If you're deep into DeFi or just dipping your toes into meme token trading, you've probably relied on DefiLlama for its spot-on analytics. Well, the platform just leveled up. In a recent announcement on X (formerly Twitter), DefiLlama revealed that their Pro dashboards now support Perps Volume and Open Interest in tables. This is huge for anyone tracking decentralized perpetual futures markets.

Perpetual futures, or "perps" as they're often called in crypto circles, are derivative contracts that let traders bet on the price movements of assets like cryptocurrencies without an expiration date. Unlike traditional futures, they use funding rates to keep the contract price close to the spot price. These are super popular for leveraged trading, especially with volatile meme tokens where quick gains (or losses) are the name of the game.

DefiLlama, the go-to open-source platform for transparent DeFi data, already tracks things like total value locked (TVL), fees, and volumes across protocols. Now, with Perps Volume— which measures the total trading activity in these perpetual contracts over a period—and Open Interest— the total value of outstanding perp positions—they're giving users a clearer picture of market liquidity and sentiment.

Here's a snapshot from their dashboard showing the top protocols by market cap:

Looking at the data, Hyperliquid leads the pack with a $12.286 billion market cap and impressive 24-hour perp volume of $9.575 billion. It's built on its own chains and uses an internal oracle for pricing. Close behind is Lighter V2 Perps on one chain with Stork oracle, boasting a 7-day volume change of +34.00%. Other notables include Aevo, Aster, and Jupiter, each supporting multiple chains and various oracles like Pyth and Chainlink.

This update couldn't come at a better time. With meme tokens often seeing wild price swings, tracking perp volume helps spot where the action is. High volume might signal strong interest or upcoming volatility, while open interest shows how much skin traders have in the game. For blockchain practitioners, this means better-informed decisions—whether you're building on these protocols or just trading.

If you're not already, check out DefiLlama's Pro dashboards to dive into these metrics yourself. It's tools like this that keep the DeFi space evolving and accessible. Stay tuned for more updates as the meme token world continues to buzz!