DEX Season
š Introduction: What is a DEX? ā Source
A DEX (decentralized exchange) is a peer-to-peer marketplace where users can trade cryptocurrencies in a non-custodial manner without needing an intermediary to facilitate the transfer and custody of funds. DEXs substitute intermediariesātraditionally, banks, brokers, payment processors, or other institutionsāwith blockchain-based smart contracts that facilitate the exchange of assets.
Compared to traditional financial transactions, which are opaque and run through intermediaries who offer minimal insight into their actions, DEXs offer complete transparency into the movement of funds and the mechanisms facilitating exchange. In addition, as user funds donāt pass through a third partyās cryptocurrency wallet during trading, DEXs reduce counterparty risk and can decrease systemic centralization risks in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
DEXs are a cornerstone of decentralized finance (Defi) and serve as a key āmoney LEGOā upon which more sophisticated financial products can be built due to permissionless composability.
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š Methodology
The Flipsidecrypto platform has been used to obtain the required data. Schema Ethereum.core
, Solana.core
, BSC.core
, and Polygon.core
contain data related to Ethereum, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon. First, using Table dim_labels
, we extract the addresses associated with the DEXs.For example, Ethereum addresses are obtained as follows:
SELECT
'Ethereum' as chain,
address,
label as DEX_Name
from ethereum.core.dim_labels
where LABEL_TYPE ilike 'dex'
Then, using table fact_transactions
, we get the transactions and users who have transacted on the dexes; for example, the query related to the transaction and the wallet address of the users who have transacted on the DEXs(on the Ethereum chain) is as follows:
SELECT
'Ethereum' as chain,
BLOCK_TIMESTAMP,
TX_HASH,
FROM_ADDRESS as User_address
from ethereum.core.fact_transactions
where STATUS = 'SUCCESS'
and BLOCK_TIMESTAMP::date >= '2022-10-01'
and to_address in (select address from Dex_addresses where chain = 'Ethereum')
To get the tokensā price, we extract the prices from Table fact_hourly_token_prices
in the Ethereum and Table fact_swaps
in the Solana.
In the following, we will analyze and review the results.
š”Analysis
> In this section, using the tables and queries mentioned in the methodology section and the data in tables fact_swaps
and ez_dex_swaps
, we will review the number of transactions, users, and swap volume on different blockchains. The most important question that will be answered: Are users migrating to decentralized exchanges?
ā Observation & Insights:
The graph on the left displays the number of transactions related to DEXs in different chains. As you can see, the difference between before and after the FTX collapse is significant, and the number of transactions has decreased dramatically. But average number of users had mostly stayed the same, and only on the day of FTX collapse news was announced, November 8, we see a peak in the chart. After that, it cannot be said that this incident caused an increase in the number of users.
ā Observation & Insights:
The black line in the charts above shows the 7-day moving average.
- In the left chart, we can see that the most significant negative impact was on the Solana chain due to FTX's investment in this chain.
- The average daily DEX transactions on DEXs decreased from 5.93M on November 7 to 263K on November 18.
- The number of users has not changed significantly; only November 8, 9, and 10 show a peak in the number of users on all chains (Ethereum, Solana, BSC, and Polygon).
The graph on the right shows the number of transactions per user on different chains.
- The average number of transactions on Solana has decreased drastically, but this amount has been increasing and growing for Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon.
ā Observation & Insights:
Until November 8, the largest share of transactions on Dex was related to the Solana chain. Since the FTX Collapse and decreasing in the number of transactions on Solana, the share of other chains, including Ethereum and Polygon, has significantly increased. On the other hand, the share of Ethereum, Polygon, and BSC chains has gradually increased. Of course, this increase was low, and Solana could maintain its users to some extent.
ā Observation & Insights:
The graphs above show the number of new users of DEXs of different chains.
- Since October 16, an increasing trend in the number of new users can be seen.
- This increasing trend continued until November 8 for all 4 chains, and after November 8, a decreasing trend occurred for Solana, but for the rest of the chains, this increasing trend continued until November 16.
- The number of new users on the Ethereum chain is constantly increasing.
- On November 30, the highest number of new users for Ethereum was 10.34K.
- The graph on the right also shows the number of new users on chains except for Solana, where we see an increasing trend in the number of new users. So on November 17, the 7-day moving average reached 9438 users.
