| Type | Self-custodial order-book perpetuals DEX (plus spot and a vault) |
| Operator | EdgeX Infra Corporation (Terms of Use, updated March 24, 2026) |
| Chain | V2 modular rollup ("Edge", chain ID 3343) on a transitional Arbitrum stack, anchored to Ethereum |
| Markets | 172 perps: 79 crypto and commodities, 92 stock, ETF and pre-IPO, 1 FX (USD/JPY) (October 21, 2026) |
| 24h volume | $610M, open interest $310M (public API, October 21, 2026) |
| Fees (Regular) | 0.045% taker / 0.040% maker; down to 0.020% / 0.015% at VIP 6 |
| Max leverage | BTC and ETH 100x, SOL 75x, gold and USD/JPY 50x |
| KYC | None: EVM wallet or email (MPC wallet) login |
| Not available in | United States, Ontario (Canada), sanctioned jurisdictions |
| Audits listed by edgeX | Rigsec and SlowMist (platform), PeckShield (StarkEx, V1) |
| App ratings | Google Play 4.0 (163 reviews, 10K+ installs), App Store US 3.8 (25 ratings), October 21, 2026 |
| VIP tiers | Regular + VIP 1–6 by 14-day volume (perpetual and spot volume combined); VIP 1 from $10M · full table |
| Airdrop | 30% of EDGE paid to early users at the March 31, 2026 launch; no new points season or second airdrop has been announced (October 21, 2026) |
Verdict: a serious second venue, especially for stock perps and high leverage
edgeX is a mid-sized perpetual DEX by volume (#10 among perp DEXs by 24-hour volume in CoinGecko's data at build time), and it has one of the broadest lists of stock perpetuals among them: 92 on October 21, 2026, from US names and ETFs (SPY, QQQ, NVDA, TSLA, MSTR, COIN) to Korean and Chinese stocks (Samsung, SK Hynix, Tencent, Xiaomi) and, since September 23, 2026, pre-IPO contracts such as Polymarket and Moonshot, next to crypto, gold, oil and USD/JPY. The trading engine is fast, the interface is a clean CEX clone with TradingView charts, onboarding works with an email address, and there is a proper mobile app. What holds it back from being a primary venue is price: the 0.040% maker fee is nearly three times Hyperliquid's and far above Lighter's 0%, and liquidity outside BTC, ETH and SOL is thin. Use it for what it does uniquely well.
Pros
- 172 markets: 79 crypto and commodity perps, 92 stock, ETF and pre-IPO perps and USD/JPY, all in one USDC cross-margin account.
- 100x on BTC and ETH, 75x SOL, gold and USD/JPY 50x: more than Hyperliquid (40x on BTC) or Lighter (50x).
- Self-custody on an Ethereum-anchored rollup; email (MPC) login or any EVM wallet; no KYC.
- Native USDC deposits via CCTP from Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism and Polygon, plus the Edge chain; 10 USDC minimum.
- Native iOS and Android apps, TradingView charting, sub-accounts, and an API and WebSocket built for bots.
Cons
- Maker fee of 0.040% at the Regular tier (vs 0.015% Hyperliquid, 0% Lighter); taker 0.045% is merely par.
- No referee discount: referral codes pay the referrer, not you; VIP rates need $10M of 14-day volume.
- Not available in the US or Ontario. Volume swings widely ($0.35B–$1B a day since late September 2026; $610M on October 21, 2026) and is concentrated in ETH, BTC, SOL and gold.
- Funding settles every 4 hours (Hyperliquid: hourly); V2 is young and runs on a transitional Arbitrum stack.
Is edgeX safe and legit?
Short answer: edgeX is a real, operating exchange, not a scam, and it is self-custodial, so the operator cannot simply spend your collateral. But "safe" has limits: execution is run by edgeX off-chain, V2 is young, its token has crashed once, and impostor sites use its name. Here is what we checked on September 27, 2026.
Who runs it
edgeX's Terms of Use (last updated March 24, 2026) name EdgeX Infra Corporation as the provider of the site and describe it as a front-end provider for the EDGE Chain. Many reviews, and Google's AI summary, say edgeX was incubated by the trading firm Amber Group. We could not find that claim on edgeX's docs, Terms or website, so treat it as unconfirmed rather than as a guarantee.
