DeFi blockchain Katana has acquired IDEX, one of the earliest decentralised exchanges, and launched a perpetual futures trading platform called Katana Perps. The moves represent the company’s first major strategic steps under newly appointed Chief Executive Matthew Fisher and reflect a broader push to consolidate more of the onchain trading stack within a single environment.
Acquisition Background
IDEX was founded in 2017 and became the most active decentralised exchange on Ethereum through 2019, ranking first by trading volume and transaction count among decentralised exchange protocols at that time. It was notable for combining a high-performance matching engine with onchain settlement, an approach that was relatively uncommon at the time of its launch.
Katana intends to use IDEX’s technical infrastructure and operational history to support Katana Perps institutional-grade platform introducing leveraged trading, directional exposure, and integrated liquidity within a unified trading environment, with the aim of enabling higher throughput execution and deeper liquidity as the platform scales. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Further details regarding the transition of the existing IDEX product and the treatment of the IDEX token are expected to be communicated through official channels.
Market Context
Perpetual futures (often called “perps”) in crypto are a type of derivatives contract that lets you speculate on the price of a cryptocurrency without ever owning it and without an expiration date. They stay open as long as you maintain margin, allowing traders to go ‘long’ (bet price goes up) or ‘short’ (bet price goes down). To keep the perp price close to the actual spot price (e.g., Bitcoin’s real market price), exchanges use a funding rate. Perpetual futures typically allow high leverage (e.g., 5x–100x).
The launch comes as perpetual futures trading on decentralised venues has grown substantially. In January 2026, perpetual decentralised exchange volume reached $739.48 billion, with decentralised platforms accounting for 10.2% of total crypto perpetuals trading — up from 2.0% two years earlier.
Broader shifts in global markets have also drawn attention to the role of always-on trading environments. During a period of geopolitical tension in mid-March, oil futures trading on the decentralised platform Hyperliquid reached $7.3 billion on a single day, illustrating how 24-hour venues are increasingly used for real-time price discovery when traditional markets are closed.
In the United States, regulators have signalled a potential path toward permitting crypto perpetual futures, which could further shape the competitive environment for onchain derivatives platforms.
Platform and Strategy
Katana Perps is now live. At launch, the platform is supported by market makers GSR, Selini Capital, and Auros.
Katana, which was incubated by Polygon Labs and GSR, is positioning the perpetuals platform as part of a broader strategy to integrate spot liquidity, order routing, and derivatives into a single onchain stack. Fisher, who previously held roles at the Diem Association, Polygon Labs, and DeFi lending platform Buttonwood, said the acquisition and platform launch reflect a deliberate effort to bring more of the trading infrastructure and associated revenue under Katana’s direct control.
“When I became CEO, I decided that Katana needed to own more of its stack and the revenues attached to it. IDEX and Katana Perps are the first moves in that direction,” said Matthew Fisher, Chief Executive Officer of Katana. “As always-on markets become the default venue for real-time price discovery and the regulatory environment opens a path for onchain perpetuals, the infrastructure layer needs to be in place now. That is what we are building.”
Prior to his formal appointment as CEO, Fisher led several of Katana’s partnership developments, including agreements with OKX and Binance, which the company says made it the first DeFi project to run earn campaigns with both platforms simultaneously.
Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, described Fisher’s role as instrumental in Katana’s development, and said the current phase reflects both the platform’s existing foundation and rising demand for more advanced onchain trading infrastructure.
Outlook
The onchain derivatives sector is drawing increasing attention from both crypto-native participants and institutional trading firms, as decentralised venues mature in terms of execution quality, reliability, and capital efficiency. How regulatory frameworks in major markets evolve is likely to be a significant factor in determining the pace and scale of further growth in the sector.
