Every web3 project has grand aspirations. What’s the point of entering the industry, after all, if you’re not intent on radically reforming it? Overcoming inefficiencies; solving long-standing problems; unlocking new use cases. You know the script. With its promise of delivering a superior omnichain trading experience through the provision of boundless liquidity, therefore, Orderly Network could be dismissed as just another project with grand hopes and dreams.
But there are signs that Orderly is not only beginning to make good on this promise, but that its technology has the potential to dramatically enhance the multichain landscape. Talk is cheap of course: it’s actions that count. So let’s take a closer look at Orderly’s intention of unifying cross-chain liquidity and determine how close it is to realizing this grand goal.
Meet the AWS of Web3
It’s not unusual for blockchain projects to draw analogies to established web2 giants, and Orderly Network’s ambition to become the “Amazon Web Services (AWS) of web3” exemplifies this trend. While such comparisons are commonplace, they also set a high bar for expectations, demanding robust, versatile, and scalable solutions. In this review, we’ll dissect Orderly Network’s offerings, evaluate its strengths, and consider whether it can live up to its lofty aspirations.
At its foundation, Orderly Network is a decentralized trading infrastructure built to serve other protocols rather than end-users directly. It supports decentralized exchanges (DEXs) with a powerful orderbook-based system, providing liquidity for spot and perpetual futures markets. The platform’s architecture, initially built on the NEAR blockchain, is designed for cross-chain compatibility, allowing protocols across various ecosystems to tap into its liquidity layer.
Orderly positions itself as the backend for decentralized platforms, akin to how AWS powers numerous web applications. By offering gasless transactions, customizable fees, and deep liquidity supported by professional market makers, Orderly enables partner platforms to focus on their front-end and community-building efforts.
This modularity aligns well with the composability ethos of DeFi, allowing developers to integrate Orderly’s services seamlessly into their ecosystems. However, the true measure of Orderly’s impact lies in its unique value propositions.
It’s All About Liquidity
Orderly’s most significant differentiator is its specialized liquidity service for perpetual futures (perps) trading, a rapidly growing sector within DeFi. Setting up a perps DEX requires substantial liquidity to support leveraged trading, a challenge Orderly addresses with its shared orderbook model. This feature allows protocols to access deep, pre-aggregated liquidity from multiple sources without needing to bootstrap their own pools.
For projects aiming to build perps DEXs, this is a game-changer. They can focus on front-end development and user engagement while relying on Orderly’s backend to ensure smooth and liquid trading experiences. Orderly’s recent foray into the Solana meme perp market highlights its ability to navigate the dynamics driving the network’s high trading volumes.
By promptly adding support for trending memecoins like MOODENG, CHILLGUY, SPX, and PNUT, the platform has enabled traders to place leveraged, bi-directional bets on tokens that began as niche projects on Pump.Fun before gaining significant traction. Its mainnet launch on Solana represents a milestone in DeFi innovation, merging EVM and non-EVM orders into a unified perps orderbook – a first for the industry.
CEX-Level Performance Onchain
Orderly is laser-focused on delivering centralized exchange-like performance in a decentralized environment. With sub-200ms latency for high-frequency trading, it matches and routes orders at speeds that rival leading CEXs. This capability is critical for attracting sophisticated traders and institutional participants, who demand speed and efficiency in their trading operations.
Orderly envisions a future where cross-chain trading is seamless, allowing users to trade assets across different blockchains within the same orderbook. For instance, a user could place an order to buy USDC on Solana, which could then be filled with liquidity sourced from Arbitrum. This eliminates the need for cumbersome bridging processes, simplifying the user experience and unlocking new opportunities for developers to build interoperable DeFi applications.
One Layer, Many Applications
Orderly’s flexibility is evident in the variety of use cases it supports:
Brokers and Aggregators: DEXs and aggregators can leverage Orderly’s shared liquidity and order books to provide competitive trading experiences without the complexity of securing liquidity independently.
Wallets and Custodians: Wallet providers can integrate Orderly to offer users superior swap rates and access to its liquidity ecosystem.
Trading Desks and Bots: High-frequency trading desks and algorithmic traders benefit from Orderly’s low-latency order matching and deep liquidity.
Gaming and Dapps: Developers can use Orderly’s infrastructure to enhance in-app experiences, such as enabling token swaps or integrating decentralized trading features.
While Orderly’s infrastructure and services are impressive, it’s not alone in providing decentralized trading infrastructure. However, it has early – if not first – mover advantage, and its beachhead strategy – cornering the EVM landscape before expanding to Solana – appears to be working.
Early Signs of Success
While Orderly can create the tools for omnichain liquidity to flow freely, it’s dependent upon third-party dapps and protocols integrating its technology for this to become manifest. So far, the partnerships and integrations have been building steadily – over 30 to date – laying a solid foundation for the next phase of its roadmap.
Orderly’s track record to date is impressive:
- Over $90 billion in cumulative trading volume and 400,000+ onchain users.
- Integration with 17+ DEXs and deployment across six major chains, including Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism.
- A $20 million seed round backed by prominent investors like Pantera Capital and Sequoia China.
- Key partnerships with LayerZero and Celestia, contributing 28% and 35% of their respective messaging and volume.
If the promise of an onchain spot and futures trading environment that’s fueled with deep liquidity becomes a working reality, it will be thanks in no small part to Orderly’s efforts. In 2024, its achievements included extending its services to major EVM-compatible chains including Ethereum Mainnet, Base, Mantle, Avalanche, and Polygon and securing over $5 million in a new investment round led by OKX Ventures.
It also successfully launched the $ORDER token, enabling staking and trading rewards, to drive greater community participation and align incentives between stakeholders. Other improvements made during the year included implementing a seamless process for listing perpetual contracts and launching Quantum Pools, its first user-facing product, offering enhanced liquidity options for traders.
Where Next for Orderly?
Orderly Network has made significant strides in establishing itself as a foundational layer for decentralized trading. Its shared liquidity model, emphasis on CEX-level performance, and omnichain ambitions position it as a compelling solution for protocols aiming to scale efficiently.
Orderly’s long-term success will depend on its ability to execute its multi-chain vision, differentiate itself from competitors, and support its partner platforms in delivering exceptional user experiences. While it may not yet rival the breadth and dominance of AWS as a web3 analog, Orderly is a critical player in the evolution of onchain infrastructure, driving the composability and scalability that DeFi needs to level up.
