Onchain CLOB design trade-offs and the race to be the decentralized Nasdaq
Quote150 words
Lists nine design axes for onchain CLOBs, from privacy vs transparency and speedbumps to L1 finality vs L2 latency and retail vs institutional design, and names the main contenders led by Hyperliquid.
Key claims
Design trade-offs include maker vs taker priority, co-location vs geographic decentralization and fully onchain vs hybrid
Hyperliquid is the perp DEX dominator, with Solana, MegaETH, Sei, Lighter and Hibachi as contenders
Optimal onchain CLOB design is one of DeFi's most compelling innovation frontiers today, with various
- Privacy vs. transparency
- Trading speedbumps vs. unrestricted execution
- Finality guarantees (L1) vs. low-latency execution (L2)
- Geographic decentralization vs. co-location efficiency
- Prioritizing maker vs. taker liquidity
- Importance of robust price discovery mechanisms
- General-purpose vs. tailored, specialized markets
- Fully onchain vs. hybrid architectures
- Retail-oriented vs. institutional-optimized designs
The competition to become the decentralized Nasdaq is heating up.
Current main contenders imo:
- @HyperliquidX (a.k.a. the Everything Exchange and perp DEX dominator)
- @solana ecosystem (Drift and Jupiter way behind HL but firedancer + network extensions promise innovation)
- @megaeth (realtime execution L2 on Ethereum leveraging @eigen_da)
- @SeiNetwork (Giga Sei will make real-time execution a reality)
- @Lighter_xyz (ZK-powered app-specific rollup on Ethereum)
- @hibachi_xyz (Sovereign rollup on @celestia powered by @RiscZero ZK tech, built by @hashflow veterans)
QUOTING @zerokn0wledge_
The age of AMMs is coming to an end. Real-time execution layers like @megaeth with >100k TPS and <10ms block times or app-specific chains like @HyperliquidX (specifically HyperCore) that process 200k orders/second at 0.2s latency, are ushering in the era of CLOBs. DeFi will evo
The age of AMMs is coming to an end. Real-time execution layers like @megaeth with >100k TPS and <10ms block times or app-specific chains like @HyperliquidX (specifically HyperCore) that process 200k orders/second at 0.2s latency, are ushering in the era of CLOBs. DeFi will evo
What came next · since 08 Jun 2025
Since then
Zero has written 28 more pieces on Hyperliquid since this one.
- State of Hyperliquid: two years after the airdrop (A1 Research report)On Hyperliquid
- Hyperliquid's US regulatory path: HyperCore, HIP-3 deployers and buildersOn Hyperliquid
- Hyperliquid ecosystem briefing: 14 days of regulation, HIP-3/4, RWAs, revenueOn Hyperliquid
- Why profitable onchain businesses deserve attention: Hyperliquid and PumpOn Hyperliquid