Original Title: “Big Waves Sweep Away Sand, A Summary of the Recent Performance of Seven Mainstream DEXs”
Original author: Scof, ChainCatcher
Over the past week, the survival status of decentralized trading platforms has sparked widespread discussion.
Hyperliquid’s ‘self-destructing arbitrage’ with 50x leverage by whales has shaken the market, with its HLP insurance pool losing nearly $4 million after accepting liquidation orders.
On the other hand, GMGN, which was once glorious during the Pump period, has also encountered significant difficulties. According to Dune’s data, the platform’s revenue has plummeted from $2.34 million on January 19 to $74,000 on March 11, a drop of nearly 97%. At the same time, the community feedback on high KOL marketing expenses, user loss, and the entry of CEX has intensified competition, further raising concerns about GMGN’s future.
In this way, ChainCatcher has compiled the recent revenue situation of seven mainstream DEXs in this article for readers’ reference.
Quick interpretation (no dilly-dally, just look at the conclusion)
Jupiter, PancakeSwap still maintain high single-day returns, with stable long-term performance. Hyperliquid leads in 24-hour returns, but still experiences a significant decline from historical highs. Raydium, Shadow Exchange have seen a substantial decrease in returns, with market activity noticeably weakening. Aerodrome, THENA, and others have experienced severe declines, but still have a certain profit-making ability.
The following is a comparison of the recent 24-hour earnings and the historical highest single-day earnings of several mainstream DEXs:
Note: The full data is from Defillama, as of March 12th.
Dissect one by one, look into the current situation and trends of mainstream DEX
1. Shadow Exchange
· Background and Positioning: Deploy a native centralized liquidity layer and trading platform on Sonic. Supported by the x(3,3) incentive model, the goal is to provide an efficient, low-cost trading experience.
· Earnings Data: Historical peak 864.44K, 83K in the past 24 hours, decreased by 90.30%.
· Market Performance: Ranked in the top ten in cryptocurrency revenue in the past 30 days, with stable user activity. x(3,3) mechanism improves capital utilization efficiency, MEV protection mechanism optimizes trading experience, and liquidity providers and traders can earn considerable profits. The Gems reward system attracts deep participation in the Sonic ecosystem, driving protocol ecosystem expansion, demonstrating sustained growth potential.
2. Raydium
· Background and Positioning: As the head AMM DEX of the Solana ecosystem, it has attracted a large number of users in the past due to low fees and efficient trading.
· Revenue Data: Historical peak 3.39M, only 48K in the past 24 hours, a decrease of 98.57%, and market activity has dropped significantly. Its native token.
· Market Performance: In 2024 Q4, SolanaDEX once accounted for 61% of the trading volume, but TVL was only 39% of Uniswap, indicating active trading but relatively insufficient liquidity. At the same time, since Raydium’s trading volume is highly supported by Pump.fun, it must seek to expand into new non-meme areas in the future.
3. Jupiter
· Background and Positioning: The leading DEX aggregator in the Solana ecosystem, providing optimal trading path optimization, is the core pillar of Solana DeFi trading volume.
· Revenue Data: Historical peak 3.13M, 24-hour 329K, down 89.46%, but still maintains relatively high activity compared to other DEXs.
· Market Performance: As the DEX with the largest trading volume in the Solana ecosystem, it has high depth liquidity and cross-platform integration, and low user trading costs. However, it was recently questioned for insider trading due to the Libra incident, and there is currently no further investigation results.
4. PancakeSwap
· Background and Positioning: The leading DEX in the BSC ecosystem, maintaining competitiveness with low Gas fees, high-speed trading, and multi-chain expansion (Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, etc.).
· Revenue Data: Historical peak 6.4M, 1.11M in the past 24 hours, a decrease of 82.65%, but still maintains relatively high profitability in the DeFi sector.
· Market Performance: Thanks to the vibrancy of the BSC ecosystem, PancakeSwap has a wide DeFi user base and continues to expand its product features (such as NFTs, staking, etc.).
5. Hyperliquid
· Background and Positioning: Arbitrum’s decentralized derivative trading platform in the ecosystem adopts an active market-making mechanism, forming differentiated competition with GMX.
· Revenue Data: Historical peak 4.42M, recent 24 hours 1.17M, a decrease of 73.52%, but still dominant in the DeFi derivatives market.
· Market Performance: Thanks to the traders attracted by high-leverage trading, Hyperliquid maintains a leading position in trading volume and profitability. However, due to the impact of whale arbitrage events in recent times, users have become suspicious of its liquidity management mechanism, leading to a partial flight of funds in a risk-averse manner.
6. Aerodrome
** · Background and Positioning: ** Base’s core DEX adopts the ve(3,3) economic model to incentivize liquidity providers and optimize the trading experience.
· Earnings Data: Historical peak 1.52M, recent 24 hours 290K, decreased by 80.91%, market liquidity has declined but still maintains a certain level of activity.
· Market Performance: Dominating in the Base ecosystem, benefiting from the recent signs of recovery in the Base chain, the market performance is strong, with trading volume and market capitalization continuing to grow, and high community engagement.
7. THENA
· Background and Positioning: One of the DEXs in the BNB ecosystem, it adopts the ve(3,3) economic model, aiming to improve the sustainability of liquidity incentives.
· Revenue data: Historical peak 208.95K, recent 24 hours 48K, a decrease of 77.02%, despite the decline, still competitive in the BSC ecosystem.
· Market Performance: In the BSC ecosystem, THENA belongs to the second-tier DEX, facing strong competition from PancakeSwap, but its ve(3,3) model still manages to attract some liquidity. According to the website, THENA is planning to migrate to the V3 version. This upgrade will introduce the ‘Hooks’ feature, allowing smart contracts to be deployed on specific liquidity pools to execute specific logic when users interact. This will support advanced order types, complex applications, and customized needs, further enhancing the protocol’s flexibility and functionality.
Currently, decentralized exchange platforms are experiencing a trend of declining profits, intensified competition, and structural differentiation. The revenue of mainstream platforms has generally fallen by 70%-98% from historical highs, significantly impacting market activity.
Jupiter and PancakeSwap still occupy the leading position, with high daily returns and relatively stable long-term performance, maintaining competitiveness through ecological layout and user base. Hyperliquid still holds a place in the derivatives market, but concerns about its risk control ability have been raised due to the whale arbitrage incident, impacting fund liquidity. Raydium and Shadow Exchange have seen a significant decrease in returns, the former due to the decline in trading volume on Pump.fun, and the latter due to the overall weakening market activity. Aerodrome and THENA still have certain profit-making capabilities, but face stronger competition in their respective ecosystems.
In the future, DEX still needs to face three core issues:
· How to maintain trading activity—market cools down, user trading willingness decreases, how does DEX enhance user stickiness?
· How to optimize liquidity management - Whale arbitrage, intensified competition among CEX, how can platforms build a more stable liquidity system in the DeFi field?
· How to achieve sustainable income- In the bear market cycle, the high trading fee model is difficult to sustain in the long term. Does DEX need a new profit model?
In the face of industry challenges, the future survival of DEX may no longer be just about trading volume, but about liquidity, risk control mechanisms, and ecological layout.
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