Merkle Trade

If you have been following the Aptos DeFi scene, Merkle Trade is a name you have almost certainly encountered. As the largest perpetual futures DEX by volume on the Aptos blockchain, it processed nearly $30 billion in cumulative trading volume before announcing in February 2026 that it would wind down operations. We spent months trading on Merkle Trade before the shutdown, and this review captures everything we learned - the genuine innovations, the gamification that made perp trading genuinely fun, and the hard lessons about single-chain risk.

What is Merkle Trade?

Merkle Trade launched in 2023 as a gamified perpetual futures decentralized exchange built natively on the Aptos blockchain. The platform was conceived with an ambitious vision: combine the speed and low cost of Aptos with a trading experience that felt more like an RPG than a financial terminal. Founded by a team with backgrounds in both gaming and DeFi, Merkle Trade raised $2.1 million in a seed round backed by prominent investors including Hashed, Arrington Capital, and Aptos Labs itself.

The platform was built using Aptos's Move programming language, a smart contract framework originally developed at Meta (formerly Facebook) for the Diem project. Move was designed with resource safety and formal verification in mind, which gave Merkle Trade an inherent security advantage over platforms built on Solidity. The choice of Aptos also meant sub-second transaction finality and gas fees that were essentially negligible - around $0.001 per transaction.

At its peak, Merkle Trade served over 163,000 unique wallet addresses and consistently ranked as the top perpetual DEX on Aptos by daily trading volume. The platform offered up to 150x on most crypto pairs and up to 1000x on select major pairs like BTC/USD, putting it among the highest-offering platforms in the entire perp DEX market. Beyond crypto, Merkle Trade expanded into forex pairs such as EUR/USD and GBP/USD, as well as commodities like gold and silver - a diversification play that set it apart from crypto-only competitors.

However, the story took a sharp turn in early 2026. On February 3, 2026, Merkle Trade announced it would begin winding down operations. New positions were disabled on February 6, all remaining positions were forcibly closed on February 10, and a final staking payout was distributed on February 12. The MKL token became redeemable without fees or withdrawal delays. The shutdown came amid a broader decline in Aptos ecosystem TVL, which fell more than 70% from its December 2024 peak of over $1.2 billion to roughly $332 million. Despite processing nearly $30 billion in lifetime volume, Merkle Trade could not sustain its operations as the Aptos DeFi ecosystem contracted around it.

Features and Functionality

Trading Interface

We found the Merkle Trade interface to be one of the cleanest we have used in the perp DEX space. The trading dashboard was divided into a clear layout with the price chart occupying the center, an order panel on the right, and position management at the bottom. TradingView charts were fully integrated, giving traders access to the full suite of technical indicators, drawing tools, and multiple timeframes.

Order placement was simple. You could select your pair, choose long or short, set your position size, and pick your multiplier - all from a single panel without excessive clicks. The platform supported market orders, limit orders, and stop-loss/take-profit orders that could be attached to any position at the time of opening. One touch we appreciated was the clear display of your estimated liquidation price before you confirmed a trade.

The color scheme used a dark theme by default, which was easy on the eyes during extended trading sessions. Position cards at the bottom displayed real-time PnL, entry price, current mark price, and the distance to liquidation in both percentage and dollar terms. Compared to some perp DEXes that bury critical information behind multiple tabs, Merkle Trade kept everything visible.

Supported Markets

Merkle Trade supported approximately 30 trading pairs across three distinct asset categories, which gave it a broader asset reach than many crypto-only perp DEXes. The crypto selection covered the major names: BTC, ETH, APT, SOL, and a rotating selection of mid-cap tokens that were added based on community governance votes. Multiplier options varied by pair - BTC and ETH pairs supported up to 1000x, while smaller altcoins were capped at lower multiples to manage risk.

The inclusion of forex and commodity markets was a genuine differentiator that few decentralized perpetual platforms offered. EUR/USD, GBP/USD, XAU/USD (gold), and XAG/USD (silver) gave traders the ability to speculate on traditional markets from a DeFi interface without needing to open an account with a forex broker or commodity futures platform. These markets operated on oracle price feeds and offered a way to diversify trading strategies beyond crypto volatility. We found the forex pairs particularly useful during quieter periods in crypto markets, when major currencies still offered actionable price movements.

