Three years ago, just during the rise of Uniswap and the initial farming of Sushiswap, there was an idea to bring together the best DeFi offered into a single protocol. Offer CEX or DeFi traders a single gateway for all their trading needs with no fragmentation of liquidity or functionality and remain chain agnostic. We set out to build a protocol that onboard the next million traders without compromising on anything and then deliver 100x more. Today, we celebrate three years of doing just that. Thank you to everyone who has been with us. We're excited about what's coming next.

Let's look back at our story and think about what's ahead...

The Past 2020-2021

Three years ago, an idea was floated around to build an interface that lets you place market or limit orders against multiple DEXs and aggregators. People didn't talk or coin the word "meta-aggregator" back then. But soon, projects like CoWswap and DeFillama started their own. Our interface was simple to use and focused on these limit orders. The aggregator was connected to early versions of 1inch, 0x, Kyberswap, Paraswap, and Balancer.

The initial UI would definitely not pass for today’s standards, but it was the first of its kind. The 1st intent-based meta-aggregator. Some scalability issues derived from the protocol and its reliance on a shared orderbook that wasn’t solved till much later. However, the UniDex interface still provided you the best rates DeFi would offer thanks to its meta-aggregation strategy (and still does today!)

The Past Mid 2021 - Early 2023

Around this time, we integrated XVIX (now known as GMX), marking UniDex’s expansion into Perp aggregation as early as 2021. We built out a custom interface to allow users to route trades between Perp protocols. We wanted to build a new terminal, allowing users to take better advantage of our protocol and reveal a new chapter of aggregation.

In this period, we added support for XVIX (now called GMX). This was UniDex's 1st step into Perp aggregation back in 2021. Our goal was simple: create a unique tool that lets people trade between different Perp platforms.

With this tool, users could:

• Trade spot markets with our meta-aggregator

• Charting with dexscreener

• Live liquidity events and Trade events

• Make aggregated perp trades between Perpetual Protocol, Gambit/GMX, and Cap

Even though the design might seem old today, it did offer the deepest liquidity for onchain perp trading due to the number of liquidity sources.

It was also at this time we expanded our aggregation strategy from relying exclusively on outside protocols to utilizing our own protocols in the aggregation mix. On March 31, 2022, we launched our native Perp protocol on FTM, allowing traders to trade commodities, stocks, crypto assets, and Forex pairs in a single protocol, which no other protocol was doing then. It featured a single LP counterparty pool to take on all trader PnL and receive trading fees similar to GLP, but without a restricted number of pairs. We started offering free public goods services such as SakuraRPC, a free RPC meta-aggregator that doesn’t track or sell your data. Offered Subgraph hosting for projects and served as a watch tower for our partnered Perp DEXs for potential LP black swan events.

The Present

Today’s version of the UniDex protocol has expanded to be much more flexible, adaptive, and more integrated than ever before. We've revamped the Swap UI to cater to those who want fast and easy trades. At the same time, we've made a special interface just for Perp aggregation, and we're constantly refining it to this day.For swaps, we reverted to the intent-based architecture we started with in 2020 as the backbone for the tech was finally here. Dubbed SwapsV3, lets users trade without upfront gas fees. Instead, special keepers complete the trade, always looking for the best trading path during that time. They can use various routes, from different trading platforms to individual traders, and even group orders together in batched CoWs (coincidence of wants). While platforms like 1inch and Uniswap introduced similar features with 1inch Fusion & UniswapX down the line, UniDex stands out because we offer a wider range chains, liquidity sources, and flexiblity.

For Perps, we decided to modularize the protocol similar to what Optimism did to create the OP Stack. The Perp aggregation protocol was broken up into four different parts, each designed to function as its own stand-alone protocol.

• The Aggregation Protocol + Forge SDK

• The Keeper + Oracle Network

• The Native LPs + Contracts

• The Frontend UI + Whitelabel Solution

Any one of these can be swapped out to deliver a different experience to the trading protocol that any platform could make use of to deliver their platform tailored to their liking. The Forge SDK should be used to spin up your own Perp aggregation platform while offering its solutions on top.The Oracle & keeper network could be switched out with external protocols such as Pyth or your own OP Stack chain (Such as our Molten Chain!) to decentralize the protocol or sustainability further and increase trade throughput.The Whitelabel solution could be used in combination with our LPs to spin up your own custom collateral pool on top of our already built-out interface with your branding. Allowing protocols to expand their offering to Perp trading and give extra utility to their token.

