Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) were the original vision of DeFi — open, worldwide, peer-to-peer marketplaces that could not be shut down or controlled by gatekeepers. And while adoption has increased — now accounting for roughly 7.6% of worldwide crypto trading volume (up from 3% in 2023, per Grayscale Research, 2025) — the experience has been less than perfect. Users often have to deal with sluggish transaction speed, high fees, and fragmented liquidity, frustrating many and encouraging institutions to exercise caution.
The Performance Gap in Existing DEXs
Dapps such as Uniswap opened the door to decentralized trading but also underscored Ethereum’s limitations. At times of high demand, trades can take minutes and fees can be more than $30 per exchange — a non-starter for both normal users and institutional traders. Institutions, on the other hand, are concerned about compliance risks, unreliable execution, and weak integration with traditional finance tools.
Even layer-2 rollouts, though cost-saving, have delivered fragmented ecosystems wherein liquidity, wallets, and tokens are network-segregated. This compromises Ethereum’s vaunted composability and constrains seamless cross-application activity.
A Push Toward New Infrastructure
Professional traders demand instant settlement and consistent pricing, yet existing DEXs frequently fail to deliver. To close this gap, some initiatives are redesigning infrastructure at the foundation. One such direction has been pursued on the XRP Ledger (XRPL).
XRPL settles transactions in 3–5 seconds with fees expressed in fractions of a cent — a far cry from Ethereum gas prices. Ripple, an established blockchain company, has also made XRPL institution-ready, collaborating with banks and payment institutions while emphasizing compliance and real-world applications.
This underpinning brought about projects such as DeXRP, which introduces its own twist: rather than opting between AMM pools and order books, it combines them. Retail traders receive AMM ease of use, while professionals have access to strategy-hungry order books. By pooling liquidity from both systems, DeXRP minimizes slippage and provides execution closer to institutional standards.
Founder Trevor Gedeon captures it succinctly:
“Centralized exchanges are convenient, but imagine that same ease within a system that’s fully decentralized, secure, and censorship-resistant. That’s what we’re building.”
