Perp DEXes still can't crack institutional capital — security risks and KYC friction are the wall!

Panelists at Consensus Miami laid out a blunt case for why institutional money has not followed retail volume into perp DEXes: recurring exploits and a structural mismatch with compliance requirements. Canary Labs' Michael Anderson put it plainly — "I'm scared to use DeFi right now. It does feel like a bit of a minefield, and you're just waiting for the next headline each day."

The recent multi-million-dollar hack of Drift was cited as a live example of the security problem. Wizard of SoHo, a veteran trader and family office manager, argued that safely onboarding institutional capital will be the defining competitive battleground for every perp DEX going forward.

The KYC tension runs deeper than any single exploit. DeFi's permissionless design is fundamentally at odds with the identity and compliance obligations institutions must meet. Anderson noted that centralized exchanges are…