Custody and decentralization
You trade from your own wallet, or from an MPC wallet created when you log in with email. edgeX's V2 docs describe collateral held in audited smart contracts, state roots anchored to Ethereum, and "permissionless withdrawals at any time", even if the operator's sequencer fails. What is not decentralized: the Go-based matching engine and the sequencer are run by edgeX, and the docs say V2 has "temporarily adopted the Arbitrum technology stack" as a transitional framework before its own EDGE Stack. V1 ran as a StarkEx validium. Mark prices come from a multi-exchange oracle feed, which protects against single-venue wicks.
Audits
edgeX's audits page lists three reports: Rigsec and SlowMist for the platform, and PeckShield for the StarkEx contracts used by V1. If a review names other auditors, check them against edgeX's own audits page. No audit covers every future upgrade.
The EDGE crash of June 2026
On the evening of June 1, 2026 (UTC), which was the early hours of June 2 in Asia, the EDGE token crashed. CoinGecko's hourly price fell from about $1.10 at 21:00 UTC to about $0.38 at 22:00 UTC. At 22:42 UTC edgeX posted on X that it had "observed a sudden and irregular price movement of the EDGE token" and was "actively investigating the cause". A follow-up on June 2 said "This was not a hack, exploit, or security breach." edgeX's incident report of June 3 puts the drop at about 71%, from about $1.12 to about $0.32 within roughly an hour, and describes it as an attack timed for a period of thin liquidity. The report says the team's token allocations did not change. It also promises goodwill payments for realized losses on EDGE longs that were liquidated or stopped out on edgeX between 04:50 and 06:00 (UTC+8) on June 2, capped at 100,000 USDC per user. Half is paid in USDC after the claim is verified and half in EDGE in April 2027. EDGE bottomed at $0.24 on July 5, 2026 and traded around $0.60 on September 27, 2026. This hit EDGE holders. Trading collateral on edgeX is USDC, so it is a token risk, not a sign that deposits were lost.
Official domains vs impostors
The official app is pro.edgex.exchange (homepage edgex.exchange, docs on edgex-1.gitbook.io, X account @edgeX_exchange). Japanese law firms and recovery services warn about edgex.cyou, an impostor "investment" site registered on March 5, 2026 (WHOIS), promoted through dating apps and LINE chats where victims cannot withdraw. Look-alike domains also rank in search: edgex-dex.exchange is a third-party "review" site, and the Trustpilot page reviews edge-x.io, which edgeX does not list as its own. The real edgeX never asks you to send money to a person or pay a "fee" to unlock a withdrawal.
What users say
On October 21, 2026 the edgeX app was rated 4.0 on Google Play (163 reviews, 10K+ downloads, US store view) and 3.8 on the US App Store (25 ratings). These are small samples. The Trustpilot page in search results is for edge-x.io, not edgeX's domain.
Who can use it
Section 1.5 of the Terms blocks residents, citizens and entities of the United States, Ontario (Canada) and sanctioned jurisdictions, and prohibits VPNs used to misrepresent your location. Japan is not on the list. Unlike Lighter and Aster, edgeX does not exclude the rest of Canada or the UK for trading, although its airdrop terms exclude all of Canada (edgeX in Canada and the UK, compared). Wherever you are, you are responsible for whether leveraged derivatives trading is legal there. Why DEXs don't ask for ID, and what that does not mean, is covered in our no-KYC DEX guide.
Who edgeX is for, and who should skip it
Good fit
- Traders who want stock, ETF and pre-IPO perps (US, Korean, Chinese names) around the clock in the same USDC account as crypto.
- Short-term traders who need 100x on BTC or ETH and understand the liquidation maths.
- Mobile-first traders who want a native app and email login.
- Anyone who wants a second self-custodial venue next to Hyperliquid.
Skip it if
- You live in the US or Ontario: the Terms exclude you.
- You mostly rest limit orders: the 0.040% maker fee is higher than Hyperliquid's (0.015%) or Lighter's (0%).
- You trade large size in alts or single stocks: books outside BTC, ETH and SOL are thin.
- You want a referral discount: edgeX has no fixed one; Hyperliquid's code gives 4%.
What edgeX is (and what changed in V2)
edgeX launched its V1 on StarkEx, StarkWare's scaling engine, run as a validium (edgeX's docs note that the StarkEx engine as a whole has handled over $1.28 trillion of cumulative volume since 2020, across all the exchanges built on it). In 2026 it moved to V2, a dedicated modular rollup (the "Edge" chain, chain ID 3343) with a Go-based matching engine that runs off-chain for microsecond matching and anchors state roots to Ethereum L1. The docs say this rollup currently uses the Arbitrum technology stack as a stepping stone. The roadmap's next step is the EDGE Stack: a sovereign app-chain with a parallel execution engine (edgeVM for perps, edgeEVM for DeFi logic) and a "FlashLane" that separates latency-sensitive orders from slow operations such as withdrawals.