We then introduced our rebranding with the Magma testnet & Molten Mainnet through a modified OP stack app chain. By merging our modular Perp DEX with Optimism’s open-source modular stack, we achieved a faster, more resilient Level 2 network tailored for traders.We noticed the centralization and “can-be-evil” scenario of modern-day keeper solutions becoming problematic. As more Perp DEXs launched, more protocols were not utilizing safe oracle practices and keeper strategies, which put LPs and Traders at risk of exploits. That’s when we made Molten, a network that circumvents possible oracle frontrunning and removes the necessity to run centralized keepers to process orders. UniDex would be the first protocol to take advantage of this, allowing direct contract calls to oracle contracts called on-chain rather than relying on off-chain keeper callbacks. The result? UniDex offers instant trade settlements, low costs, and the security of being backed by Ethereum.Our app chain is still in development and improving each day, but you can check out the Magma testnet right now and experience the difference in gas cost + settlement speeds compared to existing solutions.

The Future

We've transformed UniDex into a powerful, multichain trading platform. Our focus has always been on aggregation. Why? Because aggregators are essential in introducing users to a dynamic ecosystem where any protocol can emerge anonymously and grow immensely, just like GMX did. Today, we're excited to introduce two new features, already active and integrated, to the UniDex ecosystem.

UniDex PRMM Tranche Pools & Perp Hooks

We’re ready to unveil the next benchmark standard for counterparty pools already live and integrated into the UniDex Perp aggregator. Current counterparties for Perp DEXs lack flexibility, adaptability, and scalability. We’re introducing a new take on tranches called UniDex Proactive Routing Market Making Pools, or PRMM Pools. It's a fusion of intent-based architecture and our trade aggregation expertise.These pools address LPs concerns about their control and exposure to the automated market-making process existing LPs lack.

These new pools allow private liquidity to finally be tapped into or passive LPs to limit their risk while still automating the market-making strategy to the protocol. As more aggregation protocols are launched, these new pools are also backwards compatible, allowing for other perp aggregators to tap into them while also following ERC-4626 yield-bearing vault standard, allowing composability with outside protocols like Pendle, GMD, or Beefy.

Any hedger could create their own isolated tranche exposed to whatever assets they like, follow their own market-making strategy, and customize trade fee parameters to suit their own risk.

Or if you’re just a passive retail user, a protocol could create an automated strategy vault that is only exposed to the same assets as an outside aggregated protocol like GMXv1 and following their same 0 slippage higher fee model.Or let’s say you’re a protocol looking to create automated trade strategies such as delta-neutral, Concentrated liquidity exposure, or single-directional exposure strategy vaults. One could even make a stable coin comprised of multiple tranches backed by the derivative market of just ETH/USD.These are all possible and ready to be integrated today. If you’re a hedger or market maker looking to create your PRMM pool, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at partnerships@unidex.exchange, or join our social channels all linked below.You can read more about our new intent-based perp hooks & tranches below 👇

New Forge SDK integrations: Quill & More

One of the first protocols to take advantage of our Forge SDK which allows any protocol to create their own Perp aggregator is Quill Markets. Their goal? To lead in Perp aggregation on Scroll and introduce automated strategies for PRMM pools. This includes vault strategies that capitalize on price differences between Scroll spot DEXs and Oracle feeds, delta neutral strategy vaults, and auto-compounding vaults designed for UniDex pools.

Other new additions to the Forge ecosystem include a new Perp protocol on Gnosis aiming to foster the growth of sDAI and xDAI called Parallax Trade. Delivering a custom counterparty LP unlike the ones we have offered in the past. Parallax’s team members have created an LP that represents a basket of stables and yield-bearing stables like GLP. Which traders can utilize the comprised stables to trade against the single LP.On other chains EVMOS & Meter.io, UniDex will be launching natively and partnering with existing DEXs to create white label solutions to accelerate the Perp DEX scene on these chains.The UniDex Forge Ecosystem has grown quite large since its unveiling three months ago, and many new protocols have contributed to delivering a diverse ecosystem. You can find the links and socials for projects mentioned today ready to start onboarding community members. If you’re a protocol looking to integrate within the UniDex ecosystem or take part in UniDex Forge, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

Final Words

We want to thank the community that’s watched us grow over the past 3 years. We started with a goal to combine the best DeFi trading has offered, and we’re still delivering strong. Bear and bull, day and night, or in whatever timezone, we kept building. We've faced challenges, celebrated successes, and learned along the way, always with our community by our side. The fact remains we’re here to onboard the next million users onto UniDex.