0x Protocol has facilitated over $200 billion in cumulative trading volume since its 2016 launch, with more than 500 teams integrating its Swap API across 20 or more blockchains. The protocol’s core innovation uses off-chain order relay with on-chain settlement, reducing gas costs by keeping order matching off the blockchain while settling trades on-chain securely. In June 2026, 0x launched a Cross-Chain API with 12 bridge partners, enabling asset transfers between different blockchain networks through a single developer integration point. ZRX’s market capitalization sits between $85 million and $100 million as of April 2026, despite powering infrastructure used by Coinbase, MetaMask, Robinhood, and Phantom wallet. A January 2026 SwapNet exploit drained $13.4 million from Matcha Meta users through a third-party routing contract, though 0x’s core protocol contracts remained uncompromised throughout. 0x Protocol is open-source infrastructure that enables decentralized token trading across multiple blockchains. It does not operate as a single exchange. Instead, it provides a standardized set of smart contracts and developer tools that allow applications to embed swap functionality without building their own order matching systems.
CoinMarketCap’s overview describes it as a universal liquidity layer that aggregates pricing from automated market makers and order books across 16 or more blockchains. The protocol matters because fragmented liquidity is the central problem in decentralized finance. Hundreds of exchanges and liquidity pools exist across different blockchains, each with different pricing and depth.
0x aggregates these sources through its Swap API, allowing wallets like MetaMask and Phantom, exchanges like Coinbase and Robinhood, and portfolio trackers to offer best-price execution without connecting to each liquidity source individually. Over 500 teams have integrated the API, according to Bitget’s analysis.
Analysis: The gap between 0x’s infrastructure usage and its token valuation is the protocol’s defining tension. The platform has facilitated over $200 billion in volume, yet ZRX trades at a market cap of approximately $85 million to $100 million as of April 2026. That is roughly what a mid-sized restaurant chain might be worth.
How Off-Chain Relay and On-Chain Settlement Work 0x’s foundational innovation from 2017 separated order management from trade execution. Older decentralized exchanges put every step on the blockchain.
Order placement, cancellation, matching, and settlement all consume gas fees. 0x moved the first three steps off-chain, recording only the final trade on the blockchain. That hybrid approach reduced costs while preserving decentralized settlement security, as Gate Learn explained.
The system operates through three participants: Makers supply liquidity and set pricing by signing orders off-chain. Relayers host and distribute these order books. Takers accept trade offers, and when a taker agrees to a maker’s price, 0x’s smart contracts settle the swap on-chain, ensuring both sides complete simultaneously.
The v4 Settler contract suite handles the final atomic settlement. In 2024, 0x v2 introduced a new pricing engine designed specifically for on-chain applications, optimizing trade execution and expanding liquidity source access.
As of 2026, the protocol supports over 20 chains: Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, Scroll, Linea, Blast, Mode, Mantle, Unichain, Berachain, Ink, Plasma, Sonic, and Monad, according to Bitget’s pricing analysis. In March 2026, the team announced that HyperEVM, a high-performance Ethereum Layer 2, went live via the 0x Swap API.
The ZRX Token and Its Governance Role ZRX is the ERC-20 governance and utility token powering the 0x Protocol. Holders vote on protocol upgrade proposals known as ZEIPs, treasury allocation decisions, and expansion to new blockchains through the community DAO.
Staking is built into the system: liquidity providers stake ZRX to earn a share of trading fees from market-making activity. Delegators can assign their ZRX to high-performing market makers and earn rewards, as described in Bitget’s 2026 protocol guide.
Whether governance plus staking creates sufficient economic demand to support ZRX at scale remains the token’s central question. The protocol generated the same fee structure whether ZRX was priced at $0.08 or $2.53, its all-time high from January 2018.
In late 2025 and early 2026, ZRX faced reduced exchange accessibility, with margin and spot trading pairs delisted from Binance and a full delisting from Bitfinex, as CoinMarketCap’s analysis noted. In March 2026, Dune Analytics launched Dune Enterprise in partnership with 0x, providing enterprise-grade on-chain analytics to monitor trader behavior and liquidity routing.
