Crypto Futures Exchange Security Rating: Six Venues in CertiK Skynet Order
Updated: Console View operations
A crypto futures exchange security rating on this page is one outside number: the CertiK Skynet mark, read for all six venues on 23 September 2026, which sets the rows. This desk's own loss-and-audit column disagrees — Extended and Aster take 10.0 of 10, EVEDEX 7.0 — and on the full total Lighter leads at 13.3 of 16.
Order-book depth30Round-trip cost25Loss and audit record15Settlement and withdrawal15Contracts listed10Getting started5how we rate
Rows are set by the CertiK Skynet mark in the second column — an outside register this console reads but does not weight — which is why the score column runs out of sequence: the total on its right is this console's own six-criterion figure and nothing in it has moved. The two security columns inside that figure put a different venue first, and the section below prints them.
| # | Venue | CertiK Skynet | Score | Cells | Maker / taker | Round trip on $10,000 | Markets | Model | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | EVEDEX | 94.36 AAA | 10.5 | 0.015% / 0.045% | $9.00 | 52 | Hybrid | six asset classes quoted around the clock on one balance | |
| 02 | Aster | 93.88 AAA | 12.2 | 0% / 0.040% | $8.00 | 578 | Own layer 1, operator-run | the longest contract list on this page | |
| 03 | Hyperliquid | 92.14 AA | 10.9 | 0.015% / 0.045% | $9.00 | 324 | On-chain order book | size, when the order is large enough to need it | |
| 04 | Lighter | 90.25 AA | 13.3 | 0% / 0% | $0.00 | 214 | Hybrid, ZK-proven | size at no fee, if 300 milliseconds is acceptable | |
| 05 | edgeX | 88.14 AA | 11.9 | 0.040% / 0.045% | $9.00 | 172 | Hybrid | the deepest bitcoin book in the readings | |
| 06 | Extended | 80.5 A | 12.4 | 0% / 0.025% | $5.00 | 325 | Hybrid | equity and pre-IPO contracts beside crypto |
Fee field: entry tier on the BTC perpetual; the round trip is two taker fills on a ten thousand dollar position at that tier. Count field: venue-reported. Access sits outside the score. Equal totals share a rank, and the lit cells draw the same score again. Facts as of 18 September 2026.
- 01Top and bottom of the register's column, which is what set these rows: EVEDEX at 94.36 AAA, Extended at 80.5 A, both read on 23 September 2026.
- 02The mark is not an audit count: CertiK lists 3 audits behind Lighter at 90.25 and 1 behind Aster at 93.88.
- 03Sort by the six weights instead and the sheet inverts: Lighter first at 13.3 of 16, EVEDEX sixth of six at 10.5.
Every BTC perpetual book here was read in the capture cycle named above. The figures are medians of all successful snapshots; the last column counts them.
| Venue | Median spread | Depth within 10 basis points | Depth scale | Impact on a $100,000 order | Snapshots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVEDEX | 4.12 bps | $18.6 million | 2.06 bps | 250 | |
| Aster | 0.01 bps | $14.7 million | 0.42 bps | 252 | |
| Hyperliquid | 0.12 bps | $8.1 million | 0.06 bps | 252 | |
| Lighter | 0.01 bps | $16.7 million | 0.68 bps | 109 | |
| edgeX | 0.04 bps | $29.2 million | 0.02 bps | 251 | |
| Extended | 0.12 bps | $7.7 million | 0.06 bps | 110 |
Spread and depth come straight from each venue's public order-book endpoint; IMPACT = what the resting orders charged a market order of that size, at that tick. No account was opened.
The book EVEDEX matches on is central and sits off the chain; Arbitrum receives the position data afterwards, once enough of it has piled up (EVEDEX documentation, logged 18 September 2026). The list runs to 52 perpetual contracts — 39 crypto, five US stocks, one index, two currency pairs, two pre-IPO names, and three commodities in gold through XAUT, silver and crude oil — every one of them quoted around the clock (EVEDEX documentation, logged 18 September 2026). Fees are 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker before cashback, and margin is cross only, posted in USDT. Skynet reads 94.36 AAA on 2 listed audits.
