Bitcoin Gets DeFi Upgrade With Velars First PerpDEX Launch

Velar has officially launched the world’s first decentralized perpetuals exchange built natively on Bitcoin.

Velar, a DeFi infrastructure platform focused on building advanced trading products and user interfaces for Bitcoin-secured assets, said its new product marks a new chapter in Bitcoin (BTC)-based decentralized finance.

Deployed on Stacks, a Bitcoin layer 2, the platform allows users to trade perpetual futures with leverage while maintaining full custody of their assets.

The exchange is now live at perpdex.velar.com and opens with a trading pair of sBTC-USDh. USDh, developed by Hermetica, is the first synthetic dollar designed specifically for Bitcoin DeFi, and will serve as the base trading pair across the platform.

Trading on Bitcoin without compromise

Velar PerpDex benefits from the Stacks blockchain’s five-second block times, decentralization, and Bitcoin-backed finality. By combining deep liquidity and robust trading infrastructure with a Bitcoin-native experience, the platform seeks to unlock new capital efficiency for BTC holders.

“Launching the first PerpDEX on Bitcoin is a defining milestone for the future of DeFi on Bitcoin, enabling traders to access leverage and deep liquidity without leaving the Bitcoin ecosystem,” said Velar CEO Mithil Thakore

Built for Bitcoin DeFi

Perpetual trading is among the most active sectors of crypto markets. Yet until now, it has remained mostly inaccessible to Bitcoin users without relying on wrapped tokens or custodians. Velar’s integration with Hermetica’s USDh stablecoin solves this by enabling Bitcoin-native perpetual contracts backed by a synthetic, yield-bearing dollar.

“Perpetual trading is one of the most important products in crypto, and now thanks to Velar, it’s finally possible on Bitcoin,” said Jakob Schillinger, CEO of Hermetica.

With the launch of PerpDex, Velar is positioning itself as a foundational layer for Bitcoin-native financial products, enabling BTC holders to access advanced trading tools while staying fully within the Bitcoin-secured ecosystem.