The most significant product launch was Matcha Meta, a meta-aggregator that routes trades to whichever DEX aggregator offers the best execution at any moment, sitting on top of all major aggregators, including 0x itself.
The SwapNet Exploit and Protocol Security In January 2026, a $13.4 million exploit affected Matcha Meta users through a third-party routing contract called SwapNet. The contract was closed-source and lacked sufficient validation of user-supplied parameters, allowing an attacker to redirect funds that users had approved for trading.
The 0x team confirmed that its core protocol contracts were not compromised, and the affected contract was disabled, according to Bitget’s chronology. The incident underscored persistent DeFi security risks but did not affect the core protocol’s integrity. 0x continues to operate a bug bounty program to detect vulnerabilities before exploitation.
The broader question for DeFi protocol security is whether aggregator architectures that route through third-party contracts can adequately vet every integration partner.
Regulatory Implications 0x Protocol operates as a permissionless infrastructure with no centralized controlling entity. Treasury’s March 2026 report to Congress acknowledged that the BSA/AML framework does not fully account for DeFi protocols with distributed governance.
The SEC’s Crypto Task Force has discussed balancing financial privacy with national security transparency. Whether infrastructure protocols like 0x face direct regulatory obligations depends on pending congressional clarification.
What’s Next? The Cross-Chain API, launched in June 2026 with 12 bridge partners, represents 0x’s push beyond single-chain liquidity aggregation. Solana ecosystem integration and continued HyperEVM support expand the protocol’s addressable market. A long-standing community debate about implementing sustainable protocol fees remains unresolved.
If fees are introduced, they could create direct token-level value capture but risk making 0x less competitive against rivals like Uniswap and 1inch. Token performance projections are speculative and should not be treated as financial guidance. Digital assets carry a significant risk of loss.
FAQs What is 0x Protocol?
0x Protocol is an open-source infrastructure providing smart contracts and APIs that enable decentralized token trading across 20 or more blockchains without requiring a centralized exchange intermediary.
How does 0x reduce trading costs?
0x uses off-chain order relay with on-chain settlement, keeping order matching and management off the blockchain to avoid gas fees while settling only the final trade on-chain securely.
What is ZRX used for?
ZRX is the governance and utility token that allows holders to vote on protocol upgrades, stake for trading fee rewards, and participate in treasury decisions through the 0x DAO.
Which apps use the 0x Protocol?
Over 500 teams integrate 0x, including major products like Coinbase, MetaMask, Robinhood, and Phantom Wallet, using its Swap API to offer best-price decentralized token trading.
Is 0x Protocol the same as a DEX?
0x Protocol is not an exchange for end users but rather a trading protocol layer that provides liquidity aggregation and order routing infrastructure for wallets and DEX platforms.
What blockchains does 0x support?
0x supports over 20 blockchains as of 2026, including Ethereum, Solana, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, Monad, Scroll, Linea, and several additional networks.
Was the 0x Protocol hacked in 2026?
In January 2026, a $13.4 million exploit affected Matcha Meta users through a third-party SwapNet contract, but 0x’s core protocol smart contracts remained uncompromised throughout.
References What Is 0x Protocol (ZRX) And How Does It Work (CoinMarketCap, 2026) 0x Protocol (ZRX) Price Prediction and Analysis (Bitget, April 2026) 0x Protocol Complete Guide (Gate Learn, April 2026) 0x Protocol 2026: Cross-Chain DeFi Guide (Bitget Academy, March 2026)
In brief Gemini will soon list three new cryptocurrencies on its exchange. Prices for Orchid and Chainlink are up big on the news. New York-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini today announced that it’s adding three new cryptocurrencies to its list of digital offerings: Chainlink (LINK), Dai (DAI) and Orchid (OXT).
While the three tokens will not be available on the exchange until April 24, news of the forthcoming listing is already driving considerable interest for these coins: prices for OXT and LINK, for example, skyrocketed today between 10% and 15%, respectively.
Once the coins are listed on the Winklevoss-backed exchange, Gemini customers will be able to deposit them into their online wallets and start trading soon after. Gemini says it will also be offering USD, Bitcoin and Ethereum trading pairs for LINK, DAI and OXT.
