# Arbitrum’s $76.3 Billion in Perp Volume Does Not Establish Demand for Its Token By Enna Lee Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/47012 Published: 2026-11-02T23:03:54.000Z Updated: 2026-11-02T23:03:54.000Z Section: Investing > A live snapshot showed $76.3 billion in Arbitrum perp volume over 30 days and $1.087 billion in open interest. Arbitrum (ARB) closed Nov. 1 at $0.163770, down 16.9% from its Oct. 19 close. Perpetual decentralized exchanges on Arbitrum recorded $76.3 billion in notional trading volume over a rolling 30-day period, while open interest stood at $1.087 billion in a live snapshot. The same snapshot showed $215.014 billion in volume for Hyperliquid and $51.326 billion for zkLighter, placing Arbitrum between them by 30-day volume. Perp volume measures the notional value of contracts traded and includes leverage. It can count positions larger than the funds committed to them, so the total does not measure net capital entering Arbitrum or money used to buy ARB. Open interest measures the dollar value of outstanding perpetual positions, normalized on a one-sided basis. Arbitrum (ARB) closed at $0.163770 on Nov. 1, compared with $0.197015 on Oct. 19, a 16.9% decline across the UTC-dated closes. The price observations show a decline alongside perp trading activity, but the volume and price figures do not show who sold ARB or why. They also do not establish that trading activity caused or prevented the decline. ARB’s documented role is governance: holders can participate in ArbitrumDAO decisions. Ether (ETH) is used to pay transaction fees on Arbitrum. Trading activity on the network therefore does not itself require traders to buy ARB to pay those fees. The figures do not rule out an indirect connection between network activity and demand for the token. Supply follows a separate schedule. Team, contributor and investor allocations are subject to four-year vesting, with monthly unlocks beginning after the first year. About 92.65 million ARB for team members, contributors, advisers and investors is estimated for release around mid-November; the date and amount are estimates. A prior [Oct. 31 unlock calendar]() also listed ARB. An unlock makes tokens eligible for release, but does not establish that recipients sold them or explain ARB’s price decline. The volume and price figures describe activity and performance; they do not establish a direct link between perp trading and purchases of the governance token. ## Links in this article - [Oct. 31 unlock calendar](https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/45672)