Morph has launched Tachyon, an independent Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for onchain trading, expanding the network from a single general-purpose chain into a connected pair of specialized systems, according to a blog post from the company published today.
Welcoming @popdex_ to Morph Tachyon.
— Morph (@MorphNetwork) July 21, 2026
Through PopDEX, the first trader-first perpetual exchange on Tachyon, the network begins supporting high-performance onchain derivatives with instant finality, gas-free trading, and infrastructure purpose built for execution.
The first… https://t.co/H0bYtvK1oA pic.twitter.com/RaV5nifbGg
The existing Morph Ethereum Layer 2 will continue to handle payments, stablecoins and open finance, while Tachyon operates as a separate chain, with its own consensus, settlement and state, dedicated to trading.
Morph said onchain trading demands different infrastructure than payments or general financial activity. A live trading venue has to process order submissions, cancellations, matches, position changes, margin updates, oracle updates and liquidations continuously, with the load intensifying during volatile markets. On general-purpose chains, trading applications compete with other activity for blockspace, which the company said can produce slower order updates, delayed cancellations and uncertain settlement.
Tachyon targets block times of 200 milliseconds and throughput of up to 200,000 transactions per second. It uses a consensus design derived from HotStuff BFT to provide instant finality without block reorganizations, and offers gas-free trading so users do not need to hold a native token to place orders, cancel them or manage positions. The chain is EVM-compatible, supporting existing wallets, address formats, JSON-RPC interfaces and developer tooling.
Morph said Tachyon is designed not only for decentralized exchanges but also for market makers, quantitative trading firms, vault builders, brokers, liquidity providers and analytics platforms building onchain markets.
PopDEX , a decentralized perpetual exchange, will build its trading infrastructure on Tachyon. Perpetual markets involve continuous changes across the trading lifecycle, and PopDEX said it chose Tachyon because the chain treats that workload as its primary design target rather than one use case among many. Instant finality lets order updates, cancellations, margin changes and liquidations settle without additional confirmations, while high throughput is meant to support sustained activity from traders, bots and market makers.
“Morph Tachyon is an important step forward for the Morph ecosystem. Payments and trading are both core parts of onchain finance, but they need different infrastructure. Rather than asking every app to use the same setup, we are building dedicated systems that fit how these markets work,” said Renna Ba, Morph's head of ecosystem. “PopDEX is an important first demonstration of what can be built on Tachyon, and we look forward to welcoming more trading platforms, market makers, and partners to join the network.”
Morph is incubated within the Bitget ecosystem and uses a modular architecture combining optimistic and zero-knowledge technology on its existing Layer 2. The company said additional ecosystem partners building on Tachyon will be announced in the coming months.