This will bring the total number of cryptocurrencies supported and offered by Gemini to nine. Aside from these three new additions, Gemini also supports Bitcoin, Litecoin, Zcash (ZEC) and Basic Attention Token (BAT). It also offers custody services for 15 coins, including 0x (ZRX), Bread (BRD), Decentraland (MANA) and its own stablecoin Gemini USD (GUSD).
While DAI is also a stablecoin—meaning it’s designed to protect users against volatility—the news appears to have positively influenced the prices of both Chainlink and Orchid.
Orchid’s OXT is now trading for $0.15 per coin, a price level it hasn’t seen since before the mid-March crypto crash. Chainlink, meanwhile, is now priced at $3.40, making it today’s best performing asset in the industry’s top 20 coins by market cap.
In fact, Chainlink has gained more than $1 on its price since the beginning of the week. It’s the first time LINK has soared above the $3 line in nearly a month. Today’s surge marks a one-day gain of $0.60 for the world’s 11th largest cryptocurrency, which powers the “oracle of oracles” network.
Chainlink broadcasts Internet data on the Ethereum blockchain for use in smart contracts. The other network getting some shine today, Orchid, is predominantly used by those seeking additional privacy to purchase virtual private networking (VPN) bandwidth.
“These assets expand the range of our platform and further our mission to empower the individual through crypto,” Gemini wrote on its blog page. “We look forward to continuing to bring mission-oriented projects to you in the future.”
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Crypto assets dedicated to decentralized finance (DeFi) have collectively hit $1 billion in market capitalization.
DeFi is designed to give people an alternative to traditional banking services such as borrowing and lending by using platforms that are decentralized, lack control by middlemen and utilize smart contracts to automate transactions.
At time of writing, the total market cap for all listed tokens on DeFiMarketCap, an analytics website that shows the market cap of 230 tokens underpinning DeFi, is $1,068,714,105.
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Ethereum-based protocol Maker dominates the pack with a market cap of $295,878,527.
It’s followed by 0x with a market cap of $171,252,000, and Synthetix Network Token with a market cap of $120,956,075.
TD Ameritrade recently joined the Chicago DeFi Alliance (CDA), a new group aiming to support companies that are working to build decentralized finance products.
But the space also has its share of critics. Litecoin creator Charlie Lee says he believes DeFi platforms are ultimately centralized, citing an attack on the Ethereum-based bZx protocol. To reverse the damage from the attack, the bZx team decided to use an admin key to pause the network.
“This is why I don’t believe in DeFi. It’s the worst of both worlds. Most DeFi can be shut down by a centralized party, so it’s just decentralization theatre. And yet no one can undo a hack or exploit unless we add more centralization. So how is this better than what we have now?”
2020 marks the start of a new decade, so it’s worth taking some time to analyze a crypto-asset we haven’t covered recently. I’m specifically talking about the 0x token and its protocol for decentralized exchanges (DEX).
In terms of development, last year was a good one for 0x. These types of protocols have become increasingly famous lately, so I wonder where DEXs are going and if they’ll finally take over and lead the liquidity battle against centralized exchanges. But before we begin digging deeper into 0x and how its’ token is performing financially let’s put in a few lines what the protocol is used for and what the purpose of its token really is.
So, what is 0x?
Following the definition in their whitepaper: “0x is an open protocol for decentralized exchange on the Ethereum blockchain. It is intended to serve as a basic building block that may be combined with other protocols to drive increasingly sophisticated dApps. 0x uses a publicly accessible system of smart contracts that can act as shared infrastructure for a variety of dApps”.
Source: 0x Whitepaper
0x establishes two mechanisms for their users to transact:
Point-to-Point Orders, which allow two parties to directly exchange tokens between each other using almost any communication medium (Facebook, WhatsApp, etc) Through a decentralized exchange, which in this case are called Relayers. Their main difference with traditional exchanges is that they do not execute trades on behalf of market participants. In addition, “Makers” are considered to be those users that create orders, while “Takers” are merely users that intercept orders and decide to fill them.
