Analysis of the Five Major Trends of DEX: The Rise of Cross-Chain Trading and High Market Concentration

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Depth Analysis: Five Major Trends and Future Directions of DEX Development

The decentralized trading platform ( DEX) has rapidly developed since the DeFi boom in June 2020, with monthly trading volume increasing 105 times within a year to $20.395 billion. The DEX market started on Ethereum and gradually expanded to multi-chain platforms like BSC, Solana, and Avalanche. Currently, DEXs on the Ethereum chain still dominate, while DEXs on other chains are relatively smaller.

DEX mainly includes types such as AMM, cross-chain trading, derivatives trading, stablecoin trading, and DEX aggregators. Among these, AMM is the most common type, with Uniswap being the representative project. By analyzing 60 leading DEXs, the following five major trends can be summarized:

  1. The market concentration is high, with a few DEXs occupying the majority of the share.
  2. The proportion of cross-chain and cross-layer trading protocols is increasing, accounting for about 1/4 of the leading DEX.
  3. AMM+NFT has become a new trend
  4. Major public chains have all entered the top DEX, and new public chain DEXs are developing rapidly.
  5. The growth potential of stablecoin and derivatives trading platforms is significant.

Although affected by the market, the overall trading volume of DEX has declined compared to the beginning of the year, but there are still five directions worth paying attention to: established Ethereum DEX, cross-chain DEX, stablecoin trading protocols, Cosmos ecosystem DEX, and new public chain DEX.

Scanning 60 top DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

Current Status of the DEX Track

1. Trading Volume Analysis

DEX trading volume can be divided into three categories: spot trading, derivatives trading, and DEX aggregators, with spot trading being the dominant type.

In terms of spot trading, the DEX trading volume began to grow in June 2020, increasing 105 times within a year to $20.395 billion. This year, there has been an overall downward trend, with August at $6.676 billion, a decrease of 58.3% compared to January. Uniswap and PancakeSwap account for more than half of the market share. The ratio of DEX to centralized exchange spot trading volume reached a peak of 25.51% in February this year.

Scanning 60 top DEXs, we found these 5 trends

In derivatives trading, dYdX holds an absolute dominant position. On September 21, dYdX's trading volume was $1.38 billion, ranking first among all DEXs. However, the futures trading volume of DEXs accounts for only 1.4% of centralized exchanges.

In terms of DEX aggregators, projects like 1inch, Matcha, and OpenOcean have relatively low trading volumes.

2. Lock-up Volume Analysis

Currently, there are 5 DEXs with a total locked value exceeding $1 billion, namely Curve, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Multichain, and Balancer. Among them, both Curve and Uniswap have locked values exceeding $5 billion, dominating the market. These three DEXs contribute to 1/4 of the total locked value in DeFi.

Scanning 60 top DEXs, we found these 5 trends

3. Protocol Revenue

In the top 13 crypto protocols by revenue over the past 7 days, DEXs occupy 6 spots. Among them, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and GMX generated over $10 million in protocol revenue in 7 days. Three of the 6 DEXs are derivatives trading platforms.

Scanning 60 major DEXs, we found these 5 trends

4. DEX Classification

Mainly includes five categories: AMM, cross-chain trading protocols, derivatives trading protocols, stablecoin trading protocols, and DEX aggregators.

  • AMM: The most common type, represented by Uniswap
  • Cross-chain trading: such as Hop Protocol, Multichain, etc.
  • Derivatives Trading: includes perpetual contracts, options, synthetic assets, etc.
  • Stablecoin Trading: e.g., Curve
  • DEX Aggregator: like 1inch

Scanning 60 top DEXs, we found these 5 trends

Five Major Development Trends of DEX

1. High market concentration

From the perspective of locked-up volume and trading volume, a few DEXs occupy the vast majority of the market share:

  • The top 5 DEXs with a locked amount exceeding $1 billion dominate the market, with Curve and Uniswap having a total locked amount of $10.39 billion.
  • Only 5 DEXs have a 24-hour trading volume exceeding 100 million USD, with dYdX and Uniswap v3 ranking first and second.

Scanning 60 top DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

2. The proportion of cross-chain and cross-layer trading protocols is rising.

Among the 60 leading DEXs, there are a total of 16 cross-chain and cross-layer protocols, accounting for about 1/4. Mainly including:

  • Cross-chain trading protocols: such as Hop Protocol, Multichain, etc.
  • Multi-chain deployed DEX: such as Curve, Uniswap, etc. deployed on L2 networks.
  • Cross-chain AMM: such as SushiXSwap

Scanning 60 leading DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

3. AMM+NFT has become a new trend

There are mainly two categories:

  • AMM-based NFT trading platform: like sudoswap
  • Add NFT trading to AMM: like Uniswap

Scanned 60 major DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

4. Multi-chain DEX Development

  • Ethereum chain DEXs still dominate, with 7 out of the top 8 DEXs being Ethereum native.
  • DEXs on chains like BNB Chain, Cronos, and Arbitrum have also entered the forefront.
  • The performance of the new public chain DEXs is impressive, with Klaytn having 3 DEXs in the top 60.
  • The Cosmos ecosystem DeFi public chain is worth paying attention to.

Scanning 60 leading DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

5. The potential of stablecoin and derivatives trading platforms is great.

  • Demand for stablecoin trading platforms such as Curve and Wombat Exchange is rising.
  • Derivatives platforms such as dYdX, GMX, and Synthetix adopt L2 scaling solutions.

Scanning 60 leading DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

Future Development Direction

Five directions worth paying attention to:

  1. Established Ethereum DEX
  2. Cross-chain DEX
  3. Stablecoin Trading Protocol
  4. Cosmos Ecosystem DEX
  5. New Public Chain DEX

Scanning 60 leading DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

The overall supply exceeds demand in the DEX track, and new projects need to innovate in terms of mechanisms and functions. Currently, several DEXs are undervalued, and in the long term, DEXs remain an important pillar of DeFi. In the future, the DEX landscape may present a situation where Ethereum dominates with many strong competitors, and the development of L2 network DEXs is worth paying attention to.

Scanning 60 top DEXs, we discovered these 5 trends

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DaisyUnicornvip
· 08-09 07:11
What about being focused~ I've already gone crazy playing in the cross-chain little garden.
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DegenDreamervip
· 08-09 07:10
Only a core player can put it in plain words~
View OriginalReply0
PumpAnalystvip
· 08-09 07:04
Laughing to death, it's all just market makers playing people for suckers.
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StableNomadvip
· 08-09 06:47
lmao eth still dominating like its 2020... some things never change tbh
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