DEX Aggregators: What They Are and Top Projects for 2025

What Is a DEX Aggregator? 

A DEX aggregator is a platform that scans multiple DEXs, offering a single interface to find and execute the optimal trading path for token swaps.

Key Takeaways

• DEX aggregators are platforms that scan multiple decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and liquidity sources to find the optimal trading route for token swap, all through a single interface.

• They aim to provide users with better prices, reduced slippage, and lower transaction costs by intelligently routing trades through DEXs with the most favorable fees and deepest liquidity.

• Key technologies include Smart Order Routing (SOR) and, increasingly, intent-based mechanisms for enhanced efficiency and MEV protection.

DEXs are a cornerstone of decentralized finance (DeFi), allowing users to trade crypto assets while maintaining custody of their holdings, with a 24 hour trading volume of over $13.5 billion at time of writing. However, navigating the world of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) can feel like searching for the best deal across countless online stores. Each DEX offers different prices, fees, and liquidity for crypto tokens, meaning traders are at the risk of missing out on the best possible swap rates.

The Problem: Fragmented Liquidity in DeFi

With a proliferation of DEXs comes the challenge of liquidity fragmentation, as each DEX has its own walled off liquidity source, along with its own fees and liquidity conditions. This means in order to find the best trading route, users have to check multiple DEXs, making decisions around tradeoffs.

Imagine you want to trade Token A for Token B. Here are some scenarios you might encounter:

• DEX 1 has a good price, but low liquidity, which might lead to high slippage.

• DEX 2 has plenty of liquidity, but charges higher fees and Token A has a less favorable exchange rate.

• DEX 3 may offer a balanced option, but how would you know without checking multiple DEXs?

This manual process is time-consuming and can result in suboptimal trades, and DEX aggregators are designed to tackle this problem. 

DEX Aggregators: A Smart Search Engine for Trades

DEX Aggregators are DeFi protocols that connect to multiple decentralized exchanges and liquidity pools, allowing users to find and execute the best possible trades from a single dashboard. Think of it as Expedia or Google Flights for crypto swaps – it scours individual providers for options, and presents you with the most efficient route.

By consolidating liquidity and utilizing advanced algorithms, DEX aggregators aim to offer:

• Best Possible Prices: Sourcing rates from a wide pool of DEXs.

• Reduced Slippage: Minimizing the price impact of your trade, especially for larger orders.

• Optimized Gas Fees: Finding routes that may be cheaper in terms of network transaction costs.

• Improved User Experience: Simplifying the process of trading across the DeFi landscape.

Using a DEX vs. a DEX Aggregator: What’s the Difference?

How Do DEX Aggregators Work?

When you enter a desired swap into a DEX aggregator, a complex process unfolds instantly:

1. Scanning Multiple Sources: The aggregator queries all its integrated DEXs (e.g., Orca, Meteora) and liquidity pools for the requested token pair.

2. Smart Order Routing (SOR): This is the core intelligence. SOR algorithms analyze various factors:

• Current token prices on each DEX.

• Available liquidity in different pools.

• Trading fees on each platform.

• Potential gas costs for different routes.

• Slippage impact of the trade size. 

The SOR then determines the most efficient way to execute your trade. This might involve:

• Direct Routing: Sending the entire trade to the single DEX offering the best overall terms.

• Splitting Trades: Dividing your order across multiple DEXs to tap into different liquidity pockets and minimize slippage. For example, a large ETH to USDC swap might be partly filled on Uniswap and partly on Sushiswap.

• Multi-Hop Routing: Executing a trade through an intermediary token if a direct path isn't optimal (e.g., Token A -> Token C -> Token B).

3. Execution: Once the best path(s) are found, the aggregator facilitates the transaction, after the user approves the smart contract interaction. 

Beyond Smart Order Routing: Intent-Based Aggregators

A newer approach gaining traction is intent-based aggregation, exemplified by platforms like CoW Swap and UniSwapX. Instead of users signing a transaction that executes directly on-chain, they sign an "intent to trade" message specifying their desired outcome (e.g., "I want to swap X amount of Token A for at least Y amount of Token B").

This intent is then shared with a network of "solvers" (often sophisticated searchers or market makers) who compete to find the best way to fulfill that intent, potentially using on-chain DEXs, off-chain liquidity, or even peer-to-peer matching. Benefits can include:

• MEV Protection: Since the trade details aren't immediately broadcast to the public mempool, it can reduce the risk of front-running or sandwich attacks.

