The Valantis Core Protocol is a bottom-up approach to rethinking DEXes that supports a more open, efficient, and modular future for DeFi’s most fundamental primitive. A definition this abstract can be difficult to understand on a more practical level, especially for users who are just looking for good products. This piece is intended to shed some light on our vision and set the stage for what’s to come in the Valantis Ecosystem.

Why We Need More DEXes

DeFi reuses general-purpose primitives for a breadth of markets that could benefit from a variety of unique solutions. Building new, untested smart contracts is inherently dangerous, leading to a lack of purpose-built AMMs where they could add efficiency. Blockchains have enabled a new class of programmable assets; we have a responsibility to rethink the liquidity infrastructure that hosts them.

The one-size-fits-all thesis for DEXes is breaking in front of us. Primitives like stable swap, novel implementations of concentrated liquidity like Trader Joe, Meteoras volatility fees, liquidity bootstrapping pools, integrated borrowing and lending into LP positions like Fluid, and even novel multi-token models like Sanctum have carved out their respective markets and validated the need for custom DEX functionality.

Valantis opens up the design space without being constrained by fragmentation, development costs, and security concerns—the full commoditization of the DEX stack under a single protocol. Furthermore, the composability of Valantis Modules makes the vision of an ecosystem self-perpetuating; for every module built, hundreds of novel DEX designs can be derived from it. Valantis’ architecture truly is the “Lego brick” way to build DEXes.

The Valantis Core Protocol reimagines what a DEX can be. But the platform means nothing without concrete and high-impact products. Valantis will be an ecosystem of the most unique and malleable DEXes ever imagined. We are committed to seeing this vision built out, one module at a time.

Why Should I Care?

Once the tech is commoditized, the infrastructure should be hidden; the products are what matters.

Valantis Core is the best place to build a DEX: purpose-built to support any design, customizable to natively integrate with any DeFi protocol, novel architectures solving liquidity fragmentation, fully MIT open source, and available to deploy on any chain today.

That being said—we are not taking a “build it, and they will come” mentality.

We spent over a year building and perfecting the core protocol. Now our number one priority is showing what’s possible with it.

What’s Been Done?

HOT AMM was the first product built on Valantis. In partnership with Arrakis— we successfully harnessed the power of offchain market-making strategies to re-empower onchain LPs. We proved high volume AMMs don’t mean inviting arbitrage: HOT AMM is the first production solution that filters toxic and non-toxic order flow for onchain LPs.

HOT AMM redirected ~10% of CoWSwap’s ETH/USDC order flow back to onchain LPs and DeFi native users- making it the most capital-efficient AMM to date.

HOT AMM showed how unconstrained Valantis Core really is: sharing liquidity between both onchain and offchain market-making strategies—The Hybrid Order Type could not have been built anywhere else.

What’s Next?

AMMs were originally invented because order books cannot be run onchain— but the core idea of automated market-making strategies holds usefulness far beyond its original construction. Blockchains have enabled novel use cases- including novel assets, novel liquidity provider profiles, and even novel trade execution. Novel liquidity infrastructure must be allowed to flourish and fulfill DeFi's growing vision.

Throughout DeFi’s history and iterations of different DEXes, we’ve been told that the AMM model has achieved all it can. Statements saying that concentrated liquidity is the last AMM were challenged as stable swap invariants were deemed irreplaceable, and later, when the first LBP designs became critical for new token launches. Each time a new innovation emerged, they thought it was the last.

The number of valuable use cases for an AMM has steadily been increasing one by one, and we have no reason to believe there is a ceiling to this.

These use cases will grow symbiotically with the number of custom solutions that provide them. Valantis is a pioneer in the DEX accelerationism movement. In the coming weeks, we’ll reveal the next key foundational pieces to the ecosystem - you can join Discord today for early insights into our next steps or await the official announcements from our X.