Practically, this makes edgeX architecturally similar to Lighter (an Ethereum rollup with an off-chain sequencer) rather than to Hyperliquid, which runs its own L1 with an on-chain order book. The important properties are the same across all three: you keep custody, orders are gas-free, and the operator cannot spend your collateral. Collateral on V2 is USDC (the older V1 docs still mention USDT), bridged with Circle's CCTP. On September 16, 2026 edgeX also opened edgeX Arc accounts on Circle's Arc network, with 150+ perpetual pairs listed there.
Three product lines: perpetuals (crypto, commodities, stocks, FX), a spot market (USDC pairs; spot fees below), and eStrategy vaults, an AMM-style liquidity pool where depositors take the other side of trader flow and earn market-making profit, liquidation fees and a share of trading fees.
edgeX VIP tiers and fees
Short answer: everyone starts at the Regular rate of 0.045% taker / 0.040% maker. edgeX has six VIP tiers above it, set by your rolling 14-day trading volume, perpetual and spot volume combined. VIP 1 starts at $10M and VIP 6 at $7B, where perps cost 0.020% / 0.015%. The ladder below is from edgeX's VIP page, re-read on October 21, 2026.
| Tier | 14-day volume | Perp taker | Perp maker | Spot taker / maker | Taker fee per $1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | under $10M | 0.045% | 0.040% | 0.070% / 0.040% | $450 |
| VIP 1 | $10M or more | 0.043% | 0.038% | 0.060% / 0.035% | $430 |
| VIP 2 | $25M or more | 0.040% | 0.035% | 0.050% / 0.030% | $400 |
| VIP 3 | $100M or more | 0.035% | 0.030% | 0.040% / 0.025% | $350 |
| VIP 4 | $500M or more | 0.030% | 0.025% | 0.035% / 0.020% | $300 |
| VIP 5 | $2B or more | 0.025% | 0.020% | 0.030% / 0.010% | $250 |
| VIP 6 | $7B or more | 0.020% | 0.015% | 0.025% / 0.000% | $200 |
Source: pro.edgex.exchange/vip (October 21, 2026) and the fee rate shown in the order ticket. Every contract in the public metadata API carries the same Regular default rate.
How edgeX VIP works
- What counts: perpetual and spot volume combined, over the last 14 days. Sub-account volume adds to the main account, so all sub-accounts share one tier. (edgeX's docs page still says 30 days; the live VIP page says 14.)
- When it starts: the VIP page says a new tier and its rates take effect as soon as you meet the threshold; if you qualify for several tiers you get the highest.
- How long it lasts: 14 days. Keep the tier's volume in that window and it is extended for another 14 days; fall short and you drop to the tier your volume matches, again for 14 days.
- What it is worth: VIP 1 cuts taker fees from 0.045% to 0.043%, which is $200 saved on $10M of taker volume. Below $10M every trader pays the Regular rate. There is no gas on orders or cancels, and no token-holding or referral-code discount.
What a trade costs. A $10,000 taker round trip is $9.00 on edgeX, identical to Hyperliquid's base tier and $1 less than Binance. A $10,000 maker round trip is $8.00 on edgeX versus $3.00 on Hyperliquid and $0 on Lighter's Standard account. If you rest limit orders, edgeX is the most expensive of the three by a wide margin; if you cross the spread, it is level with Hyperliquid before Hyperliquid's discounts (4% referral, 5–40% HYPE staking), and edgeX publishes no equivalent. Compare venues side by side in our DEX fee calculator.
Other charges. Deposits are free apart from source-chain gas. edgeX's withdrawals page says Ethereum withdrawals pay only the gas and other chains 0.1% with a minimum of 1 USDC; the V2 API's chain settings on September 27, 2026 list a 1 USDC minimum fee and a 2 USDC minimum withdrawal on all six chains. Check the fee shown in the Withdraw dialog before you confirm. The contract metadata sets a liquidation fee of 1% of the position. Funding is peer-to-peer and settled every 4 hours. The per-contract cap (fundingMaxRate) is ±0.2% per 4-hour interval on the 10 majors (BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, XRP, BNB, DOGE, ADA, TRX, BCH), ±0.4% on 63 contracts (large-cap stocks and ETFs, commodities, USD/JPY and mid-cap crypto), and ±2% on the remaining 99 (public API, October 21, 2026).
