Analyzing the Five Major Trends of DEX through 60 Leading DEXs

DEX( decentralized trading platform) has rapidly developed since the DeFi boom in June 2020, with monthly trading volume growing 105 times within a year to reach $203.95 billion. The DEX market started on Ethereum and gradually expanded to public chains such as BSC, Solana, and Avalanche. Currently, DEXs on the Ethereum chain still dominate, while other chain DEXs lag behind in trading volume and total value locked.

We analyzed the top 60 DEXes by locked volume and summarized the following five major trends:

1. Leading DEXs occupy a large share of the market.
2. The proportion of cross-chain and cross-layer trading protocols has increased, accounting for about 1/4.
3. AMM+NFT Becomes a New Trend
4. Major public chains have DEXs entering the top ranks, and new public chain DEXs are developing rapidly.
5. Stablecoin and derivative trading platforms have significant growth potential.

In the current market downturn, the trading volume of DEX in August decreased by 58.3% compared to January. Notable DEX directions include: established DEX on the Ethereum chain, cross-chain DEX, stablecoin trading protocols, Cosmos ecosystem DEX, and new public chain DEX.

Current Status of the DEX Track

1. Trading Volume

DEX trading volume can be divided into three categories: spot, derivatives, and aggregators:

Spot trading:

• In June 2020, the trading volume was $1.92 billion, reaching a peak of $20.395 billion in May 2021, an increase of 105 times in one year.
• In August 2022, the trading volume was $66.76 billion, a decrease of 58.3% compared to January.
• Uniswap and PancakeSwap account for over 50% of the market share.

Derivatives Trading:

• dYdX dominates, with a trading volume of $1.38 billion on September 21.
• DEX futures trading volume accounts for only 1.4% of CEX.

DEX Aggregator:

• Representative projects such as 1inch, Matcha, OpenOcean
• The trading volume is relatively small, with 1inch having a 24-hour trading volume of $1.066 million on September 21.

2. Locked Amount

5 DEXs have locked assets exceeding $1 billion: Curve, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Multichain, Balancer.

Curve, Uniswap, and PancakeSwap entered the top 10 in DeFi locked value, accounting for 25% collectively.

3. Protocol Revenue

Among the top 13 crypto protocols by revenue over 7 days, DEX occupies 6 positions. Those with revenue exceeding 10 million USD include:

• Uniswap: $44.4 million
• PancakeSwap: $16.6 million
• GMX: 12.9 million USD

4. DEX Category

• AMM: The most common type, Uniswap is the leader.
• Cross-chain trading protocols: such as Hop Protocol, Multichain
• Derivatives Trading Protocol: perpetual contracts, options, synthetic assets, etc.
• Stablecoin trading protocol: such as Curve
• DEX Aggregator: like 1inch

Detailed Explanation of the Five Major Trends in DEX

1. Top DEXs hold a large share of the market.

Locked Amount Distribution:

• 1 billion: 5

• 300 million to 1 billion: 6
• 200-300 million: 5
• 100-200 million: 15
• 50 million to 100 million USD: 9
• Less than $50 million: 20

The total lock-up volume of 5 DEXs with over 1 billion USD is 16.36 billion USD, and the total of 6 DEXs in the 300 million to 1 billion USD range is 2.55 billion USD, accounting for only 15.5%.

In terms of trading volume, only 5 DEXs have a 24-hour trading volume exceeding $100 million. 30 DEXs have a trading volume exceeding $10 million, accounting for 12.5% of the total.

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

Among the 60 leading DEXs, there are 16 cross-chain and cross-layer protocols, accounting for about 1/4.

Main performance:

• The cross-chain trading protocol combines cross-chain bridge and trading functions.
• Traditional DEX multi-chain deployment has become a trend
• Among the top 10 locked assets, 6 projects have deployed L2 or used L2 technology.
• New species such as cross-chain AMM have emerged

3. AMM+NFT has become a new trend

Two forms:

• AMM-based NFT trading platform, such as sudoswap
• AMM adds NFT trading, like Uniswap

sudoswap innovatively introduces AMM to enhance NFT liquidity. Uniswap acquires Genie, plans to integrate sudoswap.

4. Major public chains all have DEXs entering the top tier.

60 top DEXs come from 23 public chains, with DEXs on the Ethereum chain still dominating.

New Public Chain DEX Performance:

• 6 new public chain DEXs entered the top 30
• 4 built-in DEX application chains
• Three DEXs on the Klaytn chain entered the top 60

5. Stablecoins and derivatives trading platforms have great potential

Stablecoin trading platform:

• Curve's locked-up volume increased by 12.5% over 7 days, ranking first.
• New projects like Wombat Exchange are developing rapidly

Derivatives Trading Platform:

• dYdX, GMX, Synthetix and others use L2 solutions
• L2+ derivatives have become a hot topic

Summary

Five DEX directions worth paying attention to:

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

The overall supply in the DEX sector exceeds demand, and new projects need to innovate in mechanisms and functions. Some DEXs currently have low valuations, but in the long run, DEXs remain an important pillar of DeFi. The future development of DEXs on L2 is worth paying attention to.