I. Introduction: The Rise of Decentralized Trading
On January 18, 2025, just two days before his inauguration, a social media post by the incoming US President Trump triggered the most remarkable on-chain trading frenzy in the history of the crypto market. Within just 24 hours, the token named TRUMP saw its market capitalization surpass $24 billion, and over 115,000 new users flooded into the Solana ecosystem, equivalent to half the daily active users of Arbitrum. This phenomenal event not only set a new single-day on-chain trading record, but also dramatically revealed the immense potential of decentralized trading.
As Bybit CEO Ben Zhou commented on Twitter on January 19: "Yesterday, all centralized exchanges witnessed massive flows of SOL and USDC onto the chain. A Meme token created over $30 billion in market cap in less than 10 hours through DEXes like Moonshoot and Jupiter, without any CEX involvement..." He stated that they plan to heavily invest in building on-chain infrastructure to become a key gateway for users to enter web3.
These words capture a key trend: decentralized trading is becoming the choice of more and more investors.
From Fringe to Mainstream Consensus
Over the past seven years, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have gradually moved from the fringe to the mainstream. Platforms like Pump.fun that simplify token issuance have stimulated investors' interest in low-market-cap virtual assets, which are often first traded on DEXs. Major centralized exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken are slower to list new coins, often taking weeks or months to selectively add new tokens in batches. As a result, with the growing emphasis on privacy, security, and the frequency of new token trading, more users are entering the world of on-chain trading.
From "CEX Dominance" to the "On-Chain Trading Revolution"
In the early days of the industry, CEXs like Binance and Coinbase dominated the market with their high liquidity and user-friendly interfaces. However, this centralized model also brought asset custody risks and lack of transparency. As technology has evolved, users have begun to seek safer and more autonomous trading methods, driving the development of DEXs.
The Emergence of New On-Chain Aggregation Platforms
In this context, facing the new market landscape, different platforms have chosen their own transformation paths, and new on-chain aggregation trading platforms have emerged.
Bitget, through the acquisition and upgrade of BitKeep to Bitget Wallet, has innovatively launched on-chain trading tools such as fast trading and smart market data, demonstrating a strong Web3 ecosystem layout.
OKX's OKX Web3 Wallet, with multi-chain and DApp protocol support, and native cross-chain trading functions, has shown the comprehensive transformation of traditional exchanges to Web3.
Ave.ai, on the other hand, takes another approach, integrating data analysis, smart contract risk detection, and intelligent capital flow monitoring across multiple blockchains to provide users with comprehensive one-stop trading support.
The innovative practices of these platforms have confirmed the strong market demand for one-stop on-chain trading services.
II. The Evolution and Pros and Cons of Different Types of Exchanges
1. The Prosperity and Dilemma of the CEX Era
Prosperity: The Peak of Efficiency and Liquidity
CEXs have dominated the cryptocurrency market over the past decade. Taking Binance as an example, at its peak, it accounted for the majority of global cryptocurrency trading volume, with a daily trading volume exceeding $76 billion at the end of 2024, accounting for more than 60% of the global market share. CEXs have attracted a large number of users with their efficiency, strong liquidity, and fiat currency support, allowing new investors to easily enter the market.
Dilemma: Centralization Risks and Lack of Transparency
However, CEXs also face many challenges:
Asset Custody Risk: User assets are concentrated on the platform, and massive losses can occur in the event of a hacker attack, such as the 7,000 BTC theft incident at Binance in 2019.
Lack of Transparency: Opaque internal operations can lead to trust crises.
Regulatory Pressure: With tightening global regulations, many CEXs face compliance challenges, such as the FTX bankruptcy in 2022.
When we examine the market data at the beginning of 2025, while Binance still dominates the industry with a daily trading volume of $29.25 billion, the underlying logic of the market is quietly changing. Notably, the proportion of Altcoin trading on the Binance platform has risen to 78%, an increase of 11 percentage points from May 2024. This data reveals the evolution of the cryptocurrency market towards a more diversified ecosystem. This transformation is reflected not only in the richness of trading instruments, but also in the innovation of trading methods. As technology has evolved, users have begun to seek safer and more autonomous trading methods, driving the development of DEXs.
2. The Exploration of Traditional DEXs
Innovation: The Rise of the Swap Model
The development trajectory of decentralized trading to some extent reflects the maturation process of the entire cryptocurrency market. Since the critical milestone in September 2020 when CEXs first lost more than half of the on-chain trading volume, decentralized trading has shown strong growth momentum. DEXs represented by Uniswap, through the Automated Market Maker (AMM) mechanism, have solved the problem of insufficient liquidity in the order book model. In June 2021, Uniswap reached an 80% market share of on-chain trading, indicating that decentralized trading is gradually being accepted by users. In January 2025, data from The Block and defillama showed that the spot trading volume of decentralized exchanges exceeded 20% of centralized platforms for the first time in cryptocurrency history, which analysts believe may reflect the growing interest in decentralized platforms.
Platforms like Pump.fun that simplify token issuance have stimulated investors' interest in low-market-cap virtual assets, which are often first traded on DEXs. Major centralized exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken provide web2-style digital asset access, but they are slower to list new coins, often taking weeks or months to selectively add new tokens in batches. Decentralized platforms like Uniswap will continue to play an important role in cryptocurrency trading, as they align with the spirit of decentralization and support the unlimited launch of new tokens. On-chain data shows that decentralized exchanges have generated nearly $10 billion in trading volume since the beginning of this year.