Leverage, markets and margin
Maximum leverage is tiered by position value, like Binance. The headline numbers apply to the first bracket; larger positions step down. As of October 21, 2026:
| Market | Max leverage | First bracket | Maintenance margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| BTC | 100x | up to $1,000,000 | 0.50% |
| ETH | 100x | up to $800,000 | 0.50% |
| SOL | 75x | up to $500,000 | 0.67% |
| Gold (XAU), USD/JPY | 50x | up to $300,000 | 1.00% |
| HYPE, XRP, BNB, EDGE, silver, WTI crude | 30x | up to $300,000 | 1.67% |
| DOGE, ZEC, SPY, QQQ, NVDA, AAPL and 24 more | 20x | up to $200,000 | 2.50% |
| TSLA, AMZN, POLYMARKET and 82 other stock perps | 10x | up to $200,000 | 5.00% |
| Long-tail crypto, platinum, palladium (38 contracts) | 10x | up to $200,000 | 5.00% |
| 8 thin contracts (7 at 5x, 1 at 3x) | 5x / 3x | up to $100,000 / $50,000 | 10% / 16.67% |
From the public metadata API (riskTierList), first tier only, October 21, 2026. Of the 172 listed contracts, 123 open at 10x (85 of them stock, ETF and pre-IPO perps), 30 at 20x, 7 at 5x, 6 at 30x, 2 at 50x, 2 at 100x, 1 at 75x and 1 at 3x. BTC drops to 75x above $1M, 50x above $3M and 25x above $5M; check the Risk Limit tab on the trade page for the full ladder.
For comparison, Hyperliquid caps BTC at 40x and ETH at 25x, Lighter at 50x for both. edgeX's 100x is real, but at 100x the maintenance margin of 0.5% means a move of well under 1% against you ends in liquidation, and a 1% liquidation fee is charged on top. Treat it as a scalping tool, not a default. Our DEX leverage tiers comparison puts the brackets side by side.
Markets. On October 21, 2026 the 172 listed contracts split into 79 crypto and commodity perps (BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, XRP, BNB, DOGE, ZEC, SUI, LINK, plus gold, silver, copper, WTI and Brent crude, natural gas, platinum and palladium), 92 stock, ETF and pre-IPO perps (SPY, QQQ, AAPL, AMZN, MSFT, GOOGL, META, NVDA, AMD, TSLA, MSTR, COIN, HOOD, PLTR, CRCL, TSM, Samsung, SK Hynix, Tencent, Xiaomi, BYD, leveraged ETFs such as SOXL/SOXS, and pre-IPO contracts including POLYMARKET and MOONSHOT, both listed September 23, 2026) and one FX pair, USD/JPY. The list moves both ways: edgeX delisted seven thin pairs on October 15, 2026 (US, APLD, MRVL, LYTE, CYS, WMT and 4STOCK; open positions can still be closed) and keeps adding crypto perps (DNA on October 19). Stock and FX perps trade 24/7, but the rules change when the underlying market is shut (next section).
Margin and orders. The default is one cross-margin account; the docs describe a unified cross-margin sub-account system for isolated positions and two-way hedges, so a liquidation in one sub-account cannot touch another. Liquidations are triggered on the oracle price (a multi-exchange aggregate), not the last trade. The docs list three order types (limit, market and conditional), with post-only, reduce-only and time-in-force options: Good-Till-Time (up to 4 weeks), Immediate-or-Cancel and Fill-or-Kill. TP/SL orders execute as market orders, are reduce-only by default and trigger on the last traded price. The logged-out ticket on September 27, 2026 showed Limit, Market and Stop Limit with TP/SL, Reduce-Only and Slippage Protection. Some reviews mention TWAP and trailing orders; the V2 API configuration carries TWAP run-time limits (5 minutes to 24 hours), but neither appears in the docs or the ticket we saw, so don't count on them.
Stock and FX perps when the market is closed
This is the part most reviews skip, and the one that surprises new stock-perp traders. From edgeX's docs, checked September 27, 2026:
- Stock perps on weekends and market holidays: market orders are rejected; only limit orders are accepted, and only inside a price band around the last closing index price of ±1 ÷ the pair's max leverage (for a 10x pair closing at $100: buys up to $110, sells down to $90). Triggered TP/SL and conditional orders follow the same rules, so a market stop can be rejected. The mark price is held inside the band and can move at most 0.5% every 3 seconds.
- USD/JPY and other FX perps: from Friday 17:00 to Sunday 17:00 New York time only reduce-only orders are allowed, with a 0.5% price cap. In the reduced-liquidity hours around the Friday close, Sunday open and the daily 17:00 rollover, risk limits are halved and orders are capped at 0.5% from the price.
