Arbitrum Protocols Surge as Perp DEX Revenue Climbs and FDUSD Announces Expansion

Last week was a watershed moment for the Arbitrum ecosystem. It marked the very first time that protocols built on the Arbitrum network generated over a million dollars in revenue in a week. Specifically, the total revenue came in at $1.3 million. That’s a good number, representing a healthy and unprecedented 92 percent week-over-week increase. Leading that charge were perpetual decentralized exchanges, or Perp DEXs. The top three revenue-generating protocols on Arbitrum last week were all in the derivatives trading space. Meanwhile, a stablecoin issuer, called FDUSD, announced its expansion to Arbitrum, giving us a nice summary of the revenue picture on last week’s Arbitrum ecosystem. 1/ FDUSD Expands to @arbitrum Faster, low-cost stablecoin transactions Enhanced liquidity Greater access for users and institutions Bringing fast, cost-effective transactions to our global community. pic.twitter.com/zttTbRVdG5 — First Digital Labs (@FDLabsHQ) May 14, 2025 These developments underscore the commercial potential of Arbitrum’s DeFi environment and the ongoing advancement of blockchain-based financial services. Perp DEXs Lead Revenue Growth on Arbitrum The revenue increase was driven chiefly by the Perp DEX sector, where three leading platforms showed significant growth in weekly earnings. GMX, a long-standing protocol in decentralized perpetuals, led the way with $497,000 in revenue—more than twice what it earned the week before. This is an excellent example of the potential these up-and-coming DEXs have. In just one week, a sizable amount of crypto revenue was generated by GMX, a relatively small protocol compared to some of its DEX peers. The latest player in the space, Ostium Labs, pulled in $187,000 in revenue, indicating solid early adoption and the successful working of its protocol mechanics. In third place is Gains Network, which pushed its total revenue to $140,000 and pressed forward in its growth as a synthetic trading platform that offers a wide array of asset classes. Last week, @arbitrum protocols generated $1.3M in revenue (+92% WoW). The top 3 protocols by revenue generated are all Perp DEXs, with GMX leading by doubling its revenue WoW. @GMX_IO : $497k @OstiumLabs : $187k @GainsNetwork_io : $140k @pendle_fi : $73k … pic.twitter.com/mL9vZesdAH — Entropy Advisors (@EntropyAdvisors) May 13, 2025 Pendle Finance generated $73,000 in revenue, while Penpie generated $59,000, according to the protocols’ respective tokenomics. These profits came from largely uncharted territory, with Pendle and Penpie providing some of the kinds of financial instruments that users now expect from DeFi. Revenue growth overall demonstrates that Arbitrum is an increasingly core DeFi destination, thanks to its speed, efficiency, and the maturity of its dApp ecosystem. FDUSD Brings Stablecoin Liquidity to Arbitrum Along with revenue from its protocol, stablecoin issuer FDUSD upped its expansion to Arbitrum. The move marks its fifth blockchain deployment, following previous launches on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Sui, and Solana. FDUSD is about as low-key as a stablecoin can be, which is probably a good thing. Its addition to Arbitrum is not expected to disrupt anything, but rather it should fit into the network’s existing financial infrastructure. The integration will allow for even quicker and less expensive stablecoin transfers, while at the same time, it will better the liquidity for the traders, dApps, and DeFi protocols carrying out their business on Arbitrum. And for the enterprise and institutional participants that want efficient on-chain payment rails, now there’s another option for cross-chain activity that makes Arbitrum even more appealing as an enterprise-ready blockchain solution. The cross-chain expansion strategy of FDUSD is to generate a highly liquid, transparent, and accessible ecosystem of stablecoins that meets the needs of both retail and institutional users. Now that FDUSD is on Arbitrum, it is ideally situated to serve as a building block for stable, decentralized financial interactions. Arbitrum Solidifies Its Role in the DeFi Ecosystem Arbitrum is evidently transitioning from a promising upstart to a core factor in decentralized finance. Last year, the Ethereum Layer 2 enlargement pulled in more than $1 billion in revenues, and throughout 2023, it has emerged as a second-to-none sandbox for underpinning the DeFi space. OsStaking, run by Offchain Labs, allows users to stake ETH and makes it possible to use those staked assets for various not-too-linear DeFi applications, thus supporting high-volume perpetual DEX activity and toting the appearance of the second most liquid perp DEX in the ecosystem. Simultaneously, the FDUSD decision to join Arbitrum signals increasing confidence in the network’s infrastructure, security, and user base. Arbitrum will become a cross-chain bridge for access to all DeFi applications. With a transaction speed two to three times faster than Ethereum, Arbitrum is simply a more efficient platform for DeFi applications, which makes it an attractive destination for cross-chain stablecoin transactions. These advancements suggest that Arbitrum is achieving something greater than merely scaling Ethereum—it is becoming a destination. If you examine developer adoption, protocol revenues, or the sheer growth of infrastructure, it is hard to deny that Arbitrum has established itself as a vibrant, high-performance layer in the decentralized economy. Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Follow us on Twitter @nulltxnews to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, Distributed Computing, and Metaverse news !