Those of us who have been here since the DeFi summer have seen how fast the AMM/DEX space has evolved. From a basic AMM like Uniswap v1 to concentrated AMMs to the rise of solver protocols like Uniswap X and 1inch Fusion. We have seen everything. This is my attempt at connecting the dots between disparate initiatives in the AMM world and presenting a coherent narrative of where we are going. Most people have started calling it DEX/ACC, so I am gonna go with this.

The result is a stack-like structure in the DEX/AMM world. TLDR for those who don’t want to read the entire article.

1. User-facing Aggregator Apps – Front-end applications that connect to multiple liquidity sources to tap into the entire AMM/DEX liquidity ecosystem through a single interface. Uniswap, 1inch, Li.Fi come here.

2. Solvers/Fillers – Independent entities (often called “solvers” or “fillers”) that find optimal ways to fill orders across multiple venues.

3. Order Filling Protocols – Mechanisms like 1inch Fusion, CoW Swap, and Uniswap X, aggregate orders and route them to the best-performing AMMs.

4. Specialized AMMs or LP Tooling – Protocols tap into the tools provided by the below two categories to build customizable AMMs or LP tooling. LPs can deploy capital into novel “hooked” or customized liquidity pools on these protocols. Protocols like A51, Arrakis, and Bunni are building on the liquidity side. AMMs like KIM use Algebra’s tools to offer a general AMM.

5. Liquidity layers – Protocols such as Uniswap v4, Balancer v4, and PancakeSwap for fundamental swap and LP logic, offering customizable hooks to tap into the liquidity layer.

6. AMM Building Blocks - AMM building blocks such as Valantis and Algebra Integral provide the devs with fundamental components to build AMMs.

Below is a detailed look at how each part of this stack contributes to the emerging AMM ecosystem. We will go from bottom to top starting with the most fundamental blocks of the stack.

At the base layer of the DEX/ACC stack lie the AMM building blocks: low-level libraries and frameworks that enable the creation of specialized trading pools. Examples include Valantis and Algebra Integral, both of which provide developers with the fundamental components needed to build custom AMM logic.

• Valantis focuses on giving developers highly modular and “plug-and-play” components to rapidly spin up new AMM strategies. It goes beyond the simple constant-product logic, offering templates for volume-based or risk-adjusted formulas.

• Algebra Integral introduces a more mathematical approach to liquidity management, with parametric formulas that can be fine-tuned for exotic pairs, dynamic fee structures, and more complex liquidity curve designs.

The significance of these building blocks is twofold. First, they abstract away much of the complexity of writing AMMs from scratch, allowing new teams to focus on innovation rather than boilerplate. Second, by providing standardized interfaces and code structures, they open the door to composability—where different AMM designs can interoperate without extensive custom integrations. Ultimately, these AMM building blocks form the foundation that higher-level protocols (and their respective features) can stand upon.

Above the AMM building blocks, we have liquidity layers—the core protocols that maintain decentralized exchanges and pools. These include next-generation offerings such as Uniswap v4, Balancer v4, and PancakeSwap’s evolving architecture. Each of these protocols leverages some form of “hooked” or upgradable architecture, enabling developers to incorporate custom logic while tapping into deeply entrenched liquidity. Uniswap v4 has popularized the concept of “hooks,” which allow for advanced functionality like on-chain limit orders, dynamic fees, real-time oracle integrations, and more. This shift transforms these from a static AMM protocol into an extensible engine on which almost any DeFi product can be built.

These liquidity layers serve as the bedrock for real-time trading. They centralize (in a decentralized sense) large amounts of capital, ensuring that trades execute efficiently. By adopting open, extensible architectures, they make it easier for both new and established protocols to innovate on top of them.

Further up the stack are the liquidity provioning protocols. This is an emerging category made possible by the likes of Uniswap v4 and Valantis. Protocols in this category leverage new functionalities—like Uniswap v4 hooks, specialized pools built on Algebra Integral, Balancer-managed pools, and Valantis-made HOT (highly optimized trading) AMMs—to deploy capital more strategically.