New pairs were added through a community-driven process. The team would propose potential additions, and MKL token holders could vote on which pairs to prioritize. This gave the community genuine input into the platform's direction, though the pace of new listings was slower than on platforms that add pairs unilaterally.

With 30 total pairs, Merkle Trade offered fewer markets than competitors like Hyperliquid (which lists over 130 pairs) or dYdX (which offers 100+). But the quality of execution and the extremely low cost per trade meant that for the pairs it did support, the experience was hard to fault. The multi-asset approach also meant that Merkle Trade was not directly comparable to crypto-only platforms - it was trying to be something broader.

Liquidity and Order Book Depth

Merkle Trade held approximately $35 million in TVL and generated around $40 million in daily trading volume during its operational period. The platform used an oracle-based pricing model rather than a traditional order book, meaning trades executed at oracle prices with minimal spread. This approach worked well for the major pairs, where oracle feeds from providers like Pyth Network were highly reliable.

For BTC and ETH, we observed tight execution with virtually no slippage on positions up to $100,000 in notional size. Smaller pairs did show some execution variation, particularly during periods of extreme volatility when oracle updates could lag. The oracle model eliminated the need for market makers to provide liquidity in a traditional sense, but it also meant that the platform was fundamentally dependent on the reliability and speed of its price feeds.

The $35 million in TVL placed Merkle Trade in the mid-tier of perp DEXes - significantly smaller than Hyperliquid or GMX, but respectable for a platform operating on a single chain with a smaller user base.

Advanced Features

The gamification system was Merkle Trade's signature innovation and the feature that genuinely set it apart. Rather than offering a simple trading platform, Merkle Trade turned the experience into something resembling an MMORPG.

Traders earned experience points (XP) from every trade - specifically, 100 XP per $1 in fees paid. XP fed into a five-tier leveling system, with each level-up granting a loot box that could contain Merkle Gears (soulbound tokens providing fee discounts, XP boosts, or points multipliers) or Shards used for forging higher-tier gear. The gear system was surprisingly deep: items could be equipped, repaired, salvaged, and forged, creating an item economy within the trading platform.

Bi-weekly trading competitions pitted traders against each other for prize pools based on volume or PnL. Weekly missions offered additional rewards for completing specific trading objectives. All levels underwent a soft reset (20% reduction) at the start of each season, keeping the competition fresh.

Staking was available for the MKL token, allowing holders to earn a share of protocol revenue. The maximum supply of MKL was capped at 100,000,000 tokens. During the shutdown, the final staking distribution was completed and all tokens became freely redeemable.

Fees and Pricing

Fee Structure

Merkle Trade used a flat fee model rather than the maker/taker structure common on order-book exchanges. The platform charged 0.08% to open a position and 0.08% to close it, making the round-trip cost 0.16% of your notional position size. There was no traditional funding rate; instead, an hourly borrowing fee applied when open interest was imbalanced between longs and shorts.

Gas fees on Aptos were essentially a non-factor. At approximately $0.001 per transaction, you could open, modify, and close positions hundreds of times per day without gas costs making any meaningful dent in your trading performance. This was one of Merkle Trade's strongest selling points compared to platforms on Ethereum or even Arbitrum, where gas could range from $0.10 to several dollars per transaction.

Referral codes provided a 10% discount on trading fees, reducing the effective cost to 0.072% per side or 0.144% round trip. The protocol fee component was 0.02%, which went to the treasury and was partially redistributed to MKL stakers.

How Merkle Trade Fees Compare

Merkle Trade's flat 0.08% per side was higher than the taker fees on Hyperliquid, dYdX, and GMX. For frequent traders executing dozens of trades daily, this cost difference compounded. However, the extremely low gas fees partially offset the higher trading fees, especially for smaller position sizes where gas on other chains could represent a larger percentage of the trade.

Real-World Cost Examples

Consider a $10,000 BTC/USD long position at 10x (notional value: $100,000). On Merkle Trade, opening this position cost $80 (0.08% of $100,000) plus roughly $0.001 in gas. Closing cost another $80 plus gas. Total round-trip: approximately $160.

The same trade on Hyperliquid would cost $35 as a taker (0.035% of $100,000) to open and $35 to close, totaling $70 with zero gas - less than half of Merkle Trade's cost. On GMX v2, the taker fee would be $70 each way plus roughly $0.10 in gas, totaling about $140.

