Short answer (October 14, 2026): three perp DEX points programs are open to new users, Lighter on Robinhood Chain, Paradex XP Season 3 and Ethereal Points. Aster's Stage 6 airdrop is a claim for people who already qualified (it opens November 4, 2026, 12:00 UTC). Hyperliquid has no Season 3, edgeX, GRVT and Based have already paid out, and Avantis (now Veranta) ended its last XP season on February 28, 2026. Farming costs real money in fees and spread on most venues, so rank them by what you would trade anyway.
Perp DEX airdrops and points programs, ranked
Ranked by what a new user can still earn today, then by the cost of trading for it. Fees are each venue's base (non-VIP) taker / maker rate from our facts registry. Use our codes only where you would trade anyway.
| Venue | Our code | Status (October 14, 2026) | How points accrue | Taker / maker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Lighter Lighter points guide | 718610TDOpen Lighter | Live on the Robinhood Chain deployment (weekly drop every Friday since August 21, 2026). Main exchange: Season 2 ended December 26, 2025; Season 3 not announced | Eligible trading in real time; Robinhood announced double points for eligible Robinhood Wallet users (September 22, 2026). Season 2 scored volume, open interest, funding and PnL, with quality weighting | 0% / 0% (Standard) |
| 2. Paradex | No code | Live: XP Season 3 since February 1, 2026, end date “TBD” | 4,000,000 XP shared each week (Wednesdays); a new XP mechanic “will roll out”; affiliate XP on top | 0% / 0% (Retail orders) |
| 3. Ethereal | No code | Live: weekly Ethereal Points, plus Ethena Exchange Points that convert to ENA at the end of the program | Fees paid, open interest, liquidations, maker/taker volume and referrals; snapshots every Wednesday 23:59 UTC, points paid on Fridays | 0.03% / 0% |
| 4. Aster Aster Stage 6 guide | DTLpLcOpen Aster | Claim pending: Stage 6 vested claim opens November 4, 2026, 12:00 UTC (qualified users only). Stardust points paused since August 30, 2026; fixed-pool campaigns live | Closed: Stage 6 needed 10,000+ points. Campaigns pay set pools (USD1 RWA Boost August 31 – December 31, 2026; Grid Liquidity Mining September 28 – October 25, 2026) | 0.04% / 0% |
| 5. Hyperliquid Season 3 status | HOLYGRAILOpen Hyperliquid | No program: points ended November 2024; Season 3 not announced | Nothing accrues today. The 2023–24 program paid weekly points for activity and 1 point per 4 earned by referred users | 0.045% / 0.015%, 4% off with our code |
| 6. edgeX edgeX review: airdrop and points | HOLYGRAILOpen edgeX | Paid out: 30% of EDGE airdropped at the March 31, 2026 TGE; as of October 14, 2026, no new points season or second airdrop has been announced | The points page still says you earn points by trading, positioning and providing liquidity, but no season dates, criteria or token conversion are published; other rewards come as Event Center campaigns | 0.045% / 0.04% |
| 7. Based (Hyperliquid app) Based app review | HOLYGRAILJoin Hyperliquid with HOLYGRAIL, then connect Based Apps such as Phantom often set their own Hyperliquid referral code on accounts that have none: join on app.hyperliquid.xyz first, then connect the same wallet to Based. | Ended: Seasons 1–3 over (Season 3 ended May 4, 2026); $BASED launched March 30, 2026; no new season in the docs | Nothing accrues. Season 3 Diamonds went to Hyperliquid trading through Based, with a 10% bonus for referrers and referees | Hyperliquid's fee plus a Based builder fee (see the review) |
| 8. GRVT | No code | Paid out: TGE July 30, 2026; allocations release over 12 months | Release pace was cut for multi-account or manufactured volume | 0.045% / -0.0001% |
| 9. Avantis (now Veranta) | No code | Ended: XP Season 3 ended February 28, 2026 | Was: up to 1 XP per dollar traded, LP XP per dollar per day (40,000,000 AVNT for Season 3) | — |
Sources (all read October 14, 2026): docs.lighter.xyz Points Program pages, app.lighter.xyz and @Lighter_xyz; docs.paradex.trade (XP); docs.ethereal.trade (Rewards & Points, Fees); asterdex.com airdrop and Stardust pages and @Aster_DEX; hyperliquid.gitbook.io (Points), app.hyperliquid.xyz/points and @HyperliquidX; pro.edgex.exchange tokenomics (points page checked October 4, 2026); basedapp.gitbook.io (Based Points, $BASED token); @RobinhoodCrypto (Lighter double points); help.grvt.io (Everything About TGE); docs.veranta.xyz (XP). Fee rates: each venue's fee page on the date in our facts registry.
