If you've ever tried to navigate decentralized finance (DeFi), you’ve likely run into a mess of chains, protocols, liquidity pools, and endless transactions. Users deal with swapping, bridging, gas fees, failed transactions, fragmented liquidity, and all the other painful realities of using DeFi today. Developers? They spend hours integrating various blockchain protocols just to make their applications usable.
Enter GlueX—a protocol designed to abstract all of that away.
GlueX transforms DeFi from a fragmented, multi-chain mess into a seamless, omni-layer experience where users and developers no longer need to worry about the complexities of underlying blockchain infrastructure. This article breaks down what GlueX is, how it works, and why it’s reshaping DeFi.
GlueX Kernel: A Blockchain’s Built-In Execution Layer
A GlueX Kernel is the lowest layer of DeFi abstraction, embedding indexers, liquidity optimizers, and cross-chain interoperability directly into blockchains. By integrating at the protocol level, chains give developers ready-to-go infrastructure instead of forcing them to assemble it post-launch.
A blockchain that launches with a GlueX Kernel gets:
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Pre-built developer infrastructure (RPC nodes and indexers from GlueX and its infrastructure partners).
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Execution abstraction, so developers don’t need to reinvent routing, liquidity aggregation, or settlement logic.
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Automatic interoperability with other chains and DeFi protocols.
For developers, this means they don’t need to waste time figuring out how to integrate liquidity sources, routing optimization mechanisms, or execution strategies. GlueX handles all of it, so they can focus on building actual products.
GlueX Abstraction Layer: DeFi as One Unified System
Right now, every DeFi app has to index chains separately, manage liquidity across multiple sources, and build custom routing logic for cross-chain transactions. It’s inefficient and slows down innovation.
GlueX flips this model by providing an abstraction layer that makes all of DeFi work like a single, programmable environment.
How Does it Work?
GlueX provides a set of APIs and SDKs that make DeFi development as simple as working with a single system. These APIs include
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GlueX Exchange Rates API: Unified pricing across chains and liquidity sources.
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GlueX Portfolio API: Unified portfolio activity overviews across chains with balances at token symbol level instead of address level.
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GlueX Swidge API: Abstracts cross-chain staking, lending, swapping, borrowing and more.
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GlueX Sentinel Master: Ensures transaction security and settlement across chains.
Instead of writing protocol- or chain-specific integrations, developers just tap into GlueX to access liquidity, optimize routing, and execute trades as if all of DeFi were a single, cohesive system.
What Does a GlueX Powered dApp Look Like?
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Users don’t need to know which chain they’re using.
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Gas fees? Automatically handled.
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Bridging? Invisible to the user.
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Liquidity routing? Completely optimized in the background.
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Token balances across chains? Presented as a single total balance to be used by the user.
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Investing? Just yield and risk information presented to the user
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Stablecoins? Just one USD balance aggregated from stable holdings across chains.
With GlueX, dApps can provide the smoothest, most intuitive user experience possible, where the most complex transactions boil down to a one-click user interaction.
Why GlueX? Why Now?
A lot of teams are talking about abstraction layers, but GlueX is actually building it. Here’s why we’re different:
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We’ve already built the integrations that power DeFi today. We know the pain points because we’ve been solving them for years.
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We cover the full stack. From GlueX Kernels that integrate directly with blockchains to the APIs that unify DeFi, GlueX handles every layer of abstraction.
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We’re not just theorizing—we’re shipping real solutions that developers and protocols are using today. GlueX Protocol has settled ~$10 billion on behalf of users to-date.
DeFi has the potential to be the financial system of the future, but it won’t get there while it’s still this fragmented. GlueX is here to fix that.
What’s Next?
GlueX Kernels have been launched for more than 10 blockchains and our initial set of APIs and UI tools are live. The next step? Onboard more chains to GlueX, unlock cross-chain settlements and further deepen our APIs’ abstraction capabilities.
How to Engage?
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Don't miss the official release date of the first set of GlueX APIs and UI tooling on the 5th of March, 2025.
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If you’re a developer → you can start building with GlueX today.
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If you represent a blockchain → get in touch with us to commission your GlueX Kernel.
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If you are developing in DeFi and would like to onboard your protocol or liquidity into GlueX's Unified Execution Layer → get in touch with us to request onboarding.