Most people on perp DEXs are trying to guess where price goes next. Most of them lose.
There's a second group on the same platforms, that doesn't guess at all — and gets paid anyway. They're not better traders. They're not trading.
Here's what they're actually doing...
Delta Neutral, Explained Like You're Drunk:
Here's the whole strategy: You open a long on ETH for $10k, and at the same time you open a short on ETH for $10k, same size, opposite direction.
ETH pumps 20%? You make $2k on the long, you lose $2k on the short. ETH dumps 20%? Same thing in reverse. Net result: nothing. You're flat. That's what "delta neutral" means.
But what about the fees?
Obviously you're not doing that on every random perp DEX. You choose the one with a points system, the ones that could have a promising Airdrop.
Choosing the right platforms:
The single biggest factor in whether this works for you is which platforms you pick. There are 50+ perp DEXs out there and most of them will be dead within a year. Only farm the ones with a real shot at surviving long term.
Ask yourself:
- How's the reputation of the protocol and the team? Are they doxxed, active on CT, and do they have a legit track record?
- Are there incentives planned or already running? Is there a points system?
- When did the points system start? Am I still early?
To help you pick, I made a tier list of what I think will be the biggest upcoming perp DEX airdrops.
S-Tier:
1. Variational — @variational_io
The strongest perp without a token
My main farm, and it's not close.
Points already trade OTC around $20–25. A basic strategy farms them for under $10; with good execution, closer to $5. The market is paying more than it costs you to produce them. If Variational launches around a $1.5B FDV, I think a point is worth ~$50 at TGE. That's an assumption, not a promise, but points run until Q3 2026 and TGE is likely 2–3 months out, which is historically when point prices go parabolic.
Variational runs RFQ instead of an order book — one market maker quotes you against CEX, DEX and TradFi liquidity at once. For thin RWAs that's a real edge: no bootstrapping an order book, just routing to liquidity that already exists offchain. Very few perps come close on asset range.
Metrics are already on par with Lighter's, arguably better.
2. Ondo Perps — @OndoPerps
Points went live a few days ago. They already have a token and also their initial Airdrop. Their last campaign ran nearly two years, so this one could easily drag six months or more.
I'm not farming this only for a potential airdrop. I'm farming it because the weekly payouts and fee discounts make it a strong second venue for delta neutral farming.
You earn three ways at once:
- points (volume + OI, so size and hold time both count)
- USDC from the weekly reward pool
- 10% of referral fees
5m points drop weekly. The first round already paid out on activity going back to June 2, so early traders are already up
Start farming Ondo Perps here:
3. Arcus — @arcus_xyz
Everyone's chasing memecoins and "AI trading agents" on Robinhood Chain. My focus is on Arcus, the main Robinhood-backed perp DEX for RWAs on the chain.
Today: spot only, perps coming, token confirmed, airdrop based on points and activity. Current trading may count retroactively. Liquidity is early and access is still gated...
A-Tier:
4. Nado — @nadoHQ
Nado has been the top revenue-generating protocol on Ink since day one. Over $12M in revenue and $16M+ in fees so far.
Points convert to $INK at @inkonchain's TGE, so there's no guessing what the reward asset is.
Why it might be worth farming it?
- Season 2 and still underfarmed (under 2k daily active users)
- Multipliers on every new market they add.
- Kraken backing. One of the biggest CEXs standing behind it.
- Deep @xStocksFi partnership — you can double-dip points on tokenized stocks by routing through Nado.
5. Perpl — @perpltrade
The last $MON drop covered fees for the entire pre-points season. The farm was literally free. This could repeat..
Perpl is running 16 weeks with $500K–$1M in rewards against roughly $12.7K in protocol fees over the last 7 days. At those rates you're earning back 3–6x your trading fees while farming points that could be worth $5+ each, based on Perpl's last $100M valuation.
They raised $9.5M with strong Monad backing.
Bonus:
6. Bulk — @bulktrade
Bulk mainnet is not live yet and still you can already farm the Airdrop . The co-founder confirmed on X that 30% of the token supply is going to the community.
Bulk is a Solana-native perp DEX trying to do something genuinely weird: instead of running an off-chain matching engine like everyone else, it embeds its orderbook directly into Solana's validator network.
CEX-level speed (order matching in the 5–20ms range) while staying fully onchain.
It raised $8 million from Robot Ventures and 6th Man Ventures.
The farm itself is simple:
- Pre-deposit USDC (minimum $10, fully withdrawable anytime — no lockup)
- Earn AURA points, calculated as size × time — how much you hold, multiplied by how long you hold it
- Weekly snapshots, 1 million AURA distributed every week until mainnet
- Refer others for 1 AURA per $100 they deposit and hold
Aura can also be earned by holding bulkSOL (which could be deposited on Exponent for 2-in-1 Airdrop)
Even if you start now you're likely looking at 60% APY
