Merkle Trade, the largest decentralized perpetual futures exchange on Aptos by volume, announced it will wind down operations after nearly $30B cumulative volume. New positions will be disabled on Feb. 6 and all remaining positions forcibly closed on Feb. 10. MKL tokens will be redeemable without fees and a final revenue distribution is scheduled for Feb. 12; staked MKL can be redeemed after that. Merkle raised ~$2.1M in an April 2024 seed round, its TVL peaked >$7.4M and is currently ~$3.47M, and it accounted for $12.4M of Aptos’s $13.68M perp volume in the past 24 hours. MKL price spiked ~11.5% in 24 hours but remains ~90% below its Dec 2024 ATH. The wind-down follows broader Aptos ecosystem weakness (ecosystem TVL down >70% from Dec 2024).

Merkle — the largest Aptos perp DEX by volume — announced a timed wind-down: new positions disabled Feb 6, all positions forcibly closed Feb 10, and MKL redeemable with a final revenue distribution on Feb 12. The protocol processed nearly $30B cumulative volume, currently holds ~$3.47M TVL and produced $12.4M of the chain's $13.68M perp volume in the past 24 hours. These concrete shutdown and redemption dates directly affect MKL holders and open positions, justifying a strongly negative sentiment and high short-term trading impact.