• Concentrated liquidity: By placing liquidity in tight price ranges, LPs can earn higher fees if the asset trades within that range, though this also increases impermanent loss risk. Uniswap v4 hooks open up even finer control, letting LPs dynamically adjust their liquidity positions.

• Custom AMMs: With Valantis and Algebra Integral frameworks, LPs can tailor liquidity curves to match asset volatility, anticipated trading volume, or market-making strategies.

• Risk layering: Some providers mix and match stable, volatile, or yield-bearing tokens in a single pool, employing automated rebalancing or advanced hedging strategies via Balancer or other yield aggregators.

Liquidity provisioning is where the rubber meets the road for AMMs. The incentives must be attractive enough to draw in capital, and the mechanics must be robust enough to minimize impermanent loss or yield compression. As more sophisticated strategies come online, LP provisioning is quickly evolving into a dynamic, real-time form of on-chain market-making—one that any DeFi participant with the right tools and strategies can tap into.

Protocols like A51, Bunni, and Arrakis are taking charge here. They run their own filler services to direct order flow. They can be categorized as AMMs but they are more focused on serving the liquidity providers with fillers bidding for orders from aggregators. More on that later. KIM uses Algebra Integral to offer a more general AMM.

On top of the liquidity layers, we find order-filling protocols—mechanisms that aggregate user orders and route them intelligently to whichever AMM or DEX protocol can deliver the best outcome. Notable examples include 1inch Fusion, CoW Swap, and Uniswap X.

• 1inch Fusion combines 1inch’s proven aggregation logic with an off-chain auction-like mechanism for filling trades. By inviting “resolvers” to compete in offering the best prices, it drives trade execution costs down.

• CoW Swap uses a batch auction model combined with “CoWs” (coincidences of wants) to settle trades in a gas-efficient manner, often netting zero slippage for matching orders.

• Uniswap X leans on the open liquidity layers of Uniswap v4 but allows for advanced routing rules, including cross-chain settlement and partial off-chain order execution when it’s more capital-efficient. Uniswap X is permissionless and anyone can fill orders.

These protocols focus on the user experience of placing orders and receiving the best fill. They abstract away the complexities of which AMM or aggregator is used, presenting end users with a simple interface to get the best quote. They also foster competition among liquidity sources, pushing capital efficiency higher and encouraging deeper liquidity in underlying AMMs.

Working in tandem with the order flow protocols, solvers (or fillers) are independent entities that specialize in finding optimal ways to fill orders across multiple venues. They are the “market makers” or “smart matchers” of the DEX/ACC world, acting behind the scenes to stitch together liquidity from various pools.

Protocols that are offering liquidity provisioning tools will have to have a solver component to them so they can direct order flow toward their pools.

Because solvers operate independently, the ecosystem remains decentralized and competitive. Their presence helps ensure that no single liquidity provider or aggregator can dominate the market; instead, everyone from large-scale LPs to small-time arbitrageurs plays a role in maintaining the system’s overall efficiency.

And finally user-facing apps cap off the stack. They are the user-facing aggregator apps—the intuitive front ends that retail and institutional traders alike use to interact with all the layers below. These apps connect to multiple liquidity sources and typically leverage one or more order-filling protocols under the hood.

• Portfolio management: Many aggregator apps now include tracking tools, portfolio rebalancing features, and integrated staking/farming dashboards.

• Cross-chain simplicity: As more DEXs and AMMs expand to multiple chains, aggregator apps are looking to unify the user experience across all chains.

These apps often serve as the gateway for newcomers to DeFi, abstracting away complexities like bridging networks, setting gas fees, or managing multiple tokens. By offering clear analytics and a friendly UI, aggregator apps make it feasible for the average person to tap into the diverse and rapidly evolving AMM/DEX liquidity ecosystem. Uniswap interface, 1inch interface, and even apps like MetaMask or Gnosis SAFE tap into this stack through their front-facing apps.

DEX (or AMM) space is evolving rapidly, Many are anticipating the launch of Uniswap v4 to enable entirely new use cases. Who knows, perhaps a year from now, we will be talking about AI agents as a core node of this stack.