To a lot of believers, decentralized exchanges are a relevant step forward in terms of adoption of the DLT ecosystem as they promise to solve many security issues todays’ centralized exchanges have suffered from, and are not exposed to any governmental/regulatory constraints. In addition, DEXs are trying to allow users to transact trustlessly by cutting the middleman through their technology and protocols; that’s why they have become a hot topic and their popularity is steadily increasing.
However, competition between centralized and decentralized exchanges is consistently growing for both users and liquidity, and the winner of this race is still yet to be decided.
0x is also the name of the native token of the protocol, so let’s talk about that.
The 0x token and it’s performance…
According to the 0x team, the most important role of its native token is to future-proof the protocol, while transferring value to “Relayers” through transactions fees, updating the protocols’ decentralized governance system on a continuous manner, and to partner with dApps to provide an incentive for adoption.
So, at the time of writing, 0x has a circulating supply of 652,134,957 ZRX tokens with a current price of $0.1721, and an all-time high of $2.53 back in January 2018.
But if we’d like to know what’s happening at a deeper level, let's use the analytics created by our team at IntoTheBlock team to see 0x (the token) from a different perspective:
A Quick Answer?
The In/Out of the Money indicator from IntoTheBlock gives a holistic and speedy view of how this token is doing. This proprietary metric averages the price (cost) at which all ZRX tokens were acquired and compares all of the existing addresses positions against todays’ price in order to see how many of them and how many tokens are either over or underwater (in the money = making money, out of the money = losing money).
While some cryptos did enjoy a significant recovery in after a massive price crash back in March, it hasn’t been that great for ZRX as 92.2% of all holders acquired ZRX at a price higher than $0.1721. Therefore, if all ZRX holders would sell today, only about 4.76% would make a profit. This also means that about 3% of ZRX owners are breaking even.
Some Positive Signs:
1. The 0x network is not shrinking: Thanks to the visualization on Addresses Stats from IntoTheBlock you can see that the Net Network Growth of ZRX is still looking healthy. We get this number by counting how many New Addresses are being created minus those addresses that have a zero balance. In other words, as long as the blue line is above the yellow line, you’ll have network growth. Like you can see below, 0x’s network isn’t decreasing, as it constantly bounces between more New Addresses or more Zero Balance Addresses per day.
2. The 0x team has been putting down the hours: On the following graph you’re looking at the 0x community of developers and their contributions, stars, number of watchers, open issues, and forks on Github. This is a clear indication of the current support for 0x and the general involvement of the community behind it. This includes changes on their code, size of the project in kilobytes and general involvement, pending tasks, enhancements, and bugs.
Although there isn’t a direct correlation between the development state of a crypto project and the price of its’ native token, this still represents a very positive sign for the long game.
Some Not-So Positive Signs:
1. Volatility has decreased over the last month: This factor could well off be a positive sign for ZRX and its’ behavior, but it’s worth clarifying that for it to be considered as positive or negative it will depend on your specific investment thesis. For example, investors with less interaction with the market could benefit from a less volatile token, as it will decrease their chances of losing control of their positions with drastic changes on price.
On the other hand, a less volatile asset would not likely give for intra-day and day trading opportunities as a more volatile crypto-asset.
2. Large Transactions have decreased: It’s easy to be misled by Bitcoins’ volume and disproportionate amount of daily large transactions, but even among some of the top cryptocurrencies, not all have constant daily Large Transactions (those trxs with a value of $100k or higher). At IntoTheBlock, we like to measure this type of transactions as they usually accompany price movement.
So, although these have been happening in less frequency, they’re no zero and 0x still has trxs with significant values, which shows that there are still big players betting on it.
Some Negative Signs:
1. 0x has significant exposure to big players: If you’re not too familiarized with our nomenclature, we define Whales as those on-chain addresses that hold more than 1% of a tokens’ circulating supply. At the same time, we take as Investors as those addresses with holdings between 0.1 - 1% of the circulating supply. Everyone else is considered as Retail.
Why is this number important?: Because Whales are dangerous if they trade actively, so this gives you a measure of exposure. In the case of 0x, about 78% of ZRX is currently being held by big players.