Farming or not, trade where the liquidity is
No points season is running on Hyperliquid, but it trades $4–8B a day; see how that compares in our live perp DEX ranking. Join with HOLYGRAIL for 4% off fees on your first $25M of volume; enter it before $10,000 of volume and before you connect any third-party app.
We earn a commission when you sign up through our links; it never raises your fees.
How perp DEX points work
Every program in the table follows the same pattern: the venue gives out a fixed number of points per period, splits them by activity it does not fully disclose, and later converts them (or not) into a token. The venues' own docs show four levers:
- Volume, with quality weighting. Lighter's Season 2 scored volume non-linearly (“2× the volume may result in 3× or 1.5× the points”) and weighted markets differently. Veranta gave at most 1 XP per dollar traded, more for longer trades.
- Open interest and holding time. Aster's Stage 6 had position points for size × time, Ethereal counts open interest, and Lighter counted open interest and funding. Churning volume without holding anything scores less.
- Fees and PnL. Ethereal counts fees paid; Lighter and Aster counted PnL; Veranta's zero-fee perps scored the fees you paid on profits.
- Referrals. Hyperliquid's first program paid affiliates 1 point per 4 points of referred users; Paradex pays affiliate XP on top of the weekly pool; Aster had team boosts.
And one filter everywhere: sybil and wash-trading detection. Lighter (“Sybil, self-trading, and similar activities will not earn points”), Aster (one entry per user, farmed points adjusted), GRVT (release slowed for multi-account or manufactured volume) and Hyperliquid (addresses excluded at its discretion) all say so in writing.
Hyperliquid: Season 3 is not announced
Hyperliquid ran one points program, from November 2023 through the L1 phase that ended in November 2024, and paid it out at the HYPE genesis on November 29, 2024: 270.9M HYPE to 94,019 addresses, a median of 64.42 HYPE. On October 14, 2026 its docs still describe points in the past tense and neither the app nor @HyperliquidX announces a new season. The app's Points page is a record of past points, not an announcement. Our Hyperliquid airdrop and Season 3 page has the full status table and a genesis checker for any address.
If you trade on Hyperliquid anyway, the only round on record rewarded months of real use, and referrals. Code HOLYGRAIL takes 4% off your fees today, which is certain; an S3 is not.
Trading through a Hyperliquid app such as Based? Join on app.hyperliquid.xyz with HOLYGRAIL first, because an app can attach its own referral code when it creates your account; the 4% discount then still applies to Hyperliquid's part of your app orders. Based's own points seasons ended on May 4, 2026 (Based review).
Lighter: Robinhood Chain points live, no Season 3
Lighter airdropped 25% of its LIT supply to the 12.5M points from Seasons 1 and 2 on the day LIT launched, an average of 20 LIT per point by our arithmetic. Season 2 ended on December 26, 2025 and app.lighter.xyz/points returns a 404. The live program is on Lighter's Robinhood Chain deployment: real-time points plus a weekly Friday drop (on September 22, 2026 Robinhood's crypto account announced double points for eligible users trading Lighter perps in Robinhood Wallet), with strict terms (one person, one account, no wash or circular referrals) and a list of restricted countries. The Lighter airdrop and points guide covers the LIT allocation, a points-to-LIT calculator and a farming strategy that follows those terms. Standard accounts trade at 0% taker; join with 718610TD and your first Premium week is rebated.
Aster: Stage 6 claim on November 4
Aster paid its airdrop in stages. Stage 6, the last one tied to trading activity, distributes 64,000,000 ASTER to users with at least 10,000 points; the 100% vested claim opens on November 4, 2026, 12:00 UTC on asterdex.com/en/airdrop. New users cannot qualify for it, and the Stardust points dashboard has been paused since August 30, 2026. What pays new users are fixed-pool campaigns: the USD1 RWA Boost (August 31 – December 31, 2026) and Grid Liquidity Mining (up to 140,000 ASTER, September 28 – October 25, 2026). The Aster airdrop guide has the claim checklist and every stage. Code DTLpLc returns 5% of your fees as a rebate.
edgeX: airdrop paid, no second round announced
edgeX put 30% of its EDGE supply into an airdrop for eligible users at its March 31, 2026 token launch. As of October 14, 2026, no new points season or second airdrop has been announced. The points page still shows the past airdrop and a "How to earn points" panel (trading, positioning, providing liquidity) with no season dates or criteria; other rewards come as Event Center campaigns and new-user missions. Our edgeX review covers the airdrop, the token, the campaigns and the fees. We hold the edgeX code HOLYGRAIL, but the invite page it opens showed no fee discount for referees when we checked (October 19, 2026), so use it only if you would trade on edgeX anyway.