• Gasless Trades (Potentially): Solvers might pay the gas fees, incorporating the cost into the execution.

• Access to Broader Liquidity: Solvers can tap into private liquidity sources not typically accessible to standard aggregators.

Using intent-based aggregators may also come with additional fees such as solver fees, which incentivizes solvers to fulfill the intent. 

Benefits of DEX Aggregators

DEX aggregators aim to improve the overall experience for DEX users, with the primary benefits being:

Optimal Pricing and Reduced Slippage

By accessing a wider range of liquidity sources and intelligently routing trades, aggregators can often find better net prices than if users were to trade on a single DEX, especially for less common pairs or large volumes.

Access to Deeper Liquidity

With the ability to access resources across multiple liquidity pools and exchanges, DEX aggregators offer deeper liquidity compared to individual DEXs. This makes it easier for users to execute larger orders and trade a wide variety of tokens, especially newer ones, such as memecoins. 

Frictionless Asset Exchange

DEX aggregators do the heavy lifting around comparing rates across multiple platforms, allowing users to easily select their route, along with a user-friendly dashboard for managing their trades. Some aggregators also offer gas fee optimization, where they can find more gas-efficient routes, although this depends on network conditions and route complexity.

Potential Risk of DEX Aggregators

While DEX aggregators offer several benefits, there may be risks associated with using them.

Smart Contract Vulnerabilities

Smart contract vulnerabilities are the main risks associated with DEX aggregators. Aggregators are developed with additional smart contracts, where any bug in the aggregator’s code could be exploited, potentially leading to a loss of funds. 

In March 2024, a vulnerability in Unizen’s DEX aggregation contract was exploited, allowing attackers to access and drain value from the accounts of users who had approved the contract. This resulted in about $2.1 million in losses. 

Users are advised to set approval limits for DEXs to reduce risks in the event a contract is compromised, and to revoke unnecessary token approvals to smart contracts after use.

Front-Running/MEV Attacks

As blockchain transactions are typically broadcasted to the network (mempool) before they are included in blocks in the chain, traders who are able to get their transactions into the chain first can frontrun transactions. Front-running (also known as sandwich attacks) happens when a malicious trader frontruns a large buy order by buying the token first and pushing up the price.

This means when the original trade goes through, the victim ends up having their trade executed at a worse price, while the malicious trader sells at the higher price and pockets the difference.

However, aggregators and DEXs mitigate this by gathering and grouping orders into collections known as “batches”, ensuring all trades within a batch share the same clearing price and preventing MEV bots from reordering trades. “Solvers” on intent-based aggregators also shield users from direct exposure to the public mempool, protecting them from MEV bots.

Top DEX Aggregators for 2025

Here are some of the most well-known DEX Aggregators you can use for decentralized swaps;

Jupiter Exchange: Top Aggregator on Solana

Jupiter is a DEX aggregator on the Solana network. It supports top AMM DEXes on the network, including Raydium, Orca, and Meteora. Jupiter routes trade requests from its interface through any or a combination of these exchanges to offer the best rate to users. Jupiter was launched in 2021 and is one of the most used DeFi applications on the Solana network, with over $2.4 billion in TVL. 

Jupiter Exchange has also built additional utilities on top of its DEX Aggregator infrastructure. Some of these features include limit orders and DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging). Jupiter also features a decentralized crypto perpetual trading platform where traders bet on the future price of an asset with up to 100x leverage.

1inch: Multichain DEX Aggregator With a Strong Ethereum Presence

According to 1inch, over 200 decentralized exchanges on Ethereum and its Layer 2s are integrated into its DEX aggregator, with almost $500 billion in total volume on Ethereum alone. Since launching on the Ethereum blockchain in May 2019, 1inch has expanded to over nine blockchain networks, including Ethereum L2 networks like Optimism and Arbitrum, and EVM L1 networks like BNB Smart Chain and Polygon.

1inch has also built a limit order on its aggregator protocol, allowing users to set conditions for which their trade should be executed. Other products by 1inch include the 1inch DeFi wallet for self-custody of crypto assets and the 1inch Card for crypto payments. 

Cetus Protocol: A Liquidity Network on Sui and Aptos

Cetus is a DEX aggregator on the Sui and Aptos blockchains, with over $274 million in TVL on Sui. According to Cetus, it has processed over $57 billion worth of trades via its protocol. 

