Picking Winners in the CLOB Wars Key takeaways from my latest Messari Report In part 1 of our deep-dive into CLOBs we covered a new generation of order book DEXs that have formed the basis of the "CLOB Wars". Here's part 2, where I give my view on who wins 🧵👇:

The easy answer is Hyperliquid. Since last fall, Hyperliquid's volumes have grown tremendously, and as a result, it has expanded the onchain pie for trading dramatically. Now, MMs, investors, and traders are realizing that the tipping point for onchain order books is here.

However, we doubt Hyperliquid can hold 80% market share forever. As new CLOB DEXs iterate, they will be able to carve out their own niches. The common enemies are still CEXs. Additionally, even though HL has won perps, it has barely made a dent in onchain spot volumes.

So who can actually coexist with hl? Hyperliquid won by taking opinionated, app specific tradeoffs to prioritize performance at all costs - and then supplementing that with progressive decentralization. Next-gen CLOBs will have to do the same.

While these are generalizations, we think that performant CLOBs have to: 1. Be in the ms range of lower bound latency 2. Allow for market maker colocation 3. Offer gasless trading 4. Sequence w/ strict FIFO or cancel prioritize

We've noticed four CLOB design frameworks that allow DEXs to meet this criteria. 1. Build an app-specific rollup 2. Build on a "real-time" L2 (MegaETH) 3. Move matching offchain 4. Build a colocated and opinionated L1

While this is not an exhaustive list, examples I highlight include: @Lighter_xyz @bulletxyz_ @hibachi_xyz @tradeparadex @extendedapp @rise_chain @GTE_XYZ @wcm_inc @valhalla_defi @FogoChain

Within these CLOBs, you can form your own categories. Some may opt for privacy over transparency. Some may opt for FIFO neutrality over protecting market makers. Some may opt for SVM over EVM. Some may opt for more composability. But there needs to be differentiation.

And of course - most of these alt-CLOBs probably lose over time to Hyperliquid. Once baseline performance thresholds are met, user acquisition and community outweigh marginal technical advantages (FE: Solana). But we still believe there's enough space for multiple winners.

In the full report, I lay out how some of these CLOBs differentiate on the product level, why you need opinionated tailor made environments, and what decentralization tradeoffs are being made. If you're an enterprise customer, check it out here: