One risk layer is not the whole market
A non-custodial venue can let traders retain control of assets while leaving other mechanisms difficult to verify. Execution priority, oracle design, liquidation rules, insurance funds, market-maker incentives, and the treatment of bad debt still determine whether the system is credible.
The important distinction is between control of collateral and transparency of the complete market structure.
What should be verifiable
A serious perpetual market should make the rules legible before stress arrives and make outcomes auditable after it does.
- How orders are matched and prioritized
- How prices and funding rates are formed
- How liquidations and bad debt are handled
- How market makers and token incentives are compensated
- Whether reserves and risk parameters can be independently checked
The standard
Self-custody is necessary progress, but the stronger standard is verifiable market structure. Users should not have to exchange custodial opacity for protocol opacity.
The market earns trust when its risk, execution, and incentives can be inspected rather than merely promised.