- What this means: a gap at Monday's open can move a stock perp straight through your stop. Size down before weekends, or close.
Volume and where edgeX ranks among perp DEXs
In the 24 hours to 06:45 UTC on October 21, 2026 (a Tuesday into Wednesday) edgeX's public ticker endpoint showed $610M of volume and $310M of open interest across 172 contracts. ETH ($155M) and BTC ($154M) led, then SOL ($80.7M) and gold ($68.3M), followed by XRP and BNB; all 92 stock perps together did about $34.3M. The same endpoint showed $0.35B on Saturday, September 27, 2026, and $1.03B on Sunday, September 20, 2026, so expect $0.35B–$1B on a given day. The table below is refreshed at build time from CoinGecko's derivatives data (BTC-denominated, converted at the Hyperliquid mid), so it may differ from the exchange's own numbers. Our full perp DEX ranking tracks the rest of the field.
| # | Exchange | 24h volume | Open interest | Perp pairs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hyperliquid | $10.65B | $14.90B | 351 |
| 2 | Variational Omni | $2.39B | $1.86B | 585 |
| 3 | Lighter | $2.23B | $1.06B | 199 |
| 4 | Aster | $1.62B | $1.41B | 616 |
| 5 | GMX (Solana) | $1.25B | $187M | 91 |
| 6 | Pacifica | $872M | $110M | 78 |
Data as of 2026-11-03 12:27:10 UTC. edgeX: $432M volume, rank #10.
The practical read: BTC, ETH and SOL books are deep enough for retail and mid-size orders, but a market order in a 10x long-tail altcoin or a single stock perp can move the price. Check the Depth tab before sizing up.
How to start trading on edgeX (5 minutes)
Open the official app
Open pro.edgex.exchange through our link: edgeX's invite page opens with the Referral Code field filled in (HOLYGRAIL). Check the domain: pro.edgex.exchange, not a look-alike. If you signed up in the iOS/Android app instead, log in on the web and enter the code once on the Referral page.
Wallet or email
On that page, enter your email and the six-digit code, or connect an EVM wallet and sign the login message; with email, edgeX creates an MPC wallet with its own EVM address for you. No KYC either way.
Deposit USDC
Click Deposit and pick a chain: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism or Polygon (bridged with CCTP, so what arrives is native USDC), or the Edge chain directly. Minimum 10 USDC. Wallet users approve and send from the app; email users copy the address and send USDC from an exchange.
Set leverage and place the order
Pick a market. The ticket shows Cross and One-way; for isolated margin or a hedged long and short, use a sub-account. Set leverage with the slider and use Limit, Market or Stop Limit with TP/SL ticked. The fee rate is printed under the ticket. For stock perps, remember market orders are rejected while the stock market is closed.
Withdraw
Withdraw in the account panel sends USDC to any of the supported chains (minimum 2 USDC; check the fee shown in the dialog). Withdrawals to Ethereum are batched and settle on L1, which the docs say can take up to 14 hours; other chains are paid from per-chain pools and arrive faster.
edgeX airdrop and points (status October 21, 2026)
Short answer: the edgeX airdrop has already happened. 30% of the EDGE supply went to early users when the token launched on March 31, 2026 (25% in the genesis distribution and 5% for the pre-TGE points season), fully unlocked at genesis according to edgeX's docs. (On October 15, 2026 edgeX's tokenomics page split that allocation into a circulating part and 14.08% of total supply held in a locked contract, without explaining why.) On October 21, 2026, no new points season or second airdrop has been announced.
- The past airdrop. edgeX's tokenomics page says the airdrop was claimable through an airdrop contract and that part of it was moved to the edgeX spot contract on April 19, 2026; the spot contract now holds none of it. Checking or claiming an old allocation needs a login on the Points page ("View Airdrop").
- The Points page today. It still carries a "How to earn points" panel (trading points, open-interest points, liquidity rewards), but logged out it shows no rates, and edgeX's announcements from September 16 to October 19, 2026 and its docs describe no new season or second airdrop. Treat any "edgeX Season 2 airdrop" claim as unconfirmed until edgeX announces it.
- What you can earn now. New-user missions that edgeX's invite page puts at up to 30,000 USDC over time, Lucky Box drops from trading, a 3% EDGE boost on the protocol vault (below) and occasional Event Center campaigns. None of these needs a particular referral code.
