PhoenixTrade’s open interest surpasses $10M for the first time as Solana perps heat up

PhoenixTrade, the perpetual futures DEX built on Solana by Ellipsis Labs, has crossed $10 million in open interest for the first time. Reports indicate the figure climbed as high as $11 million, representing a roughly 25% jump from its previous all-time high of $8.8 million set just weeks earlier in June 2026. What’s driving the surge PhoenixTrade launched its “Flight Club” incentive program on July 27-28, just a day or two before the open interest milestone landed. The program allocates $420K in USDC rewards over 28 days, distributed based on trading volume, open interest held, and referrals. The incentive launch also coincided with Phoenix crossing $1 billion in cumulative unincentivized perpetual trading volume. According to DeFiLlama data, PhoenixTrade’s cumulative perpetual volume sits around $917 million, with roughly $163 million in 30-day trading volume and approximately $67 million in 24-hour volume. The architecture advantage PhoenixTrade’s technical pitch centers on what it calls a “crankless” fully on-chain order book. Traditional on-chain order books require external actors, called cranks, to process and match orders. Phoenix eliminates that intermediary step. The prac...