Written by: NingNing

In July, Base, this 'Digital American West', welcomed a major player: SynFutures. As of today, SynFutures has accumulated $26 billion in trading volume on Base, accounting for more than half of the market share of the PerpDEX track in the Base ecosystem.

Recently, SynFutures launched the Perp Launchpad platform on Base, creating a brand-new perpetual contract issuance model.

However, before deconstructing this new toy, we must first understand a harsh reality: under the current market environment, the growth of PerpDEX encounters bottlenecks, and top players like dYdX, Hyperliquid, GMX, and SynFutures have already divided up the profitable perpetual contract varieties. What remains is either a trading volume so meager that it is hard to maintain, or it becomes an arbitrage tool due to low pricing efficiency.

In this segmented track context, to gain new growth space, SynFutures chooses to take a different approach.

1. Innovation of Perp Launchpad: One-stop perpetual contract launcher

Perp Launchpad provides liquidity depth and price discovery channels for restaking and meme tracks through ultra-low gas environment + ultra-thin spread capital efficiency + $1 million subsidy, attempting to capture the incremental users primarily composed of on-chain degens, creating Pump.fun in the PerpDEX track.

With just one token, a perpetual contract trading pair can be launched without permission.

The biggest highlight of this model is:

  • Reduced the entry threshold for the perpetual contract market

  • Quickly established depth through LP incentive mechanisms

  • Achieved rapid deployment using Base's low gas advantages

Taking Lido's case as an example: the wstETH/ETH perpetual contract was launched only two months ago and has achieved:

  • Cumulative trading volume: $260 million

  • Peak TVL: $918,000 -- On-chain trading count: 132,000 transactions

  • Number of users: 1955+

2. Investor perspective: new sources of revenue and risk management tools

For on-chain degens, SynFutures provides threefold revenue opportunities:

  • LP market making returns (annualized up to 50%+) -- community revenue sharing

  • Future token airdrop expectations and point rewards

At the same time, it can help on-chain degens manage risks of restaking assets and meme coins.

But be cautious:

  • The liquidity of the perpetual contract market often exhibits strong cyclicality

  • The price discovery process of newly launched trading pairs may bring significant volatility

  • LP market making faces the risk of impermanent loss

3. New toys for restaking enthusiasts

SynFutures chooses to collaborate with liquid staking leaders like Lido, which in some way provides a new monetization channel for restaking assets. We can foresee:

  • More restaking assets will be introduced to the perpetual contract market

  • The liquidity of LRT tokens will be further enhanced

  • May give rise to new restaking derivative gameplay

SynFutures' data reveals an interesting phenomenon: BTC restaking assets are becoming the new favorite in the perpetual contract market.

The performance of pumpBTC/ETH and SolvBTC/ETH perpetual contracts is particularly outstanding:

  • pumpBTC/ETH 24h trading volume 429.3K, TVL scale 12M

  • SolvBTC/ETH 24h trading volume 341.8K, TVL scale 5M

The TVL scale of these two trading pairs is approaching mainstream pairs ETH/USDC; why does this phenomenon occur?

  • The BTC restaking track is extremely hot, and funds need hedging tools

  • The price correlation of native BTC and ETH provides a natural pricing benchmark for these trading pairs

  • Competition between restaking protocols intensifies, breeding more speculative demand

4. Long-tail status of meme coin perpetual contracts

Surprisingly, meme coin perpetual contracts perform relatively average and are not as sought after by the market as spot meme coins, and the data does not look good:

  • BONK/USDC perpetual contract: 24h trading volume 7.7K, market depth 405.3K

  • PEPE's perpetual contract: average daily trading volume fluctuates between 5K-10K, market depth maintained in the 300K-500K range

  • Other meme tokens perform even worse

Possible reasons for this phenomenon include:

  • The combination of high leverage + high volatility poses too high a risk, scaring off traders

  • The speculative nature of the meme coin spot market often leads to an imbalance in perpetual rates, which is unfriendly to traders

  • The probability and extent of impermanent loss is relatively high, and LPers need to control risk exposure

Conclusion

SynFutures' innovation essentially reshapes the issuance paradigm of perpetual contracts. It is no longer limited to mainstream assets but opens the derivative market door for any token.

SynFutures' innovation not only lowers the threshold for issuing perpetual contracts but, more importantly, opens up an important value discovery channel: from 'blue chip assets' like restaking to 'retail favorites' like meme coins, all can find their market pricing here.

Although this inclusive strategy is risky, it may be the necessary path for perpetual contracts to enter the mainstream market. After all, in a bear market, sometimes the craziest ideas can create the greatest value.