Crypto market data firm Messari estimates that 20% of all decentralized exchange (DEX) volume on Ethereum is routed via DEX aggregators.
In a newsletter, Messari writes that “the 21st century is dominated by aggregators,” adding, “Amazon aggregates consumers and merchants. Uber aggregates riders and drivers. Netflix aggregates viewers and content. The list goes on.”
With “the first attempts at aggregation in DeFi” beginning to take shape, Messari states that many of the sector’s aggregators “are seeing early product-market-fit” and will be able to capture significant value as the DeFi ecosystem grows.
DeFi aggregators emerge as gatekeepers
Messari describes decentralized finance aggregators as funneling user demand into various DeFi protocols.
With the returns available to liquidity providers constantly varying across a myriad of assets and platforms, DeFi aggregators assist investors in finding the highest possible yields, the lowest slippage and the most robust stablecoins.
Aggregators climb DeFi rankings
Many aggregators are already emerging as leading DeFi projects, with decentralized finance management platform Instadapp now ranking as the sixth-largest protocol with $258.7 million in locked value.
According to Messari, Instadapp locks more than 7% of value entering the DeFi space.
Yearn.finance has also exploded recently, ranking as the 8th-largest project with $177.8 million in locked capital, according to DeFi Pulse.
Despite emphasizing that three of the top five companies in the S&P 500 comprise aggregators of various kinds, Messari predicts that some DeFi aggregators “may struggle to capture value as easily as tier FAANG analogues.”