Market research shows that the rapid development of DEXs is due to several key factors:
Users' pursuit of asset autonomy
The continuous maturity of smart contract technology
The prosperous development of the DeFi ecosystem
Breakthrough progress in cross-chain technology
Limitations: Technical Bottlenecks and User Barriers
However, traditional DEXs also face many challenges:
Liquidity Fragmentation: Assets on different chains are difficult to interconnect.
High Gas Fees: Blockchain network congestion leads to high transaction costs.
Complex User Experience: The operational threshold is relatively high for non-technical users.
3. A New Species: The Rise of On-Chain Aggregation Platforms
On-chain aggregation exchanges combine the advantages of CEXs and traditional DEXs, providing users with a new form of decentralized trading through the integration of multi-chain asset analysis, on-chain order placement, and a user experience close to that of CEXs. The emergence of this new type of exchange marks a new stage in the development of cryptocurrency trading.
Core Features and Advantages
1. Multi-Chain Asset Integration Capabilities:
Support for cross-chain asset management and trading, allowing users to operate assets on multiple blockchains from a single interface
Provide comprehensive chain asset analysis tools to help users make more informed investment decisions
2. CEX-Level User Experience:
Achieve real-time order book and efficient matching mechanism to solve the liquidity problem in traditional DEXs
Optimize the user interface to make it easy for non-technical users to get started
3. Coexistence of decentralization and autonomy:
Users still control their private keys, achieving true self-sovereignty
All transactions are executed through smart contracts, without the need to trust a third party
4. Expand the market share of spot and derivatives markets:
Not only support spot trading, but also gradually expand to the derivatives market, such as options and leveraged products
III. Competitive Analysis of On-Chain Aggregation Trading Platforms
1. Bitget Wallet: A Global Web3 User Gateway
Advantages in the global market:
Global user base to exceed 60 million by 2024, with an annual growth of 300%
Emerging markets: 1000% growth in Africa, 400% growth in Central and Eastern Europe
Become the largest Telegram multi-chain wallet
Functional integration:
Support access to 90 mainnet networks
Connect to over 20,000 DApps
Provide fast trading and smart market tools
2. OKX Web3 Wallet: A One-Stop DApp Interaction Platform
Advantages in multi-ecosystem coverage:
Support over 80 blockchain networks
Connect to 1000+ DApp protocols
Provide access to the NFT market
Trading functions:
Token Swap cross-chain transactions
Support for batch transfer tools
Real-time gas fee tracking
3. Ave.ai: An AI-Driven One-Stop Trading Analysis Platform
Advantages in data coverage:
Access to data from over 60 blockchains, connecting to over 4 million crypto wallets
Support 300+ DEX markets and over 130 networks
Provide multi-dimensional security scoring and risk detection for tokens
AI trading signals:
Smart capital flow monitoring
Tracking of whale behavior and DEV activities
On-chain transaction data analysis
In the current competitive landscape, Ave.ai, as a one-stop trading analysis platform, exhibits unique advantages:
First, the platform achieves seamless integration from data analysis to trade execution, allowing users to complete all operations in one place, greatly improving efficiency. The platform supports importing existing wallets or creating new ones, simplifying the user's asset management process. The platform also stands out in empowering investment decisions. By providing detailed data dashboards, including capital flow, token holding distribution, and real-time monitoring of whale behavior and capital movements, the platform helps investors seize market opportunities.
The main features of other major competitors:
Trading function coverage: mainstream platforms generally support 80-130 public chain networks, as well as thousands to tens of thousands of DApps
User growth: each platform is rapidly expanding globally, with particularly impressive performance in emerging markets
Differentiated strategies: some focus on global layout, while others emphasize integration with Web2 services
Looking to the future, the competition among on-chain aggregation trading platforms will become more intense, and user experience and data analysis capabilities will be key. As the boundaries between CeFi and DeFi become increasingly blurred, the platforms' comprehensive service capabilities will become increasingly important.
IV. Future Outlook: A New Paradigm of Decentralized Trading
1. Trends in Market Landscape
In the next few years, DEXs and CEXs may form a symbiotic development model. As institutional investors gradually participate in decentralized finance, they will further drive the development of on-chain aggregation platforms. With the industry's development, we expect to see more innovative projects emerge in the next five years to meet the ever-changing market demands.
2. Technological Development Directions
At the technical level, the industry will see multi-dimensional breakthroughs. The improvement of cross-chain interoperability will break down the barriers to asset circulation, enabling more widespread value interconnection. Meanwhile, the deep integration of AI technology and blockchain will bring users a more intelligent service experience. Furthermore, as the demand for complex financial products grows, the security of smart contracts will also be continuously optimized and strengthened.
V. Conclusion: Redefining Digital Asset Trading
In this grand financial revolution, on-chain aggregation trading platforms are redefining the fundamental paradigm of digital asset trading. From the transformation paths of major CEX platforms and the practices of the one-stop on-chain platform Ave.ai, we see the emergence of a new form of trading: it retains the essential characteristics of decentralization, while achieving significant breakthroughs in efficiency and user experience.
Standing at the 2025 time point, we have reason to believe that with the continuous progress of technology and the growing maturity of the market, decentralized trading will eventually break through the existing barriers and play an increasingly important role in the new era of the digital economy. In this transformation, those platforms that can accurately grasp the pulse of technology and deeply understand market demands will undoubtedly have the upper hand in future competition. And for the entire cryptocurrency market, this may be the beginning of a new era.
