Infrastructure Over Listings: How Centralized Platforms Are Embedding Onchain Liquidity

Source: Blockworks Original Title: Coinbase embeds Solana trading Original Link: https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-embeds-solana-trading

Market Overview

This week’s crypto markets showed a clear structural shift in how assets are being distributed. BTC outpaced traditional assets, with launchpads rising significantly. The market action suggests tactical rotations rather than broad risk-off movements, with volatility remaining elevated and flows appearing selective.

Within crypto indices, launchpads (+3.9%) led the complex by a wide margin, followed by the Solana ecosystem (+2.3%) and DEXs (+2.1%). Crypto Miners (+1.9%), tokens with Buybacks (+1.9%), Exchange tokens (+1.9%) and RWA plays (+1.9%) also finished green. Gaming (-6.4%) was the clear laggard, with Lending (-3.7%), Revenue Leaders (-3.5%), Ethereum ecosystem (-3.5%), and Memes (-3.4%) all posting steep declines.

Structural Shift: Onchain Rails Over Centralized Listings

A major development this week highlights the evolving market infrastructure. A leading compliance-focused platform integrated with Jupiter to power swaps for Solana-based assets, bringing one of Solana’s most important liquidity layers directly into a mainstream crypto interface.

Rather than listing new Solana assets directly on a centralized order book, the platform is leaning into onchain rails. Jupiter acts as the execution engine, aggregating liquidity across Solana DEXs, optimizing routes, and settling trades onchain, while the platform provides distribution, UX, and on- and off-ramps. For users, this means access to a much broader universe of Solana tokens without needing to leave the ecosystem.

This reflects a broader shift where centralized platforms increasingly act as frontends to onchain liquidity. Onchain trading removes the long lead times associated with centralized exchange listings, allowing markets to form where liquidity already exists. However, permissionless markets cut both ways—access to more tokens also means exposure to illiquid or malicious assets, so verification, liquidity checks and trade sizing remain essential.

M&A and Fundraising Surge

Crypto M&A activity has experienced drastic growth. M&A volume in November alone reached approximately $10.7 billion. Q3 2025 saw crypto M&A top $10 billion for the first time, doubling the previous record of $5 billion and representing a 30x jump compared to the same period in 2024.

The surge has been led by major exchanges executing aggressive expansion strategies. Recent deals include significant acquisitions of options platforms, prime brokerages, trading infrastructure, and tokenization firms. By November 2025, total M&A deal value reached $8.6 billion across 133 deals, exceeding the combined total of the previous four years.

Crypto fundraising has grown approximately 41% from the previous cycle peak of $4.63 billion in January 2021 to a new high of $6.52 billion in July 2025. Year-to-date fundraising through November 2025 totaled approximately $36 billion, a significant recovery from the crypto winter years of 2023-2024.

Key Takeaway

These trends point to a market where infrastructure, not listings, is becoming the primary driver of scale and access. Major exchanges increasingly rely on DeFi infrastructure to deliver broader market access, and onchain trading stacks are becoming harder to ignore.