deCEX Leader Orion Unites CEX And DEX Liquidity Into A Single Platform

The crypto market has been heating up, giving trading volumes a major boost. As traders look to spend more gazing at charts in the months ahead, it’s an opportune time to consider which exchanges can best meet their needs. It’s been two years since the crypto market was last in bullish mode, and a lot has changed in the exchange landscape since then.

Up until a couple of years ago, centralized and decentralized exchanges operated in parallel. Today, the distinction is less clear. While many of the same assets can be traded on each type of exchange, CEX and DEX liquidity is accessed in very different ways. The former requires a user account and KYC verification, while anyone with a web wallet can trade on a DEX. Then we have Orion, an exchange aggregator that straddles both worlds, CEX and DEX. It’s part of a new breed of hybrid exchanges that draw their liquidity from multiple sources.

Orion has crafted the term deCEX to describe the mixture of centralized and decentralized liquidity sources it aggregates into its all-in-one trading platform. The appeal of such a system is clear: users can complete all of their trading in one place without needing to sign in to multiple platforms and complete verification with different exchanges. But how does Orion work in practice when it comes to pricing and user experience? Does it offer enough to coax traders away from the DEXes and CEXes they’ve grown accustomed to?

Origins

Founded in 2016 with the goal of solving crypto’s fragmented liquidity problem, Orion has evolved steadily into the deCEX powerhouse it is today. Founders Alexey Koloskov and Kal Ali knew the industry’s pain points only too well, with the former having worked as the chief architect of Waves DEX. In 2021, Orion released its eponymous Terminal and began to onboard users in serious numbers.

Fast forward a couple years and Orion’s trading platform has been updated with a new interface, brand identity, and an ambitious roadmap that includes global expansion into every major region. Additionally, the team dropped the “protocol” designation from its branding and has since explained that a potential new brand will emerge from it.

The Best of Both Worlds

Hit the Swap button on Orion’s homepage and you’ll be taken straight to its trading portal where you can connect your web wallet and instantly start trading. No verification is required since these swaps are conducted using existing onchain infrastructure, with orders routed to Orion by smart contract. Supported networks comprise Ethereum, BNB Chain, Fantom, OKT Chain, and Polygon.

One of the neat things about Orion’s trading terminal is that it includes features synonymous with CEX trading within its DEX interface. For instance, from the icons in the left hand menu, selecting Trade will pull up a bar chart for the token pair selected together with a live order book. This makes it easy to gauge market depth and determine the price you will pay for an asset before executing the trade.

Orion’s integrated AMM allows swaps to be conducted using your web wallet’s existing token balances. There’s also an order book that can be accessed under Trade that supports more advanced order types. When using the Orion Terminal, funds are transferred using atomic swaps which also power Orion Bridge and support ultra-low network fees when placing trades.

Using the Orion Terminal allows you to retain custody of your assets via a DEX framework that supports order types and an interface typically associated with a CEX. When you’ve finished trading, funds can be withdrawn to your web wallet again. The dashboard is characterized by a clean interface that displays the value of assets held in your web wallet. There’s also a History tab that contains a record of all trades completed.

How Orion Works

Aside from the convenience of being able to conduct all of your trading within a single platform, the most compelling reason for using Orion is its ability to provide better pricing while returning value back to its users. This is its greatest value proposition, and one that can be easily proven in a simple A-B test against a DEX such as Uniswap. Orion is proud of its “price intelligence” which describes the ability to determine in real-time which exchange provides the best price for swapping between assets.

Calculating which CEX can provide the best pricing typically requires creating an account with each platform in turn and completing verification to access their order book. With Orion, there’s no requirement to create an account to view this data and to execute trades, even when the liquidity is being pulled from centralized exchanges. As a result, users can have their cake and eat it, so to speak, retaining the advantages of non-custodial trading with the deeper liquidity that CEXes can provide.

Orion draws liquidity from multiple DEXes and CEXes, aggregating it to provide better pricing. This is coupled with low fees that are more competitive than those levied by standalone DEXes such as Uniswap.

The Case for Taking the deCEX Route

While there are plenty of DEX aggregators on the market, Orion’s solution that supports CEXes and DEXes within a single terminal with no account creation required is unique. For this reason, Orion dominates the nascent deCEX landscape, and its trading volumes may soon start eclipsing those of the most popular DEX aggregators”.

The ability to execute advanced order types such as stop loss and limit orders when trading onchain assets is another plus. It elevates non-custodial trading by providing a user experience that is on a par with that of a centralized exchange.

The number of centralized, decentralized, and hybrid exchanges on the market, including DEX aggregators that operate on numerous chains, has fragmented the trading landscape. As a result, traders are compelled to jump between platforms and networks in search of the best prices and access to the assets they wish to acquire. Orion solves this by smart order routing and clever use of atomic swaps. It’s a framework that represents the future of crypto trading, giving users greater freedom and flexibility coupled with lower fees.