The crypto market in the first week of February 2026 was full of big differences. Some major coins had problems, but a few DeFi tokens were doing well on the wave. Investors focus and trading volume surged notably into derivatives protocols, making them the standout performers during this uneven period.
MYX Finance Leads with Strong Momentum
MYX Finance rose by 5.44% to a price of $6.06 through approximately $26 million in total trading volume over a 24-hour period. What makes MYX Finance unique is that it is built on a Matching Pool Mechanism, which provides zero slippage executions and is capital efficient; at up to 125x leverage, this method differentiates itself from other exchanges that rely on an order book or automated market maker (AMM) systems.
Using the Arbitrum, BNB Chain and Linea Protocol, this protocol facilitates cross-chain trades of different assets. Therefore, there are automated cross-chain trades created without any manual input required by the users. As a result, retail and institutional traders have been drawn to this protocol due to their flexibility.
Recently MYX has had a lot of volatility; Average daily price movements of 12%-24% can easily be attributed to the significant amount of leverage in the market and low overall liquidity. In addition, MYX’s tokenomics allocate 40% toward ecosystem incentives and 20% toward core contributors while offering a staking option for both fee sharing and participant involvement in governance functions.
Hyperliquid Demonstrates Resilience
Hyperliquid experienced an increase of 3.58% after hitting $34.43 with a wave of buyers pushing through more than $829 million in volume in the last 24 hours. Of all the different blockchains available, Layer-1’s has been the only outliers that are positive year to date in 2026. As such, Hyperliquid is beginning to perform like a defensive play rather than simply a speculative investment when markets are under duress.
This strength is supported by a variety of catalysts, but the launch of HIP 4 is an example of an outcome-based trading contract for prediction markets and bounded options which will help build interest and momentum for DeFi.
Total value locked across all companies has now reached $1.5 billion, while many other Layer-1 protocols are declining. Accelerating institutional momentum after Ripple Prime integrated Hyperliquid allowed for cross margin trading and provided additional support for HYPE token buybacks, will encourage more capital into Hyperliquid.
Smaller Gainers Round Out Performance
MemeCore showed an increase of 2.27%, closing at $1.49, with a trading volume of $15.5 million while Lighter gained 0.73%, closing at $1.52 on the back of a 24-hour trading volume of $65.5 million. Smaller-cap tokens like these still attract those looking to trade outside of the major cryptocurrencies; however, their smaller gains indicate that they do not appear to have the same buy pressure and momentum as other top-performing coins.
Conclusion
The performance of these DeFi derivatives platforms represents an important shift in the market. Investors have begun to focus more on those projects that have provable utility, viable revenue generation models and institutional-grade infrastructure. Both MYX Finance and Hyperliquid suit this trend, as they give strong trading capabilities without sacrificing the advantages of security and transparency associated with decentralization.
The continued economic difficulties will be assessed to evaluate how they will integrate institutional establishments into their systems and improve processes within the industry. This evaluation is based on how management would like to see each Institutional Establishment performing through February, by assessing individual organizations within the system.