For a smaller trader putting on a $1,000 position at 5x ($5,000 notional), Merkle Trade's cost was $4 each way for a $8 round trip. At this scale, the differences between platforms become less significant, and Merkle Trade's near-zero gas fees actually make it competitive for high-frequency smaller trades.

Security and Safety

Smart Contract Audits

Merkle Trade's Move smart contracts were audited by Zellic, a respected blockchain security firm, in September 2023. The audit covered the core trading engine, position management, and liquidity pool contracts. Zellic is known for its work across multiple blockchain ecosystems and has audited protocols on Solana, Ethereum, and Aptos.

The FAQ and community materials also referenced OtterSec as a second auditor, though detailed public audit reports from OtterSec were less prominently featured. Having two independent security reviews was a positive signal, particularly for a platform handling leveraged positions where smart contract bugs could result in significant losses.

The use of Move as the smart contract language provided an additional layer of safety. Move's resource-oriented programming model prevents common vulnerabilities like reentrancy attacks and integer overflow/underflow issues that have plagued Solidity-based protocols. This does not make the contracts invulnerable, but it does reduce the attack surface meaningfully.

Security Track Record

During its roughly two-and-a-half years of operation, Merkle Trade did not suffer any publicly reported smart contract exploits or security breaches resulting in loss of user funds. This is a notable achievement, though it should be viewed in context - Merkle Trade's $35 million TVL made it a smaller target than protocols holding hundreds of millions or billions.

The platform's shutdown in February 2026 was not caused by a security incident. It was a business decision driven by the declining Aptos ecosystem TVL and the challenge of sustaining operations as user activity contracted. The orderly wind-down process - with clear timelines, forced position closures, and fee-free token redemptions - demonstrated responsible handling of the shutdown.

User Protection Features

Merkle Trade maintained a bug bounty program with rewards up to $100,000 for critical vulnerabilities. This bounty was significant enough to incentivize white-hat researchers to probe the platform's defenses, though it was smaller than the bounties offered by larger protocols like GMX ($5 million through Immunefi).

The platform was not open source, meaning independent code review was limited to what the auditors examined. This was a tradeoff: closed-source code can make it harder for attackers to find vulnerabilities, but it also means the community cannot independently verify the security of the contracts.

Position management included automatic liquidation mechanisms to prevent negative equity situations, and the oracle-based pricing model meant that front-running attacks (a common issue on AMM-based DEXes) were not a practical concern.

Getting Started with Merkle Trade

Connecting Your Wallet

Note: As of February 2026, Merkle Trade has ceased operations. The following describes the process as it existed during the platform's operational period.

To use Merkle Trade, you needed an Aptos-compatible wallet. The most popular options were Petra Wallet (the official Aptos wallet) and Martian Wallet. After installing your chosen wallet extension, you would navigate to merkle.trade and click the connect button in the top right corner. The site would detect your wallet and prompt you to approve the connection. The entire process took about 30 seconds.

Making Your First Deposit

Merkle Trade accepted USDC as its primary collateral for opening positions. If you were coming from Ethereum or another chain, you needed to bridge assets to Aptos first, which added a friction step that platforms on more popular chains did not require. LayerZero's bridge and the Aptos Bridge were the most commonly used options. The bridging process typically took a few minutes, and we found LayerZero to be the more reliable option during our testing.

Once your USDC arrived in your Aptos wallet, you could deposit directly into Merkle Trade's trading vault with a single transaction costing less than a cent in gas. The deposit confirmed within a second, and funds were immediately available for trading. This was noticeably faster than depositing on Ethereum-based platforms where you might wait for block confirmations.

The minimum deposit was low enough that almost anyone could get started, and there was no maximum cap that we encountered. There was no KYC requirement - you simply connected your wallet and deposited. This made onboarding fast but also meant the platform carried regulatory risk in jurisdictions with strict KYC/AML requirements. The bridging requirement to Aptos remained the biggest barrier to entry, as many traders were not familiar with the Aptos ecosystem and did not already hold assets there.

