0x, a decentralized exchange infrastructure company, announced the acquisition of rival flooding, a step that the company says will help it compete on the Hyper Competitive Aggregation market.
Decentralized exchanges – or DEXS – are a cornerstone of the defi -ecosystem. They let blockchain users switch between assets without the need for an intermediary or intermediary, such as a centralized exchange.
Aggregators like 0x’s ACT as a one-stop shop for dealers looking for all dexs out there to find the one that offers the most cost-effective trades for a smaller fee. Competition is fierce and often exists on razor-culprit margins.
It was Flood’s proprietary aggregation software that motivated the acquisition, Amir Bandeali, CEO of 0X, told Coindesk in an exclusive interview.
0x uses its own trade simulation technology to control how well its aggregation software works compared to its competitors, Bandeali said. “We were also able to look at flooding and running similar types of tests, and we were very impressed with the data we saw.”
“Everything was made from scratch,” Francesco Baccetti, co -founder and CEO of Flood, told Coindesk. “We rewrote the whole stack to get this level of performance that we now have.”
The acquisition is 0X’s first since the company’s founding in 2017. A spokesperson for 0x refused to share how much it paid for flood, referring to contractual obligations. Flooding raised $ 5.2 million from investors in a seed financing round in February 2024.
DEX AGMs are a big business. Over the past week, the Top 12 aggregators eased almost $ 10 billion worth the swap volume, approx. 10% of all on-chain trading, according to data prepared by Fredrik Haga, co-founder of Dune Analytics.
Aggregators with marketable tokens are valued at a total of $ 2.3 billion, according to data from CoingeCKO.
0x is one of the oldest DEX aggregators. But it’s not the biggest.
At Ethereum and other compatible blockchains, 1 inch and cow consistently handle the most trading volume among aggregators, while Jupiter on Solana dominates.
Bandeali said he hopes that 0x, by combining the two companies’ technologies, will be able to win market share from major aggregators at both Ethereum and Solana.
‘Nichedomen’
Another motivation for the acquisition was Flood’s team of developers.
“This is a beautiful Nicheomene,” Bandeali said, explaining that it is very difficult for his company to find talented developers who specialize in aggregation and trade routing.
Having the right developers is therefore crucial to the continued success of an aggregator.
“It sounds simple, but it’s really complicated,” he said. “It will be more complicated as new chains and new token’s launch.”
The reward for proving the best swaps is great. Ko Swap is ready to bring in almost $ 11 million in revenue this year, according to Defillama data. (It is unclear how much revenue 1 inch earns, while Jupiter’s projected $ 162 million in revenue comes from more than just its aggregation services).
0x is also expanded to other areas, such as the supply of APIs that integrate its aggregator into other products and trading analysis.
But improving its core aggregation product that drives swaps in apps such as Coinbase Wallet, Robinhood, Phantom and Farcaster is still the main focus.
And with defi that becomes more complicated during the day, the demand for aggregators will probably continue to rise.
“We’re just trying to abstract the complexity faster than it was created for our customers,” Bandeali said.
Read more: DEX Aggregator 1inch integrates ZKSYNC to increase transverse chain-swaps