Beyond leveraging native liquidity on Cetus Protocol, Cetus’s aggregator also integrates liquidity from mainstream liquidity sources on the Sui Network, offering a wide range of liquidity sources for optimal trading conditions. 

Beyond swaps, users can set up condition-based trades like limit orders through concentrated liquidity range orders, although users need to withdraw position assets either manually or through a position manager protocol. Cetus also has a launchpad for new projects on the SUI ecosystem. 

LFJ: Multichain Decentralized Trading Ecosystem

LFJ (formerly Trader Joe) is a decentralized trading ecosystem encompassing a DEX, an aggregator, and a token screener. It is available on multiple blockchains including Avalanche, Solana, Arbitrum, and Ethereum. 

LFJ has an extensive suite of additional features beyond swaps, including a token launcher (Token Mill), a memecoin trading platform (Trenches), liquidity provision, staking, bridging, and limit orders (Place Order). 

CoW Swap: Intent-Based Aggregator on Ethereum

CoW Swap is an intent-based aggregator on Ethereum and selected Layer 2s (Gnosis Chain, Base, and Arbitrum). It leverages trade intents and batch auctions to find users better prices for trading crypto assets. 

Solvers on CoW Swap first try to find a Coincidence of Wants (CoW) – where each party holds assets the other wants – within an existing batch of intents to offer an optimal price through a peer-to-peer swap over on-chain liquidity. If a CoW is unavailable, solvers will search all available on-chain and off-chain liquidity to find the best price for a set of trade intents within a batch. 

Final Thoughts

Aggregators improve the user experience for on-chain trading by pooling multiple liquidity sources into a single interface, saving users the time and effort of checking prices, liquidity depth, and fees across multiple exchanges. 

While using aggregators, it is recommended that you apply safety precautions and use transaction simulators and other security measures to reduce the chances of losing your funds to malicious contracts. Also, validate the authenticity of new aggregators and ensure that you are using the correct website link before connecting your wallet to the platform.

Disclaimer: This article discusses DEX aggregators for educational and informational purposes only and should not be taken as financial advice.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about DEX Aggregators

Is it always cheaper to use a DEX aggregator than a single DEX?

Generally, DEX aggregators aim to be more cost-effective by finding optimal routes and reducing slippage. While they often secure better net prices, especially for larger trades or less common tokens, the final cost depends on the specific aggregator's fees (if any), the fees of the underlying DEXs used, and network gas costs. 

For very small, simple trades on a highly liquid pair, the difference might be minimal, but for complex or large trades, aggregators usually offer an advantage.

Are there any fees for using a DEX aggregator?

It varies. Some DEX aggregators might charge a small, explicit percentage-based fee on the trade value, while others may incorporate their fee into the quoted exchange rate. 

You will also always pay the standard network transaction fees (gas fees) for the blockchain you are using and any trading fees charged by the individual DEXs through which your trade is routed.

How do DEX aggregators make money?

Like all protocols, DEX aggregators need to sustain their operations and development. Revenue streams can include:

• Small Commission/Fee on Swaps: Many aggregators take a tiny percentage of the value of trades processed through their platform. This fee is usually factored into the final exchange rate shown to the user.

• Volume-Based Fees from Integrated DEXs: Some DEXs might offer rebates or preferential terms to aggregators that route significant volume to them.

• Native Token Utility: Some aggregators have their own tokens that might be used for governance, fee discounts, or staking rewards, indirectly contributing to the platform's value.

• No Direct Fee/Gasless Transactions (Indirect Benefit): Some platforms absorb costs as a way to drive increased user activity on their main platform. For instance, at time of writing, Cow Swap has no fees for order placement, while Jupiter offers gasless transactions for swaps on JupiterZ. 

Before opting to use an aggregator, users can check on any additional fees incurred, and decide whether it impacts the overall cost-effectiveness of using an aggregator instead of a DEX.

What is "slippage" and how do DEX aggregators help with it?

Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade and the price at which it's actually executed. This often happens in fast-moving markets or when trading with low liquidity. DEX aggregators help reduce slippage by: 

• Accessing deeper liquidity from multiple sources. 

• Splitting large orders across different pools/DEXs to minimize price impact. 

• Using smart routing to find paths less prone to slippage.