IN FAVOUR
- Median BTC depth of $18.6 million, behind only edgeX here
- Six asset classes on one USDT balance, quoted around the clock
AGAINST
- 52 contracts against hundreds on the widest venues here
- Position data reaches the chain in batches, not trade by trade
- No documented exit without the operator, and no bug bounty listed
Not for: a trader who wants a long tail of small contracts.
Aster matches and settles on its own proof-of-stake chain, launched in March 2026 (Aster docs, checked 18 September 2026), and lists 578 contracts in order-book mode, against 325 at the next venue here. Fees run 0% maker / 0.040% taker, and the book we read on BTC carried a median $14.7 million at 0.01 bps — level with Lighter at the tightest spread on this page. Skynet reads 93.88 AAA on the single audit it lists.
IN FAVOUR
- 578 perpetual contracts across six asset classes
- A 0% maker fee on every tier, and an Immunefi bounty up to $200,000
AGAINST
- Phase one runs without outside validators, on core chain contracts nobody external can read
- No published audit covers the chain or the matching engine
Not for: a trader who wants the code that holds the book to be readable.
Documentation: asterdex.com
Hyperliquid keeps the whole book on its own layer 1, where every order, trade and liquidation is a chain transaction (Hyperliquid docs, checked 18 September 2026). Its reported open interest of $8.7 billion is the largest here, and its BTC book held a median $8.1 million at 0.015% maker / 0.045% taker. Skynet reads 92.14 AA on 2 listed audits.
IN FAVOUR
- Reported open interest of $8.7 billion, the largest here
- A bug bounty paying up to one million USDC on a critical report
AGAINST
- The community vault absorbed about $4 million from one liquidation in March 2025
- 146 of its contracts are builder-deployed and not reviewed by the operator
Not for: a trader who wants every listing vetted by one operator.
Documentation: hyperliquid.xyz
One sequencer, run by the operator, decides the order of Lighter's book, and each batch it closes leaves a proof on Ethereum rather than a promise (Lighter docs, checked 18 September 2026). The default Standard account pays 0% maker / 0% taker, against latency the docs put at 300 milliseconds on a taker order. Its BTC book held a median $16.7 million across 109 readings, and 214 contracts span six classes beyond crypto. CertiK's Skynet page puts it at 90.25 AA.
IN FAVOUR
- Zero maker and taker fees on the default account
- Nine published audits and a documented exit queue
AGAINST
- 300 milliseconds of added taker latency on the free account
- No public bug bounty; one operator-run sequencer orders every trade
Not for: a trader who needs the fastest fill and will not pay for it.
Documentation: lighter.xyz
edgeX matches off-chain and settles balances and trades on its own rollup (edgeX docs, checked 18 September 2026). Its BTC book was the deepest here at a median $29.2 million, spread 0.04 bps, and a $100,000 order moved the price 0.02 bps. Fees are the weak column at 0.040% maker / 0.045% taker, and 93 of its 172 contracts are equity names. Skynet reads 88.14 AA on 2 listed audits.
IN FAVOUR
- Median BTC depth of $29.2 million, the deepest reading here
- On-chain withdrawal documented as working without the operator
AGAINST
- A 0.040% maker fee, the highest here, and no bug bounty listed
- Equity contracts refuse market orders out of session
Not for: a maker who expects to be paid for adding liquidity.
Documentation: pro.edgex.exchange
Extended keeps the book itself and pushes each transaction into Starknet to be settled there (Extended docs, checked 18 September 2026), on a flat 0% maker / 0.025% taker with no volume ladder. It lists 325 active contracts across six classes, equities and pre-IPO names included, and its book held a median $7.7 million on BTC. Skynet reads 80.5 A here, with no audit listed there.
IN FAVOUR
- A 0% maker fee for every account, with no volume ladder to climb
- A bounty up to $500,000, and two audits of the settlement contracts
AGAINST
- 278 of the 325 active contracts are quoted on request, not on a public book
- No documented exit without the operator; deposits route through a third-party bridge
Not for: a trader who wants a resting book on the long tail, not only on the majors.