Event Center, Mystery Boxes and new-user missions. The Event Center runs campaigns paid in USDC and EDGE, with a "New User Exclusive" section. The last one, edgeX Arc Genesis (September 17 – October 16, 2026), rewarded opening an Arc account, depositing and trading there; on October 21, 2026 the Ongoing tab read "No event for now". Trading also earns Mystery Boxes that open into USDC cashback vouchers and other prizes; edgeX excludes wash trading and other abnormal activity from Mystery Box rewards.
If points are the main reason you are choosing a venue, compare the programmes that are actually running in our perp DEX airdrops 2026 tracker, and don't farm volume you would not trade anyway: at 0.045% taker, every $100,000 of volume costs $45 in fees.
EDGE token and the edgeX vault
EDGE token. EDGE is the governance and staking asset: 1 billion supply, 30% early users, 25% core contributors and investors (locked 24 months, then 24 months of vesting), 30% future reserve, and 5% each to liquidity, ecosystem and the foundation. Holders vote on edgeX Improvement Proposals and can delegate to validators for a share of protocol rewards. On October 21, 2026 CoinGecko listed EDGE at $0.30 (market cap $105M), down from about $0.60 on September 27, 2026; edgeX's tokenomics page showed 5.01% of supply bought back and burned from protocol revenue and 65% still locked. An EDGE perp (30x) is listed on edgeX itself.
edgeX vault (eStrategy). edgeX's docs describe the eLP vault as an AMM strategy: depositors hold a share of its positions, effectively the counterparty to other traders, and earn market-making profit, liquidation fees and part of trading fees. A withdrawal can take up to 2 days while positions are unwound, and earns nothing in that time. On October 21, 2026 the Vaults page listed one protocol vault, "Native USDC Rewards", with $13.8M deposited and a 7% APR made of 4% in USDC plus a limited-time 3% in EDGE (the EDGE boost covers the first 50,000,000 USDC of deposits platform-wide). It is the same idea as Hyperliquid's HLP; treat the APR as variable and the EDGE part as worth whatever EDGE is worth.
edgeX vs Hyperliquid
| edgeX | Hyperliquid | |
|---|---|---|
| Taker / maker (base) | 0.045% / 0.040% | 0.045% / 0.015% |
| Best published tier | 0.020% / 0.015% ($7B or more) | 0.024% / 0% (over $7B), rebates to −0.003% |
| Discounts | No referee discount for any code (checked October 21, 2026) | 4% referral (HOLYGRAIL) · 5–40% HYPE staking |
| Max leverage | BTC 100x · ETH 100x · SOL 75x | BTC 40x · ETH 25x · SOL 20x |
| Markets | 172 (92 stock/ETF/pre-IPO, USD/JPY, commodities), October 21, 2026 | 179 perps + HIP-3 builder markets, 349 spot pairs (as of November 3, 2026) |
| 24h volume | $0.35B–$1B ($610M on October 21, 2026) | $4–8B on a typical day |
| Funding interval | 4 hours | 1 hour |
| Architecture | Own rollup (transitional Arbitrum stack), Ethereum anchoring, off-chain matching | Own L1 (HyperCore), on-chain order book |
| Collateral / deposits | USDC via CCTP from 6 chains | USDC from Arbitrum, Ethereum, Base, Polygon + native BTC, ETH, SOL and more |
| Restricted | US, Ontario, sanctioned regions | US, Ontario, sanctioned regions |
| Mobile | Native iOS / Android | Web (mobile-friendly) |
| Token | EDGE | HYPE |
Pick Hyperliquid if you trade crypto perps and care about cost or depth: same taker rate, a maker rate less than half, discounts that stack, hourly funding and several times the volume. Pick edgeX for stock and pre-IPO perps, 100x on majors, or a native app. Many traders hold both, funding edgeX from the same USDC. Holding both also lets you collect the gap between edgeX's funding, paid every 4 hours, and Hyperliquid's hourly funding; the live spreads, fees on both legs and break-even maths are in our funding rate arbitrage guide. Full Hyperliquid details are in our Hyperliquid review, fees guide and how-to guide.
Trading crypto perps? Hyperliquid is cheaper
Hyperliquid's code HOLYGRAIL takes 4% off your fees on the first $25M in volume. The discount applies only when the code is on your Hyperliquid account before that account's first $10,000 of Hyperliquid volume, so joining with it from the start is the simple way. How the Hyperliquid code works.