Those of us who have been here since the DeFi summer have seen how fast the AMM/DEX space has evolved. From a basic AMM like Uniswap v1 to concentrated AMMs to the rise of solver protocols like Uniswap X and 1inch Fusion. We have seen everything. This is my attempt at connecting the dots between disparate initiatives in the AMM world and presenting a coherent narrative of where we are going. Most people have started calling it DEX/ACC, so I am gonna go with this.

The result is a stack-like structure in the DEX/AMM world. TLDR for those who don’t want to read the entire article.

1. User-facing Aggregator Apps – Front-end applications that connect to multiple liquidity sources to tap into the entire AMM/DEX liquidity ecosystem through a single interface. Uniswap, 1inch, Li.Fi come here.

2. Solvers/Fillers – Independent entities (often called “solvers” or “fillers”) that find optimal ways to fill orders across multiple venues.

3. Order Filling Protocols – Mechanisms like 1inch Fusion, CoW Swap, and Uniswap X, aggregate orders and route them to the best-performing AMMs.

4. Specialized AMMs or LP Tooling – Protocols tap into the tools provided by the below two categories to build customizable AMMs or LP tooling. LPs can deploy capital into novel “hooked” or customized liquidity pools on these protocols. Protocols like A51, Arrakis, and Bunni are building on the liquidity side. AMMs like KIM use Algebra’s tools to offer a general AMM.

5. Liquidity layers – Protocols such as Uniswap v4, Balancer v4, and PancakeSwap for fundamental swap and LP logic, offering customizable hooks to tap into the liquidity layer.

6. AMM Building Blocks - AMM building blocks such as Valantis and Algebra Integral provide the devs with fundamental components to build AMMs.

Below is a detailed look at how each part of this stack contributes to the emerging AMM ecosystem. We will go from bottom to top starting with the most fundamental blocks of the stack.

At the base layer of the DEX/ACC stack lie the AMM building blocks: low-level libraries and frameworks that enable the creation of specialized trading pools. Examples include Valantis and Algebra Integral, both of which provide developers with the fundamental components needed to build custom AMM logic.

• Valantis focuses on giving developers highly modular and “plug-and-play” components to rapidly spin up new AMM strategies. It goes beyond the simple constant-product logic, offering templates for volume-based or risk-adjusted formulas.

• Algebra Integral introduces a more mathematical approach to liquidity management, with parametric formulas that can be fine-tuned for exotic pairs, dynamic fee structures, and more complex liquidity curve designs.

The significance of these building blocks is twofold. First, they abstract away much of the complexity of writing AMMs from scratch, allowing new teams to focus on innovation rather than boilerplate. Second, by providing standardized interfaces and code structures, they open the door to composability—where different AMM designs can interoperate without extensive custom integrations. Ultimately, these AMM building blocks form the foundation that higher-level protocols (and their respective features) can stand upon.

Above the AMM building blocks, we have liquidity layers—the core protocols that maintain decentralized exchanges and pools. These include next-generation offerings such as Uniswap v4, Balancer v4, and PancakeSwap’s evolving architecture. Each of these protocols leverages some form of “hooked” or upgradable architecture, enabling developers to incorporate custom logic while tapping into deeply entrenched liquidity. Uniswap v4 has popularized the concept of “hooks,” which allow for advanced functionality like on-chain limit orders, dynamic fees, real-time oracle integrations, and more. This shift transforms these from a static AMM protocol into an extensible engine on which almost any DeFi product can be built.

These liquidity layers serve as the bedrock for real-time trading. They centralize (in a decentralized sense) large amounts of capital, ensuring that trades execute efficiently. By adopting open, extensible architectures, they make it easier for both new and established protocols to innovate on top of them.

Further up the stack are the liquidity provioning protocols. This is an emerging category made possible by the likes of Uniswap v4 and Valantis. Protocols in this category leverage new functionalities—like Uniswap v4 hooks, specialized pools built on Algebra Integral, Balancer-managed pools, and Valantis-made HOT (highly optimized trading) AMMs—to deploy capital more strategically.

