Papertrade records $42 million in revenue within six days of launch

The decentralized derivative protocol Papertrade recorded $42.24 million in cumulative protocol revenue within just six days of launch, according to data from DefiLlama. At its peak, the protocol's daily revenue briefly surpassed that of the stablecoin issuer Circle, trailing only Tether in the market rankings.

Analysis of the revenue structure reveals that approximately 84.6% of the $56.23 million in total cumulative revenue originated from liquidity pool surpluses rather than standard transaction or liquidation fees. These surpluses are generated when traders incur losses, which then flow into the protocol-controlled liquidity pools. Specifically, traders accumulated a net loss of approximately $49.50 million during this period.

As a synthetic perpetual contract protocol operating within the Hyperliquid ecosystem, Papertrade allows users to trade BTC and ETH-related contracts against a liquidity pool. While the rapid revenue growth demonstrates high capital velocity, the heavy reliance on trader losses raises questions regarding the long-term sustainability of the business model. Additionally, the platform previously experienced a $1.28 million oracle manipulation event on October 10.