Lighter vs edgeX
On cost Lighter wins outright: its default Standard account charges 0% taker and 0% maker against edgeX's 0.045% / 0.040%, and even Lighter's opt-in Premium account (0.028% / 0.004%) is cheaper than edgeX Regular. edgeX wins on leverage (100x vs 50x on BTC), on the length of its stock list and on having a native mobile app. Lighter's referral code gives you 10% of fees rebated weekly (code 718610TD); edgeX's gives you nothing. If your strategy rests limit orders, Lighter's 0% maker rate is decisive: see the Lighter review, our Lighter fees guide and the side-by-side perp DEX ranking.
Risks and what to watch
- Leverage. 100x with a 0.5% maintenance margin and a 1% liquidation fee is unforgiving. Use a separate sub-account for anything above 10x.
- Liquidity outside majors. 131 of 172 contracts open at 10x or less (85 of the 92 stock perps and 46 crypto and commodity contracts), and the caps track how thin those books are. Market orders in stock perps can slip, and thin pairs can be delisted (seven on October 15, 2026).
- Operator and rollup risk. Matching and sequencing are run by edgeX, and V2 sits on a transitional Arbitrum stack. Self-custody protects you from theft by the operator, not from downtime. The listed audits (Rigsec, SlowMist; PeckShield for StarkEx) do not cover every future upgrade.
- Stock perps at the close. Market orders are rejected and prices are banded while the underlying is shut; weekend gaps can jump your stop.
- Token risk. EDGE fell about 70% within about an hour on June 1–2, 2026 (UTC). Rewards paid in EDGE are worth what EDGE is worth.
- Impostors. Use pro.edgex.exchange only. No one from edgeX will ask you to send funds to a person or pay to release a withdrawal.
- Withdrawal pools. Non-Ethereum withdrawals are paid from per-chain asset pools, so very large withdrawals may be limited by the pool balance on that chain.
Frequently asked questions
What is edgeX exchange?
edgeX is a self-custodial, order-book perpetual futures exchange at pro.edgex.exchange. Version 1 ran on a StarkEx validium; the current V2 is a dedicated modular rollup (the Edge chain) that edgeX says temporarily uses the Arbitrum technology stack, with a Go-based off-chain matching engine and state anchored to Ethereum. On October 21, 2026 its public API listed 172 perpetual markets (79 crypto and commodity contracts, 92 stock, ETF and pre-IPO perps and USD/JPY), all margined in USDC, and it ranked #10 among perp DEXs by 24-hour volume in CoinGecko's data at build time.
Is edgeX legit?
Yes, edgeX is a real, operating exchange: its Terms of Use name EdgeX Infra Corporation as the provider of the site, its contracts and audits (Rigsec, SlowMist, PeckShield) are published, and its public API showed $610M of trading in the 24 hours to October 21, 2026. Many reviews say it was incubated by Amber Group; we could not find that on any official edgeX page, so treat it as unconfirmed. Beware of impostors: the real app is pro.edgex.exchange, not look-alike domains such as edgex.cyou.
Is edgeX safe?
Safer than a custodial exchange, but not risk-free. Collateral sits in audited contracts, state roots are anchored to Ethereum, and edgeX’s V2 docs promise permissionless withdrawals even if the operator’s sequencer fails. Liquidations use a multi-exchange oracle price, not the last trade. The remaining risks: edgeX runs the sequencer and matching engine off-chain, V2 is young and runs on a transitional Arbitrum stack, the audits listed do not cover every upgrade, and the EDGE token fell about 70% within about an hour on June 1–2, 2026 (UTC). Only use the official domain pro.edgex.exchange.
Is edgeX really decentralized?
Partly. Custody is decentralized: you trade from your own wallet (or an MPC wallet created at email login), and withdrawals do not need edgeX’s permission. Execution is not: orders are matched by edgeX’s off-chain engine and sequenced by its rollup operator, and the Terms describe EdgeX Infra Corporation as the front-end provider. That is the same trade-off as other rollup-based perp DEXs such as Lighter; Hyperliquid keeps its order book on its own L1 instead.
What are edgeX fees?
Regular users pay 0.045% taker and 0.040% maker on perpetuals (verified September 27, 2026). Fees fall with 14-day trading volume (perpetual and spot volume combined) across six VIP levels, starting at $10M and reaching 0.020% taker / 0.015% maker at $7B or more; a new tier applies immediately and lasts 14 days. Spot starts at 0.070% taker / 0.040% maker. There is no gas on orders, and the minimum deposit is 10 USDC. The maker fee is the weak spot: Hyperliquid charges 0.015% and Lighter 0% for the same resting order.
Does using a code on edgeX lower your fees?
No. With our code HOLYGRAIL or any other, the fee stayed at the Regular 0.045% taker / 0.040% maker when we checked on October 21, 2026; edgeX’s referral rules (October 9, 2026) pay the referrer 5%–30% of fees and give the person who joins no discount. How to apply the code, and why “50% off” codes do not exist, is in our edgeX referral code guide.
