Explained: What is a perpetual DEX? A Wall Street primer featuring Decibel

Financial markets are beginning to move beyond the traditional opening bell.

While stock exchanges still operate within fixed trading hours, crypto markets run continuously — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That shift is changing how exchanges, trading infrastructure, and investors think about market access.

In an interview with TheStreet Roundtable’s Alp Gasimov, Decibel Foundation’s Brylee Whatley explained why perpetual decentralized exchanges, also known as perp DEXs, could become an important part of that evolution.

“What we’re seeing is the evolution across the board as more and more exchanges, more and more even ATSs are looking towards extended market hours,” Whatley said.

For many traditional investors, perpetual futures may appear to be just another trading product. But according to Whatley, the more important shift is the infrastructure behind them — markets designed to operate continuously, settle instantly, and function without traditional intermediaries.

Why markets no longer sleep

Traditional financial markets have always relied on downtime.

When markets close, institutions reconcile trades, review books, settle transactions, and manage operational risk before reopening the next day. Crypto markets changed that model entirely.

“You have to make sure your systems work 24-7, 365, and never have a problem,” Whatley said.

That operational shift has created demand for more resilient trading systems capable of handling continuous global activity.

“It’s having more resilient systems,” Whatley said. “You don’t have a market closed period.”

This is where decentralized finance, or DeFi, enters the picture. DeFi refers to blockchain-based financial systems that remove traditional intermediaries like brokers and clearinghouses.

According to Whatley, perpetual DEXs are designed specifically for this always-on market environment.

What exactly is a perpetual DEX?

At its core, a perpetual decentralized exchange allows traders to buy and sell perpetual futures contracts directly onchain. Unlike traditional futures contracts, perpetual futures do not expire.

“The perpetual future is widely used and common contract and the highest volume activity inside the crypto space,” Whatley said.

Instead of relying on expiration dates and rollovers, perpetual contracts use funding rates to keep prices aligned with the underlying market.

“When longs are pushing more than shorts, the funding rate increases to encourage shorts to come into the other side and provide liquidity,” Whatley explained.

Unlike traditional finance systems that involve brokers, custodians, and clearinghouses, Whatley said Decibel consolidates trading, settlement, and custody into a single smart contract system.

“All of those layers are solidified into one smart contract,” he said.

That structure gives traders direct visibility into settlement and execution while reducing operational friction between counterparties.

Why Decibel built on Aptos

Decibel is built on Aptos, a blockchain focused on low latency and high transaction throughput.

According to Whatley, fast execution speeds are critical for institutional-grade trading infrastructure.

“You really need as fast as possible onchain activity,” he said.

Whatley compared blockchain throughput to expanding lanes on a highway, allowing more trading activity and market participation to flow simultaneously.

Decibel positions itself as the execution layer on top of that infrastructure, enabling traders to access crypto assets, commodities, and eventually equities through perpetual markets.

The exchange currently offers crypto-native assets alongside commodities like gold and silver, with plans to expand further.

“We’re going to start listing equities, indexes, looking for products and maybe real world assets that people are looking to trade,” Whatley said.

The future of 24-7 investing

Whatley believes investor behavior is already shifting toward continuous participation.

“Everyone wants to be active when they are active and not necessarily wait for market open or be stuck in that market close period,” he said.

As global markets continue moving toward around-the-clock trading, perpetual DEXs may become less of a crypto niche and more of a broader financial infrastructure layer.

For traditional investors, that transition may already be underway.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the Explained section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.