Placing Your First Trade

Once funded, placing a trade was intuitive and required minimal steps. You selected your market from the pair selector on the left, chose your direction (long or short), entered your collateral amount, and adjusted your multiplier using a slider or manual input. The interface showed your estimated entry price, liquidation price, and fees before confirmation. One click to confirm, one wallet signature, and the position was open within a second thanks to Aptos's fast finality.

We recommend new users start with the BTC/USD or ETH/USD pairs at low multipliers (5x-10x) to get a feel for how the platform handled execution and position management. Setting a stop-loss order immediately after opening was good practice and could be done directly from the position card. The entire flow from selecting a pair to having an open position with a stop-loss took under 30 seconds in our testing, which is about as fast as it gets in DeFi.

User Experience

Desktop Platform

The desktop web application was Merkle Trade's primary interface and where the platform performed best. The layout was responsive and well-organized, with a clean separation between the chart, order entry, and position management areas. Load times were fast, and real-time price updates were smooth.

The gamification overlays - XP bars, level indicators, gear inventory, and mission trackers - were integrated without cluttering the trading interface. You could focus purely on trading if you wanted, or engage with the game elements for additional rewards. The balance between these two aspects was handled well, which is harder than it sounds.

We did notice occasional minor UI issues, such as slow loading of historical trade data and the loot box animation sometimes freezing. These were cosmetic annoyances rather than functional problems.

Mobile Experience

Merkle Trade did not offer a native mobile app, which was a limitation shared by many perp DEXes but still a notable gap. The web application was responsive and functional on mobile browsers, but the experience was compromised by the complexity of the interface. The gamification elements that worked well on desktop became cluttered on smaller screens. Chart analysis was difficult, and placing orders required careful tapping to avoid input errors with the multiplier slider and collateral input fields.

For quick position checks or closing trades, mobile was adequate. We used it several times to monitor positions and close out trades when away from a desk, and it worked for those basic tasks. For serious analysis and trade placement, desktop was strongly preferred. The absence of a mobile app also meant you could not receive push notifications about liquidation warnings or filled orders, which is a feature that more mobile-focused traders would expect.

Customer Support

Support was primarily provided through the Merkle Trade Discord server, where the team maintained an active presence. Response times for general questions were typically within a few hours during business hours. Documentation at docs.merkle.trade was comprehensive, covering everything from basic trading guides to detailed explanations of the gamification mechanics.

During the shutdown process, communication was frequent and transparent. The team published clear timelines and answered community questions about the wind-down procedures, token redemption, and final revenue distributions.

Merkle Trade vs Competitors

Compared to Hyperliquid, Merkle Trade could not compete on fees, liquidity, or pair selection. Hyperliquid's custom L1 with gasless trading and 0.035% taker fees made it the clear market leader for high-volume traders. Where Merkle Trade held an edge was in its gamification system and multi-asset offering (forex and commodities), which Hyperliquid does not provide.

Against dYdX v4, Merkle Trade offered higher multiplier options and lower gas fees, but dYdX's deeper liquidity, larger pair selection, and established brand gave it significant advantages. dYdX also benefits from its own appchain, providing dedicated throughput.

GMX v2 on Arbitrum was perhaps the closest competitor in terms of TVL scale, though GMX still held significantly more. Both platforms used oracle-based pricing, but GMX's multi-collateral model and deeper integration with the Arbitrum ecosystem gave it a wider reach. Merkle Trade's gamification was a unique draw that GMX lacked entirely.

The fundamental challenge for Merkle Trade was its single-chain dependency on Aptos. When Aptos ecosystem activity declined, Merkle Trade had no other chain to fall back on, unlike multi-chain protocols that can shift focus to wherever user activity migrates. This is the most important lesson from Merkle Trade's story: in DeFi, diversifying your infrastructure across multiple chains is not just a feature - it can be a survival strategy. Protocols like MYX Finance (Arbitrum, Linea, BNB Chain) and GMX (Arbitrum, Avalanche) have shown that multi-chain deployment provides resilience against any single ecosystem's decline.

Who Should Use Merkle Trade?

Note: Merkle Trade has ceased operations as of February 2026. This section reflects who the platform was best suited for during its operational period.

Merkle Trade was best suited for traders who valued a unique, engaging trading experience over rock-bottom fees. The gamification system appealed to users who wanted more from their trading platform than just charts and order buttons. If you enjoyed progression systems, competitions, and collecting rare items, Merkle Trade turned perpetual trading into something genuinely entertaining.

