Most people know that the most lucrative business in the crypto world is smart contracts.

But can you imagine that a low-key dark horse, Perp DEX, which has only been operating for a year, exceeded Ethereum, Base, and other top public chains in 24-hour revenue? Extend the timeframe to 7 days, and it surpasses Uniswap, Jupiter, AAVE, Lido, and other DeFi veterans. Not only is it one of the few projects in the top 15 daily revenue ranking that has not issued its own token, but it is also the best perp dex in terms of liquidity depth for buying BTC and ETH within a 0.01% price spread.

This revenue curve's new "monster" is called edgeX.

Why is the Revenue Curve so Fierce?

Unlike the well-known Hyperliquid, edgeX is a ZK architecture perp dex. With a team background incubated by Amber, its core members have brought together a team with deep experience in high-frequency trading from companies like Goldman Sachs and Jump Trading. In terms of product form, edgeX is more like an "on-chain financial full-stack base": in addition to the perp dex, it also has eStrategy (vault) and edgeX chain as two other product lines.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the quality of a product is directly reflected in its revenue, so comparing the revenue within the perp dex track can more directly show edgeX's fierceness.

As a perp dex that has only been operating for a year, in the past 30 days, edgeX's fee revenue was $10.53M, far surpassing the veteran GMX's $3.85M and dYdX's $1.92M. In other words, edgeX's revenue is almost more than double that of GMX and more than five times that of dYdX.

Data Source: DefiLlama

So, how did edgeX break into the top tier of perp dexes through its revenue curve? The answer may lie in trading depth and fees, the two most important and intuitive data for traders.

In terms of liquidity depth, edgeX currently ranks second among all Perp DEXes. Taking the most core BTC/USDT as an example, within a 0.01% price spread range, edgeX's order book can support up to a $6M BTC order volume, surpassing hyperliquid ($5M), Aster ($4M), and Lighter ($1M). Although the overall depth is slightly inferior to hyperliquid, edgeX has the best depth among Perp DEXes in most currencies. For more in-depth discussion on this point, you can refer to edgeX's research lead Dan's latest article "Understanding DEX Liquidity: A Comparative Look at Trading Efficiency," so I won't elaborate on it here.

Furthermore, edgeX offers highly competitive industry rates for both Maker and Taker: Maker at only 0.015% and Taker at 0.038%, significantly lower than Hyperliquid's 0.045%. Additionally, users can unlock the VIP1 level after registering through an ambassador's referral link, further reducing the Taker fee to 0.036%. By becoming an ambassador, users can enjoy up to 35% in the highest fee rebate—saving on transaction costs while also accumulating airdrop points.

With such a depth of trading and fee advantage, edgeX's moat naturally formed, driving revenue curve growth. Even though it has not yet issued a token, it has demonstrated the ability to sustain a "token buyback" and to generate blood for ecosystem development.

More intriguingly, shifting focus to the network-wide revenue leaderboard: among the Top 15 protocols (excluding the stablecoin issuers USDT and USDC), only four have managed to rank at the top without issuing a token, and edgeX is one of them.

Data Source: DefiLlama

Many Chinese-speaking friends may not have heard of this dark horse' name because this perp dex rarely engages in narrative packaging, with its community more prominent in the Korean and North American spheres.

In other words, this is a clear high-income, undervalued, and still in a token-less period of scarcity Alpha.

Currently, edgeX uses edgeX Points as a metric for contribution distribution weekly, with 2.4M already distributed. Ways to earn include trading volume, holdings, treasury participation, and referrals, among others, while edgeX's Messenger Ambassador Program is ongoing.

While trading volume can be artificially inflated, profit revenue is much harder to falsify. Whether in traditional finance or the web3 industry, only the genuine 'user willingness to pay' is the most direct validation of 'product sustainability.'

In less than a year, edgeX has brought cash flow into the top 15 of the industry, marking a highly certain growth curve and perhaps a very strong alpha. In the next stage, how will it debut in terms of FDV, and what rewards will it offer early participants? These are questions we can look forward to.

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