Paradex, Ethereal, GRVT and Avantis: status only
We hold no codes for these venues; this is status only, from their own docs on October 14, 2026.
- Paradex. XP Season 3 has run since February 1, 2026 with 4,000,000 XP distributed every Wednesday and no end date; the docs say a new XP mechanic “will roll out in the coming weeks”. Paradex already has a token, DIME. Retail orders in the web app trade at 0%, behind a speed bump.
- Ethereal. Ethereal Points accrue from fees paid, open interest, liquidations, maker/taker volume and referrals (snapshots every Wednesday 23:59 UTC, points paid on Fridays), and the same activity earns Ethena Exchange Points that convert to ENA when that program ends. The docs pages we read do not mention an Ethereal token. Taker 0.03%, maker 0%.
- GRVT. The GRVT token launched on July 30, 2026. Allocations vest over 12 months in tranches, and GRVT says it slowed releases for accounts that looked like multi-account farming or manufactured volume. Its help center still has a “Live” Rewards Season 2.0 article written before the TGE, so check the app before farming.
- Avantis (now Veranta). The XP program is marked ended: Season 3 closed on February 28, 2026 with 40,000,000 AVNT for traders and LPs. AVNT is live on Base. Nothing in the docs announces a Season 4.
What past perp DEX airdrops paid
Past rounds are the only evidence of what points were worth. All from the venues' own figures:
| Venue | When | Size | How it was paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hyperliquid | November 29, 2024 | 270.9M HYPE to 94,019 addresses (median 64.42) | Pushed to spot balances at genesis |
| Lighter | December 30, 2025 | 25% of LIT for 12.5M points (about 20 LIT per point) | Airdropped “immediately” |
| edgeX | March 31, 2026 | 30% of EDGE | Airdrop contract (counted as circulating) |
| GRVT | July 30, 2026 | Not stated on the page we read | Tranches over 12 months |
| Aster Stage 6 | Claim from November 4, 2026, 12:00 UTC | 64,000,000 ASTER (0.8% of supply) | 50% early (rest burned) or 100% after six months |
| Avantis / Veranta Season 3 | Ended February 28, 2026 | 40,000,000 AVNT | XP converted per the season rules |
There is no single pattern. Aster's stage pools shrank from 2.5% of supply (Stage 3) to 1.5% (Stage 4), 1.2% (Stage 5) and 0.8% (Stage 6), and added lock or vesting options along the way. Veranta went the other way: its docs call Season 3, with 40,000,000 AVNT, “the shortest and the most rewarding season”. Hyperliquid and Lighter have each paid one distribution so far. Nothing published tells you whether a next season pays more or less per point.
Farming cost vs expected value
The cost side is knowable; the reward side is not. Fees for $100,000 of taker volume on each venue's base schedule:
| Venue | Taker fee | Cost per $100k | 8 weeks at $100k/week | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lighter (Standard) | 0% | $0.00 | $0 | plus spread; taker orders are delayed |
| Paradex (Retail orders) | 0% | $0.00 | $0 | retail UI orders; Pro API orders pay more |
| Ethereal | 0.03% | $30.00 | $240 | |
| Aster (Pro, crypto pairs) | 0.04% | $40.00 | $320 | maker orders 0 |
| Hyperliquid with HOLYGRAIL | 0.0432% | $43.20 | $346 | 4% off on the first $25M |
| Hyperliquid (no code) | 0.045% | $45.00 | $360 | |
| edgeX (regular) | 0.045% | $45.00 | $360 | |
| GRVT (level 1) | 0.045% | $45.00 | $360 | makers get a small rebate |
Fees are only part of it. Add the spread you cross twice per round trip, funding on held positions, slippage on thin markets, and liquidation risk. Zero-fee venues move the cost into spread and execution delay rather than removing it. The honest test: farm only if the trades make sense without the airdrop, because the expected value of an unannounced season is unknown. Model your own volume and fee tier in the DEX fee calculator.
Trading competitions are not airdrops
Competitions and campaigns pay a known prize pool over a short window, with published rules; points programs pay an unknown amount later. On October 14, 2026, Aster was running Grid Liquidity Mining (up to 140,000 ASTER, September 28 – October 25, 2026) and the USD1 RWA Boost; Hyperliquid runs no official competitions and attaches no prizes to its public leaderboard. For a fixed pool, compute the break-even: the pool divided by all eligible volume has to beat your fees on that volume.
