Written by: 0xResearcher
From on-chain integration to on-chain rewriting, DeFi is starting to stir the underlying layers again.
In the DeFi Summer of 2021, everyone was issuing tokens, mining, and making minor innovations; in 2023, DeFi is being restructured again. But this time it's not about module integration or gameplay innovation; it's about rolling back layer by layer from the bottom.
You will find that more and more projects are not building the previous generation's wheels, but questioning:
'Is this wheel designed incorrectly?'
Thus, on-chain trading is beginning to show two routes:
Either do everything yourself: build the chain, write the matching, and handle wallet interactions.
Either write only the lowest-level components, modularize everything, and let others combine them into systems.
Today, let's talk about this ongoing battle of underlying reconstruction. It's not about the projects themselves, but about what problems these projects are solving and why we should care about this trend.
Question 1: Why is on-chain trading still not done well?
On-chain trading began a revolution with AMM (Uniswap), which once broke through the market-making threshold, but also shattered efficiency.
If you want depth, you won't have efficiency; if you want efficiency, matching must return to centralization.
In recent years, on-chain trading has tried to upgrade from AMM to 'on-chain CEX', but the result has either been creating L2 (cheap gas but no users) or creating chains (creating a chain but no one connects), and ultimately everyone realizes that the problem is not TPS, but rather:
Matching and clearing settlement are not decoupled
Liquidity is fragmented between chains and DEXs
Cross-chain trading experiences are extremely poor, and wallet interactions are cumbersome
Therefore, the current direction is not about 'better DEXs', but about directly rebuilding the trading system foundation.
Hyperliquid: on-chain trading systems that perhaps should not be layered at all.
Hyperliquid's approach is: do not differentiate L1/L2, do not differentiate matching/settlement, simply create a native high-performance chain that directly integrates matching and trading modules into the chain logic.
The benefit is:
Matching is processed on-chain, and transactions are verifiable.
No reliance on Sequencer, nor external clearing nodes.
All assets and liquidity are aggregated within a unified account system.
In simple terms:
'It's not about having a DEX on-chain; rather, the chain itself is the exchange.'
This idea is somewhat like looking at Solana, but without using a VM, directly customizing for trading. The trade-off is high coupling and poor scalability, but the experience is truly smooth.
Orderly is more like a multi-chain version of Hyperliquid, taking the route of encircling the city from the countryside—not a single chain dominance, but using modularization and multi-chain layouts to allow more chains and projects to enjoy 'native exchange' level performance and liquidity.
Ethena: synthetic assets that do not need to create stablecoins to establish an on-chain dollar savings account.
Ethena is not solving trading issues, but rather the problems of stablecoins + on-chain interest rates.
USDe is essentially not a stablecoin, but a delta-neutral combination created by using spot assets like ETH/BTC + perpetual hedging shorts:
Value preservation relies on hedging
Returns depend on funding rates and arbitrage opportunities
Pricing is controlled through an incentive mechanism that manages mint/redeem liquidity
This logic is not new, but Ethena has bundled it into a powerful operational design:
'On-chain dollar savings accounts' + 'stable yield entry'
The key is that it does not rely on centralized reserves or bonds; instead, it uses a combination of on-chain assets + perpetual contracts to create a consumer-grade product for an on-chain Cash & Carry strategy. Moreover, everyone participates in DEXs, creating more revenue and possibilities.
In short, Orderly is 'providing ordinary people with a DIY toolbox for stablecoin ecosystems and decentralized exchanges'.
Orderly: not creating products, but writing 'standard components for on-chain trading'
Orderly has chosen a third path: modular trading infrastructure.
It does not conduct all-chain self-research like Hyperliquid, nor does it turn financial strategies into products like Ethena. Instead, it breaks down the on-chain trading system into multiple combinable 'standard parts' for project owners to freely assemble. Its core philosophy is to build reusable, verifiable, and aggregable trading components that serve the entire multi-chain DeFi ecosystem.
Key designs of Orderly include:
Centralized matching + on-chain settlement: ensuring performance off-chain while achieving transparency and verifiability on-chain;
Multi-chain liquidity aggregation: mainstream chains like Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Solana can seamlessly connect, realizing a unified account system and cross-chain asset circulation;
Modular trading engine: core capabilities such as matching, clearing and settlement, risk control, and liquidity distribution can be independently deployed and freely combined;
Cross-project shared order book: not every project builds separate liquidity pools, but rather realizes system-level order book sharing, breaking down liquidity islands from the ground up.
It is especially worth mentioning that Orderly is currently one of the few high-performance trading systems that can natively integrate Solana. Solana is known for its extreme performance, but its architecture is incompatible with EVM, making it difficult for many multi-chain DeFi projects to effectively incorporate it. Orderly has replicated a 'centralized exchange-like' trading experience on Solana through unified account structures and module abstraction—this not only fills the gap in high-performance chains for multi-chain trading systems but also introduces a new paradigm of shared liquidity and modular trading infrastructure to the entire Solana ecosystem.
In other words, Orderly transforms Solana's performance into 'part of a multi-chain system', rather than 'a special capability of an isolated chain'.
Orderly does not create end products but serves builders of perp projects, market vaults, stablecoin protocols, etc., by providing standardized trading frameworks.
Just like Stripe provides payment infrastructure for Web2, Orderly aims to provide 'standardized trading components' on-chain, so developers don't have to reinvent the wheel and can achieve professional exchange-level performance and modules.
In the Solana ecosystem, Orderly has deeply integrated with Raydium, aggregating spot and perpetual trading liquidity for core assets like SOL, USDC, and USDT through a unified order book, achieving nearly zero slippage trading experiences, truly bringing 'centralized-like smoothness' into the on-chain world.
This is not just a technical integration, but a successful landing of the modular trading system concept. By deeply integrating with Raydium, its unified order book carries dual liquidity for spot and perpetual trading, significantly reducing users' trading costs and slippage, while bringing unprecedented systematic liquidity aggregation to Solana. This model is gradually becoming a template for building multi-chain trading infrastructure on high-performance chains, allowing builders for the first time to enjoy trading experiences on par with CEX on Solana.
So what is OmniVault? It's just a facet product.
Since you are doing infrastructure, how can retail investors participate? Orderly has provided a side entrance: OmniVault.
Essentially, it is:
Users deposit USDC
Kronos and others are used by market makers for trading
Returns are returned to LP users
All fund allocation and strategy execution are visible on-chain
Of the trading fees collected by Orderly, 40% will reward Vault LP, and 60% will go to stakers.
It's not mining, nor relying on token incentives, but using real trading profits to reward liquidity participants.
This is completely different from the early DeFi logic of 'relying on subsidies to attract liquidity'; it resembles traditional finance's HFT strategy funds—just transformed into an on-chain version with a lower threshold.
DeFi is not becoming simpler; rather, it is becoming more 'system-engineered'
Today's DeFi is far from the 'modify contracts, mine a bit' situation of 2020.
Or you could be like Hyperliquid, conducting all-chain self-research to achieve extreme performance;
You could be like Ethena, combining on-chain tools into 'real financial scenarios';
Or you could be like Orderly, building standard components that allow others to quickly assemble products.
There is no right or wrong among these three ideas; rather, each is addressing the 'engineering structural shortcomings' of DeFi.
Future blockbuster projects may not necessarily create their own chains or issue tokens, but they will definitely leverage these structures.
If you are still concerned about 'which token can rise', you may have already missed the deepest narrative of this round.
The main characters in this round are not tokens but the structure itself.