ā Observation & Insights:
According to the charts on the left, the number of swaps and the swappers on the Ethereum experienced a sharp increase from November 8th to November 10th. But this increase has not continued and has generally entered a downward trend. Of course, in general, the number of swappers is higher than before the FTX collapse.
ā Observation & Insights:
In Ethereum, Uniswap is the largest decentralized exchange that owns the most significant number of swaps. From November 8th to 10th, the most remarkable impact occurred on this DEX, although in terms of the number of users, the most significant increase occurred on Balancer. The decentralized exchange Sushiswap has also seen a rise in the number of swappers from November 8th to November 10th.
ā Observation & Insights:
According to the graphs on the left, the most significant volume of swaps occurred on November 9th, one day after the FTX collapse. If we compare the amount of swaps on this day to a few days before that, November 5th, the volume of swaps in Uniswap-v3 has increased by 8.4, in Balancer by 6.2, and in Sushiswap by 4.75 times. The average volume of transactions in various exchanges, especially in Balancer and Uniswap, has grown significantly, and the positive impact of the FTX collapse is visible.
ā Observation & Insights:
- The volume of swaps on Ethereum DEXs has grown dramatically since November 8, and this increasing trend continued until November 10, reaching $5.2 billion.
- In general, the volume of swaps on Ethereum DEXs has significantly increased after November 8, and with the news of the bankruptcy of a centralized exchange, the numbers show that more volumes have swapped on these platforms.
- In the graph on the right, you can see the average volume of swaps on Ethereum DEXs.
- The average swap volume has grown significantly since November 8th, and even after November 10th, compared to the previous month, October, the average swap volume on DEXs was higher.
ā Observation & Insights:
The chart on the right shows the daily distribution of swap volume on Ethereum decentralized exchanges. Since November 7, P10, P25...P90, the average volume of swaps has increased, and their maximum value happened on November 9. In general, swap volume distribution increased after the collapse of FTX. However, after a few days, it returned to the same values as before and did not maintain that increase continuously.
ā Observation & Insights:
The time frame examined in the next six charts is one week before and after November 8.
The graphs on the left show users distribution based on different Tiers before and after the FTX collapse.
The most significant number of users before the collapse of FTX, with 1519 users, is related to tier 3 (swap volume between 1K and 10K). After the FTX collapse, this tier has the largest share with 3613 users. The increase in the number of users is apparent. In other tiers, before and after November 8, we see an increase in the number of users. The only difference is that tire 1 was in the fourth position before the collapse of FTX, and this tire is in the fifth position after November 8. The share of swaps with more than $1M also increased from 1.43% to 2.21%.
ā Observation & Insights:
In the graphs on the left, you can see the number of swaps and swappers.
As stated in the first part, after the collapse of FTX, in general, the number of transactions on Solanaās DEXs decreased, but on the other hand, the number of swaps increased.
The number of users has not changed much and only a peak can be seen in the chart on the 8th to 10th of November.
ā Observation & Insights:
The volume of swaps on Solana also witnessed a big peak from November 8th to 10th, the highest amount of which is $308.8M. After this peak, the swap volume has returned to its previous state and in some cases it has even decreased.
The average volume of swaps also faced a 50% decrease except for the dates of November 8th to 10th.
ā Observation & Insights:
Jupiter has the highest increase in the number of swap transactions, and since October 22, the upward trend in the number of swaps on this DEX began, and the end of this upward trend is on November 23, so after that, the number of swaps on all DEXs is decreasing.
The number of swappers has seen a peak on all DEXs only between November 8th and 10th, and after that the number of active users on all DEXs has returned to the previous state.
ā Observation & Insights:
The volume of swaps on DEXs, especially Jupiter and Raydium, increased greatly between November 8th and 10th, but decreased immediately after that. The average volume of swaps on the Saber platform is very significant, and as it is clear from the graph, in the period from November 4 to November 13, this value was very high and reached $59.8K in its highest state.
ā Observation & Insights:
The time frame examined in the next four charts is one week before and after November 8.
The graphs on the right show user distribution based on different Tiers before and after the FTX collapse.