The platform was also a good fit for Aptos ecosystem participants who already held APT and wanted to trade without bridging to another chain. The near-zero gas costs made it attractive for smaller traders who might be priced out of Ethereum-based platforms.

Merkle Trade was not ideal for professional high-frequency traders due to its higher flat fee structure compared to maker/taker models on Hyperliquid or dYdX. At 0.08% per side, active traders executing 20+ trades per day would have seen meaningfully higher costs than on platforms charging 0.035% or offering maker rebates. The limited selection of 30 pairs also meant serious altcoin traders needed to supplement Merkle Trade with other platforms for exposure to newer or less popular tokens. And the single-chain limitation on Aptos meant you were exposed to the health of that specific ecosystem - a risk that ultimately proved consequential when the entire chain saw significant TVL outflows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Merkle Trade still operating in 2026?

No. Merkle Trade announced on February 3, 2026, that it would wind down operations. New positions were disabled on February 6, all positions were forcibly closed on February 10, and final staking payouts were distributed on February 12. The MKL token is redeemable without fees.

Why did Merkle Trade shut down?

The shutdown followed a significant decline in Aptos ecosystem TVL, which fell more than 70% from its December 2024 peak. Despite processing nearly $30 billion in lifetime trading volume and serving over 163,000 wallets, the platform could not sustain operations as the broader Aptos DeFi ecosystem contracted.

Was Merkle Trade safe to use?

During its operational period, Merkle Trade maintained a clean security record with no publicly reported exploits or loss of user funds. The platform was audited by Zellic and OtterSec, maintained a $100,000 bug bounty, and benefited from the inherent safety features of the Move programming language on Aptos.

What happened to MKL tokens after the shutdown?

MKL tokens became redeemable without fees or withdrawal delays following the shutdown announcement. A final revenue distribution was completed for stakers. The token had lost approximately 90% of its value from its December 2024 peak prior to the closure announcement.

How did Merkle Trade's gamification work?

Traders earned 100 XP per $1 in trading fees, feeding into a five-tier leveling system. Each level-up granted loot boxes containing Merkle Gears (soulbound tokens with fee discounts or XP boosts) and Shards for forging higher-tier gear. Bi-weekly competitions, weekly missions, and seasonal resets kept engagement high.

What fees did Merkle Trade charge?

Merkle Trade charged a flat 0.08% fee to open and 0.08% to close perpetual positions, with gas fees on Aptos of approximately $0.001 per transaction. A referral code reduced fees by 10%, bringing the effective rate to 0.072% per side. There were no traditional funding fees, but hourly borrowing fees applied during open interest imbalances.

Could you trade forex and commodities on Merkle Trade?

Yes. In addition to crypto perpetuals for assets like BTC, ETH, APT, and SOL, Merkle Trade offered forex pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/USD) and commodity pairs (gold and silver). This multi-asset approach was a distinguishing feature among perp DEXes.

What wallets worked with Merkle Trade?

Merkle Trade required an Aptos-compatible wallet. Petra Wallet and Martian Wallet were the most commonly used options. The platform accepted USDC as primary collateral, which needed to be bridged to Aptos from other chains if not already held there.

Final Verdict

Merkle Trade was a genuinely innovative platform that brought something different to the perpetual DEX space. The gamification system was not a gimmick - it was thoughtfully designed and added real engagement to the trading experience. Sub-second finality on Aptos, near-zero gas fees, and a clean interface made it a pleasure to use. We rated it 7.4 out of 10 overall during its operational period, reflecting strong user experience and reasonable fees offset by limited liquidity and pair selection.

But the story of Merkle Trade is ultimately a cautionary tale about single-chain risk. By building exclusively on Aptos with no cross-chain strategy, the platform tied its fate to a blockchain ecosystem that experienced severe TVL contraction. When the tide went out, Merkle Trade could not diversify its way to survival.

For traders looking for alternatives in 2026, Hyperliquid offers the best combination of fees, liquidity, and pair selection for perpetual trading. GMX on Arbitrum remains a solid oracle-based option with deeper TVL. And newer entrants continue to push the boundaries of what perp DEXes can offer. Merkle Trade may be gone, but the innovations it introduced - particularly around gamified trading - will likely influence the next generation of DeFi platforms.