Documentation: extended.exchange
Whose order this is, and where our own security columns put the same six
The sequence above is CertiK's, not this console's. A Skynet score is one vendor's standing mark on a project and it moves, so all six were read on 23 September 2026 and read again by a second reader. It is not the audit-and-loss criterion scored here, and it carries no weight in the total. This console puts 15 of its 100 points on Loss and audit record and 15 more on Settlement and withdrawal, and neither column agrees with the row order above. Loss and audit record tops out at 10.0 of 10, shared by Extended and Aster, with EVEDEX on 7.0 alongside Lighter, edgeX and Hyperliquid; Settlement and withdrawal tops out at 10.0, held by Lighter and edgeX, with EVEDEX on 5.0, the lowest of the six. Every mark is printed venue by venue at how we rate. The register's order is published anyway because it is the one figure on this page a reader can check against a source that is not this desk, and it is printed beside our own marks rather than in place of them.
How this page was put together
Nothing prints here that was not polled or copied out with its date. Depth, spread and impact are this console's own work — every listed BTC book opened on this console's ten-minute poll, over the two days to 22 September 2026, each a median of what came back. The documentary columns came off each venue's own pages on 18 September 2026: fees, contract list, leverage ladder, settlement, sign-in terms, audit history. Open interest and turnover are neither — each venue's own report, as CoinMarketCap published it on 22 September 2026. Six weights, fixed 22 September 2026 before any venue was scored, score the 6 venues on this page (how we rate). No account is held at any of them. The column that sets the order is neither polled nor copied off a venue: it is CertiK's Skynet mark, read from that vendor's pages, and it carries no weight in the score.
First line, the disclosure: publication here is paid for; row order is not. Settlement and the audit record are marked off documents: a console prints what a venue says of itself, not what it did. The fee column is a new account's rate, before volume tiers, rebates or cashback. Depth is measured, but on BTC alone and over one span of readings: a narrower contract holds less, and another hour reads differently. The column this page is sorted on is a vendor's judgement, not a measurement: it moves between readings, and a venue that vendor has left unscored cannot appear in the sequence at all.
What is the best platform for crypto futures trading?
On this formula Lighter finishes first at 13.3 of 16: nothing to pay on its default account, and a median $16.7 million of resting BTC. If the order is large, edgeX held the deepest book at $29.2 million. The answer moves with what you weight.
Which crypto futures exchange has the lowest fees?
Lighter, at 0% maker / 0% taker on the default Standard account, so a ten thousand dollar round trip costs $0.00. Extended is next at 0% maker / 0.025% taker. The dearest entry tier here is 0.045% to take, charged by three venues, or $9.00 for the same round trip.
Can you trade crypto futures without KYC?
None of the six venues here asks for identity documents before a first trade; a wallet signature opens the account, and several also offer an email login. That is not the same as no screening: deposits can be checked on-chain, and the terms reserve rights the venue can use later.
What is the difference between perpetual futures and regular futures?
A dated futures contract settles on a fixed day. A perpetual contract never settles, so instead of converging on that day it is pulled toward the spot price by funding, a payment exchanged between the two sides at a set interval. Every contract here is perpetual.
How much leverage can you get on crypto futures?
The documented BTC caps on this list run from 40x at Hyperliquid to 200x at Aster and EVEDEX, and every cap falls as the position grows. Aster holds 200x only to 400 USDT of notional; the same figure at EVEDEX holds to $50,000. Read the notional, not the headline.
Are decentralized futures exchanges safe to use?
They move the risks around rather than removing them. A vendor's mark scores a project, not what an operator does on the day: Lighter stopped matching for four and a half hours in the October 2025 crash, and Hyperliquid's own vault absorbed a loss in March 2025.
Which crypto futures platform has the deepest liquidity?
Of the books read here, edgeX was deepest at a median $29.2 million resting within ten basis points, ahead of EVEDEX at $18.6 million and Lighter at $16.7 million. Those are BTC readings over one window, and a smaller contract will be thinner.
Updated: | Console View operations | corrections to readout@wp-monero-miner.com