Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, is embarking on a new challenge: building a fully on-chain decentralized perpetual contracts exchange. Codenamed Percolator, the project, already detailed on GitHub, promises to be a new technological showcase for the Solana ecosystem.
A DEX Designed for Speed and Transparency
Percolator aims to be a 100% decentralized and self-custodial perps DEX (perpetual contracts exchange). In practical terms, every user retains full control of their funds, while the entire protocol operates on the Solana blockchain.
The project integrates an “onchain routing program”, an execution layer capable of tracking positions, managing collateral, and calculating each trader’s portfolio margin, without an intermediary or centralized server.
The Key Innovation: Sharded Matching Engines
The true novelty lies in an idea that Yakovenko refers to as “sharded matching engines”. Instead of a single massive order book, Percolator divides orders into multiple independent mini-order books, called “slabs”, that run in parallel.
Each slab functions as a mini-market for a specific asset, managed by its own liquidity providers. The result? Less congestion, more competition among LPs, and smoother order execution.
Yakovenko explains in the documentation:
Each slab remains completely isolated and innovative, while the router ensures atomic routing, wallet offsetting, and security framed by precise capabilities.
In essence, a bug or malicious behavior in one slab cannot affect the entire DEX. Even better: this architecture could offer capital efficiency equivalent, if not superior, to centralized platforms.
Percolator: An Already Advanced Project
According to the official GitHub, Percolator is “implementation-ready”, meaning it is ready for integration or testing on the network. The core elements, router, slabs, order books, memory management, are already in place.
Only the liquidation engine, an essential component of leverage exchanges, remains on the “to-do list”.
Several external developers have already submitted pull requests, a sign that the project is quickly attracting the open-source community.
Solana, Even Closer to Derivative Markets
With Percolator, Solana continues its conquest of high-performance trading. Following the success of platforms like Jupiter and Drift, this new DEX could push the boundary even further: ultra-fast derivatives, completely on-chain, without compromising decentralization.
Yakovenko clearly aims to prove that a DEX can compete with Hyperliquid or Paradex, while remaining rooted in the Web3 ethos.
Percolator does not have a launch date yet, but its progress suggests that it could quickly become the next liquidity catalyst on Solana.