What are edgeX VIP tiers?
edgeX has a Regular tier and VIP 1 to VIP 6, set by your rolling 14-day trading volume (perpetual and spot volume combined). VIP 1 starts at $10M (0.043% taker / 0.038% maker) and VIP 6 at $7B (0.020% / 0.015%). A tier applies as soon as you qualify and lasts 14 days; it is extended if you keep the volume and drops to the matching tier if you don’t (edgeX VIP page, checked October 21, 2026). edgeX publishes no token-holding or referral-code route to VIP.
Is there an edgeX airdrop in 2026?
edgeX’s airdrop already happened: 30% of the EDGE supply went to early users at the March 31, 2026 token launch, unlocked at genesis according to edgeX’s docs. On October 21, 2026 no new points season or second airdrop has been announced: the Points page shows the past EDGE airdrop and a generic “how to earn points” panel, but edgeX’s announcements and docs describe no new season. What you can earn now: edgeX’s new-user missions, Lucky Box drops from trading and a 3% EDGE boost on the protocol vault; the Event Center listed no ongoing campaign on October 21, 2026.
Is edgeX available in the US?
No. Section 1.5 of edgeX’s Terms of Use (updated March 24, 2026) makes the site unavailable to residents, citizens and entities in the United States, in Ontario (Canada) and in sanctioned jurisdictions, and prohibits using a VPN to misrepresent your location. Japan and the rest of Canada are not on the list, but you remain responsible for whether leveraged derivatives trading is lawful where you live.
Does edgeX require KYC?
No. You connect an EVM wallet (MetaMask, Rabby, WalletConnect and others) or sign in with an email address, which creates an MPC wallet for you. Funds stay in your own account on the rollup and can be withdrawn without permission from edgeX. No KYC does not mean anonymous: deposits and withdrawals are public on-chain, and the geographic restrictions still apply.
What is the EDGE token?
EDGE is the governance and staking token of the edgeX ecosystem, with a fixed supply of 1 billion: 30% to early users (unlocked at genesis, per the docs), 25% to core contributors and investors, 30% future reserve, and 5% each to liquidity, ecosystem and the foundation. It has traded since March 31, 2026. On October 21, 2026 CoinGecko showed it at $0.30 (market cap $105M; all-time high $1.54 on May 22, 2026; low $0.24 on July 5, 2026; about $0.60 on September 27, 2026), and edgeX’s tokenomics page showed 5.01% of supply bought back and burned.
edgeX vs Hyperliquid: which is better?
For most crypto perp traders, Hyperliquid: several times the daily volume, hourly funding and a much cheaper maker fee (0.015% vs 0.040%) at the same 0.045% taker rate, plus 4% off with Hyperliquid’s referral code HOLYGRAIL. edgeX offers higher leverage (100x on BTC and ETH vs 40x and 25x), 92 stock, ETF and pre-IPO perps and a native mobile app. Use edgeX as a second venue for those. If you open a Hyperliquid account, join with code HOLYGRAIL: the 4% discount applies only when the code is on the account before it trades $10,000.
Lighter vs edgeX: which has lower fees?
Lighter. Its default Standard account charges 0% maker and 0% taker; even the opt-in Premium account (0.028% taker / 0.004% maker) is cheaper than edgeX Regular (0.045% / 0.040%). edgeX answers with higher leverage (100x vs 50x on BTC), a larger stock-perp list and 4-hour funding.
Trading stock perps or high leverage? Open edgeX
92 stock and pre-IPO perps, 100x on BTC and ETH, email login and a native app. Our link fills in our code on edgeX's invite page; it supports this site and does not raise your fees.
Open edgeX →Related: best DEXs compared · what is a DEX · perp DEX ranking · Hyperliquid vs Lighter · Hyperliquid vs Lighter vs Aster · stock perps on Hyperliquid (trade.xyz) · no-KYC DEX trading guide.
Disclosure: links to edgeX use our edgeX referral code HOLYGRAIL (edgeX's own program), through which we may earn a commission from edgeX; it does not raise your fees. Links to Hyperliquid and Lighter use our referral codes (HOLYGRAIL, 718610TD), from which we earn a share of trading fees at no cost to you. edgeX figures were read from its VIP page, docs, Terms of Use and public API on September 27, 2026 and re-checked on October 21, 2026; volumes are one-day snapshots. Perpetual futures are high-risk instruments; nothing here is financial advice.