2. Their Telegram community is shrinking: Earlier on, I showed metrics related to the community of developers and the amount of work they’re carrying out on Github, but the image below depicts a different type of community – the type of community that invests in the project, and the bad news is that they’re leaving. So, as you can imagine, this could represent a loss of interest by the public.
What can we take from this?
Different indicators show us different, but interesting, perspectives about the current state of affairs of the 0x token. 0x continues to be a very interesting and promising project and, although the token has a lot of walls to climb for it to recover to 2018 levels, the price fluctuated quite linear throughout 2019, and is now showing signs that will come out of the Covid19 crisis strong.
Popularity for both decentralized applications and exchanges keeps rising, and therefore will be the decisive force behind 0xs’ success or failure… In the meantime, I’ll keep looking at these metrics.
Exchange infrastructure provider 0x is rolling out a new set of application programming interfaces designed to provide crypto developers with tools to build financial products for fast trading, better prices and an improved user experience.
The new project, according to a statement, includes five APIs, among them “Swap API,” which connects developers to more than 100 exchanges, and “Tx Relay API,” which enables trades without gas fees. An API is a channel that allows two computers or software systems to communicate with one another.
The Thursday announcement "represents a big shift for us," explained 0x co-founder Will Warren in an interview with CoinDesk. The 0x team has already helped build several popular retail-focused crypto wallets like Coinbase Wallet, Robinhood Wallet and MetaMask, but with the new platform, the company is now better equipped to provide professional-grade tools to institutions.
"[Decentralized exchanges] technology has been a constant arms race to provide better pricing," Warren said. "Now there are a bunch of different aggregators and meta aggregators and providing the very best pricing and best execution is just something that is constantly a challenge because the competition isn’t resting and neither are we."
Updated Oct 24, 2023, 3:53 p.m. Published Sep 7, 2023, 11:01 p.m.
2 min read
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged three decentralized finance (DeFi) operations – Opyn, Inc., ZeroEx (0x), Inc. and Deridex, Inc. – with offering illegal derivatives trading, according to a Thursday statement from the agency.
The three firms face a number of accusations based on their use of blockchain-based protocols and smart contracts to function as trading platforms, according to the CFTC. The U.S. derivatives regulator is ordering Opyn, ZeroEx, and Deridex to cease those violations and pay penalties of $250,000, $200,000, and $100,000, respectively. The companies agreed to these terms to settle the charges.
“Somewhere along the way, DeFi operators got the idea that unlawful transactions become lawful when facilitated by smart contracts,” said CFTC Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley. “They do not.”
But the CFTC may have been especially familiar with 0x, because it hired an acting director of LabCFTC from 0x Labs. Jason Somensatto took over the agency's financial technology research division in 2021. He's now head of policy in North America for Chainalysis.
All three companies are accused of illegally offering leveraged and margined retail commodity transactions using digital assets, the CFTC said.
Opyn, a DeFi marketplace associated with the token oSQTH, is a California-based company that the CFTC also accused of failing to properly register as a swap execution facility, a designated contract market and a futures commission merchant, and also failing to set up a customer identification program to meet Bank Secrecy Act requirements. Deridex, a North Carolina company, was also accused of those additional violations.
Those companies and ZeroEx, known for its 0x protocol, were all said by the CFTC to have cooperated in the investigation, getting a reduced financial penalty as a result.
Representatives of Opyn and 0x didn't immediately respond to requests for comment, and CoinDesk couldn't locate a representative for Deridex. An account associated with 0x app Matcha posted Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter, that "both 0x and Matcha continue to operate with no problem."
One CFTC commissioner dissented in the enforcement vote.
"The Commission’s Orders in these cases give no indication that customer funds have been misappropriated or that any market participants have been victimized by the DeFi protocols on which the Commission has unleashed its enforcement powers," said Commissioner Summer Mersinger in a statement. "I am concerned that the Commission in these cases is taking another step down the path of bringing enforcement actions when we should be engaging with the public."
