps — a real number vs CoinGecko's static fee display 2. The Cantina competition on the orderbook contracts (separate from the formal audit) is a security step most coverage skips 3. We track DESK's daily volume and fee revenue from DefiLlama with 7-day delta alongside 32 other venues — see live data on the perpetuals leaderboard 4. The gasless model via intent design cuts total cost-per-trade below what the fee rate alone implies — Arbitrum gas at $0.10-0.20 per trade is removed entirely for DESK users

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