Risks: sybil filters, wash trading, phishing, taxes
- Sybil filters. Multiple wallets split your volume, keep each one in a worse fee tier and are the first thing every venue screens for. GRVT slowed releases for it; Lighter and Aster exclude it in their terms.
- Wash trading and self-trading. Banned everywhere, detectable on-chain, and you pay fees on both sides. Our wash trading checks shows how venues detect it.
- Phishing. “Claim” and “checker” sites are the most common perp DEX scam. Real claims happen on the venue's own domain and never need your seed phrase or a token approval.
- Unlocks. Large claims hit the market on known dates (Aster's Stage 6 on November 4). Know the date if you hold the token.
- Taxes. In most countries an airdrop is income when received. Keep the date, amount and price of every claim; the DEX tax reporting guide lists the records to keep.
FAQ
Which perp DEX airdrop is live now?
On October 14, 2026, the perp DEX points programs you can still join are Lighter on Robinhood Chain (real-time points plus a weekly Friday drop), Paradex XP Season 3 (4,000,000 XP a week since February 1, 2026) and Ethereal Points (snapshots every Wednesday 23:59 UTC, points paid on Fridays). Aster's Stage 6 airdrop is a pending claim (November 4, 2026, 12:00 UTC) for people who already qualified, not a program you can join. Hyperliquid, GRVT and Avantis (now Veranta) have no points season running; edgeX's points page still says you earn points by trading, but edgeX has announced no new season or second airdrop.
Do referral codes affect points?
It depends on the venue. On Hyperliquid's 2023–24 program, affiliates earned 1 point for every 4 points their referred users earned; today a code there only cuts fees (4% with HOLYGRAIL). Paradex adds affiliate bonus XP on top of the weekly pool, Ethereal counts referrals among its points factors, and Lighter's Robinhood Chain launch post promised referrers "an additional points boost". Aster's Stage 6 paid referral points and team boosts, and Based's Season 3 gave referrers and referees a 10% bonus. Self-referrals do not count: Lighter's Robinhood Chain terms exclude self-referrals and circular referral schemes.
Is delta-neutral farming across venues worth it?
A long on one perp DEX and an equal short on another cancels price risk, but not costs: you pay fees and spread on both legs, funding can run against one side for weeks, a fast move can liquidate one leg before you rebalance, and the rules push against it: Aster’s Stage 3 and 4 FAQs said it “does not encourage hedging or wash trading to farm points” and adjusted farmed points, and Lighter’s Robinhood Chain terms exclude wash trading, self-trading and trading between accounts you control. It only makes sense when both venues are close to zero-fee and you would hold the positions anyway.
Which perp DEX airdrops already paid out?
Hyperliquid (270.9M HYPE to 94,019 addresses, November 29, 2024), Lighter (25% of LIT to 12.5M Season 1–2 points, December 30, 2025), edgeX (30% of EDGE to eligible users at its March 31, 2026 TGE), GRVT (TGE July 30, 2026, released over 12 months) and Aster (TGE plus Stages 2–6, the last claim opening November 4, 2026, 12:00 UTC). Based (Seasons 1 and 2 into the $BASED launch on March 30, 2026, Season 3 tokens after it ended on May 4, 2026). Avantis (now Veranta) ran three XP seasons, the last ending on February 28, 2026; we did not verify its distribution.
Do trading competitions count as an airdrop?
No. Trading competitions and campaigns pay a fixed prize pool for a short window, usually split by volume or by resting orders, and they are announced with their rules. Points programs pay an unknown token amount later. On October 14, 2026 Aster was running Grid Liquidity Mining (up to 140,000 ASTER, September 28 – October 25, 2026). Hyperliquid runs no official competitions.
Are perp DEX airdrops taxable?
In most countries an airdrop is income at its value when you receive it, and selling later is a separate taxable event. Record the date, amount and price of every claim. This is general information, not tax advice.
No season to farm on Hyperliquid, but 4% off is live today
Join Hyperliquid with code HOLYGRAIL: 4% off trading fees on your first $25M of volume, entered before $10,000. If a Season 3 ever comes, the first round rewarded months of real trading (and referrals).
Disclosure: HOLYGRAIL (Hyperliquid, edgeX, Based), 718610TD (Lighter) and DTLpLc (Aster) are our referral codes; we earn a share of fees paid by referred accounts. We hold no codes for Paradex, Ethereal, GRVT or Avantis/Veranta, and their place in the ranking does not depend on that. Statuses were read on October 14, 2026; points programs change without notice. Airdrops are never guaranteed. Not financial advice.