The most significant number of users before the collapse of FTX, with 36.6K, is related to tier 1 (swap volume less than $100). After the FTX collapse, this tier has the largest share with 55.65K users. The increase in the number of users is apparent. In other tiers, before and after November 8, we see an increase in the number of users.
The only difference is that before the FTX collapse, the share of tire 1 in the studied period was 65.7%, while after the collapse, its share decreased to 58.2% and other tires increased.
š Summary & Conclusion
The collapse of the FTX exchange had a lot of adverse effects on the world of cryptocurrencies, especially on users' use of centralized exchanges. After this incident, many users realized the importance of keeping their assets in private wallets instead of centralized exchanges. So, the amount of output from centralized exchanges increased, and they chose other platforms, such as DEXs, to carry out their activities. Although the number of users on dex has not grown much, the number of transactions and volume have grown. In other words, it can be said that before the collapse, the users of cryptocurrencies used more centralized exchanges to perform swaps; after the collapse of FTX, they increased their activity on DEXs, and the number of swaps and volume on DEXs has grown tremendously. The most significant negative impact of the FTX collapse was on the Solana chain, and the DEXs on this chain were no exception to this disaster. We have seen a decrease in the token value of these platforms after November 10. DEXs on the Ethereum chain performed well after this drop, and the high volume and growth in the number of swap transactions show this.
š Description of the Work
Last month, after the events that happened to the FTX exchange, many users in the crypto market lost a lot. On the other hand, the bankruptcy of FTX caused users to lose trust in centralized exchanges and think of using different platforms, including DEXs, as much as possible. You can read my previous dashboards to read more about the events related to the FTX bankruptcy: What's Going on with FTX?, Ailing Alameda
Over the past several years, the use of decentralized exchanges has gradually increased with the development of various blockchains and their primary basis, which is decentralization. Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and Polygon can be mentioned among the most important blockchains. In this dashboard, we examine all the DEXs developed on the mentioned blockchains, and our goal is to answer whether users have migrated to using DEXs with recent events. Therefore, we review the following in this analysis:
- Daily number of transactions on different DEXs, before and after FTX bankruptcy
- Daily number of swaps on DEXs
- Daily volume of swaps on DEXs
- Swap volume distribution during the last two months and the impact of FTX bankruptcy on it
- The most used tokens for swaps in dex
About the above topics, we first examine the data for four blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon. Then we analyze the Ethereum and Solana blockchains more deeply.
Investigating the token price changes of centralized and decentralized exchanges is also a good measure for these platforms to deal with recent events. So, at the end of this dashboard, we analyze some examples of tokens related to centralized and decentralized exchanges.
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ā Observation & Insights:
Ethereum DEXs:
In the charts on the left, the prices of UNI, BAL, SUSHI, and CRV are compared with BTC. The UNI token is related to the Uniswap, the SUSHI token is associated with the Sushiswap, the BAL token is related to the Balancer, and the CRV token is related to the Curve DEX. The price of BTC and other tokens started to fall after November 5th, and the rumors about the collapse of FTX took effect earlier. Although DEX tokens have fallen more than Bitcoin, they recovered faster and grew more after November 10th. This growth is primarily due to users' acceptance of these DEXs.
Solana DEXs:
In the charts on the left, the prices of ORCA, RAY, and SBR are compared with BTC. The ORCA is related to the Orca platform, the RAY is associated with the Raydium, and the SBR is related to the Saber DEXs.
DEX tokens' prices operating on the Solana chain have not made a good recovery after the fall from November 5th to 10th, and even in some cases, they have fallen more or fluctuated within a range. The Solana chain suffered the most negative impact from this collapse due to the investments made by the Alameda Institute and the FTX exchange.
ā Observation & Insights:
In the charts above, tokens price changes show in the two periods: before (November 1th- November 7th) and after (November 10th) the collapse of FTX. Before the collapse, the SUSHI had the best performance and was the top performer with 11.24% growth, while BTC only grew by 1.28%. The worst performance is related to the SBR, with a 12% drop. So far, the tokens that have been active on the Ethereum chain have had the best performance before the collapse. After the collapse, i.e., after November 10th, we have shown the price changes compared to November 10th in the graph on the right. In the end, BAL is in first place with a growth of 19.53%, while BTC has grown by only 0.06%. The most significant drop is related to RAY, which had a -20.88% decrease compared to its price on November 10th.
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