• Concentrated liquidity: By placing liquidity in tight price ranges, LPs can earn higher fees if the asset trades within that range, though this also increases impermanent loss risk. Uniswap v4 hooks open up even finer control, letting LPs dynamically adjust their liquidity positions.

• Custom AMMs: With Valantis and Algebra Integral frameworks, LPs can tailor liquidity curves to match asset volatility, anticipated trading volume, or market-making strategies.

• Risk layering: Some providers mix and match stable, volatile, or yield-bearing tokens in a single pool, employing automated rebalancing or advanced hedging strategies via Balancer or other yield aggregators.

Liquidity provisioning is where the rubber meets the road for AMMs. The incentives must be attractive enough to draw in capital, and the mechanics must be robust enough to minimize impermanent loss or yield compression. As more sophisticated strategies come online, LP provisioning is quickly evolving into a dynamic, real-time form of on-chain market-making—one that any DeFi participant with the right tools and strategies can tap into.

Protocols like A51, Bunni, and Arrakis are taking charge here. They run their own filler services to direct order flow. They can be categorized as AMMs but they are more focused on serving the liquidity providers with fillers bidding for orders from aggregators. More on that later. KIM uses Algebra Integral to offer a more general AMM.

On top of the liquidity layers, we find order-filling protocols—mechanisms that aggregate user orders and route them intelligently to whichever AMM or DEX protocol can deliver the best outcome. Notable examples include 1inch Fusion, CoW Swap, and Uniswap X.

• 1inch Fusion combines 1inch’s proven aggregation logic with an off-chain auction-like mechanism for filling trades. By inviting “resolvers” to compete in offering the best prices, it drives trade execution costs down.

• CoW Swap uses a batch auction model combined with “CoWs” (coincidences of wants) to settle trades in a gas-efficient manner, often netting zero slippage for matching orders.

• Uniswap X leans on the open liquidity layers of Uniswap v4 but allows for advanced routing rules, including cross-chain settlement and partial off-chain order execution when it’s more capital-efficient. Uniswap X is permissionless and anyone can fill orders.

These protocols focus on the user experience of placing orders and receiving the best fill. They abstract away the complexities of which AMM or aggregator is used, presenting end users with a simple interface to get the best quote. They also foster competition among liquidity sources, pushing capital efficiency higher and encouraging deeper liquidity in underlying AMMs.

Working in tandem with the order flow protocols, solvers (or fillers) are independent entities that specialize in finding optimal ways to fill orders across multiple venues. They are the “market makers” or “smart matchers” of the DEX/ACC world, acting behind the scenes to stitch together liquidity from various pools.

Protocols that are offering liquidity provisioning tools will have to have a solver component to them so they can direct order flow toward their pools.

Because solvers operate independently, the ecosystem remains decentralized and competitive. Their presence helps ensure that no single liquidity provider or aggregator can dominate the market; instead, everyone from large-scale LPs to small-time arbitrageurs plays a role in maintaining the system’s overall efficiency.

And finally user-facing apps cap off the stack. They are the user-facing aggregator apps—the intuitive front ends that retail and institutional traders alike use to interact with all the layers below. These apps connect to multiple liquidity sources and typically leverage one or more order-filling protocols under the hood.

• Portfolio management: Many aggregator apps now include tracking tools, portfolio rebalancing features, and integrated staking/farming dashboards.

• Cross-chain simplicity: As more DEXs and AMMs expand to multiple chains, aggregator apps are looking to unify the user experience across all chains.

These apps often serve as the gateway for newcomers to DeFi, abstracting away complexities like bridging networks, setting gas fees, or managing multiple tokens. By offering clear analytics and a friendly UI, aggregator apps make it feasible for the average person to tap into the diverse and rapidly evolving AMM/DEX liquidity ecosystem. Uniswap interface, 1inch interface, and even apps like MetaMask or Gnosis SAFE tap into this stack through their front-facing apps.

DEX (or AMM) space is evolving rapidly, Many are anticipating the launch of Uniswap v4 to enable entirely new use cases. Who knows, perhaps a year from now, we will be talking about AI agents as a core node of this stack.