The V3 upgrade is a long-prepared protocol upgrade by @DriftProtocol.
It can even be said to be a rebranding change. The previous PERP DEXs, such as GMX and Jupiter PERP, focused on decentralized self-optimization and on-chain liquidity-based PERP trading models.
This aligns with the early fundamentalist principles of decentralization in DEXs, but Hyperliquid has achieved a trading experience that matches CEXs through a private chain model — extreme speed and market depth, opening up another market, which is clearly more attractive to contract trading users at this stage.
Drift has gone through these two phases; on one hand, it has focused on the self-optimization model based on Solana, and on the other hand, it aims to introduce deeper market-making liquidity (10X) through the V3 upgrade, as well as open up third-party liquidity token deposits similar to JLP — DLP, and a 100% revenue buyback of the protocol token DRIFT.
In short, I have used DRIFT for quite a while, and I enjoy making some neutral combinations on it. I even compared it to $ASTER in terms of fees and trading slippage, and @DriftProtocol is not weaker than @Aster_.
Returning to the familiar saying, issuing tokens is issuing tokens, products are products, and the experience of using products is the same.
2025 is the breakout year for perp DEXs.
We’ve seen this before:
2020: The rise of Borrow/Lend
2021: The AMM moment
Each cycle brought copycats. Few survived. Aave won the Borrow/Lend category. Uniswap won the AMM category.
Both winners combined performance with on-chain guarantees.
Perp DEXs are on the rise because the infra is catching up.
We’ve been building a perp DEX since 2021. In the past 3 months, Drift’s market share grew by 5x.
Today, we announced Drift v3 — a performance upgrade that is built to outperform:
- 10x improvements in speed, liquidity and UX
- New liquidity source: DLP (Drift Liquidity Provider)
- New Orderbook: Improved trade reliability
- Scales with Solana (Alpenglow, Jito BAM)
- 100% revenue flows back to the community through buybacks
While remaining capital efficient with multi-asset collateral (you can use 40+ tokens to trade on Drift)
Drift v3 flywheel: Outperformance → more trading → more revenue → more buybacks → community wins.
This is the winning formula for perp DEXs.
This is how Drift will win. Drift v3 will be live in Q4.
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