UPDATE (Sept. 7, 2023, 23:43 UTC): Adds attempts to reach companies for comment, and CFTC's past hiring of 0x Labs lawyer.
UPDATE (Sept. 7, 2023, 24:03 UTC): Adds comment from Matcha.
Decentralized exchange protocol 0x recently unveiled its latest offering in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space: the Tx Relay API. This tool is designed to provide gasless swaps and approvals, thus streamlining the trading experience for developers and users alike.
Coinbase Wallet, a beta partner of 0x, reported that 69% of Ethereum swaps failed due to insufficient gas. The Tx Relay API addresses this issue by covering gas fees upfront and combining token approvals into the transaction.
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By using Tx Relay API, Matcha, 0x’s DEX aggregator, reduced failed trades by 85% compared to competitors and confirmed transactions on-chain one block faster on average. It also protected thousands of trades from MEV attacks, increased traders by 20%, and grew the number of trades by 7% quarter-over-quarter.
The Tx Relay API ensures faster trade confirmations and improved reliability by dynamically adjusting gas fees and simulating transactions before submission. Additionally, it provides access to deep liquidity from over 100 automated market makers (AMMs) and professional market makers, optimizing trades at the best prices.
Tx Relay is currently available on Ethereum and Polygon, with plans to expand to Arbitrum.
Since the introduction of the 0x Swap API in 2020, the platform has facilitated over $139 billion in volume through 65 million trades, serving 7 million end users across 9 chains.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
0x Protocol serves what blockchains do best – peer-to-peer exchange of Ethereum-based assets. 0x 0x Labs built the protocol as an open standard for Defi developers seeking exchange functionality.
What Does 0x Protocol Do?0x Protocol offers:
Audited smart contractsDevelopers toll to build on the 0x Protocol ecosystemA decentralized P2P order book called 0x MeshAPI for easy access ro aggregated liquidity sourced from a wide expanse of exchangesZRX is the native coin and governance token of the 0x Protocol. By staking their tokens, token holders can have a say in the Protocol’s governance and receive ETH liquidity rewards.0x Protocol aims to tokenize all forms of value on public blockchains, including real estate, video game items, software licenses, personal tokens, etc. It is aiming to build a financial system that is free to use and open source code.
Some of the use cases that are being built using 0x are:
A DEX for X asset on Y marketeBay style marketplaceArbitrage trading botAn OTC trading deskDeFi protocol for derivatives, lending, and options protocol0x Protocol can be integrated into in-game currencies, digital wallets, and portfolio management platforms.
Price Performance of 0x ProtocolThe 0x Protocol has jumped 231% in the last 14 days and 312% in the last 30 days. Its yearly gains stand at 517%. The 0x Protocol token has jumped magnanimously over the past few weeks, and the bull run doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
Its RSi of 74 shows the extreme bull potential and investor momentum the coin has been witnessing for the past month. All technical signals show strong buy signals.
0x Protocol community has sanctioned the Bitgert token as its next coin with extreme potential for price gains in the coming months. Bitgert has already gained 113% in the past month and looks ready for a price rally. Experts predict the coin will touch the price of $0.0001 in the next few months, which is a multi-bagger dream for any investor.
Bitgert’s ecosystem is expanding at a rapid pace, and its blockchain offers the fastest throughput of 100K TPS, far ahead of Solana and Injective, the forerunners in the L1 blockchain race. Bitgert’s community is 600K strong, and it has a slew of partnerships and collaborations, as well as native offerings for developers to build applications.
Conclusion0x Protocol has seen a huge rally in the past year. The 0x Protocol community is looking for the next big coin, and they see huge potential in the BItgert token with its strong fundamentals and offerings.
Both coins offer great value and long-term viability as an investment. Have you placed your bets yet?
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Disclaimer: This article is a press release. COINTURK NEWS is not responsible for any damage or loss related to any product or service mentioned in this article. COINTURK NEWS recommends that readers carefully research the company mentioned in the article.
0x Protocol has opened its Cross-Chain API to general availability with 12 bridge providers live from day one, including Circle, LayerZero, Stargate and Across — accessible through a single API integration.
0x Protocol (a DEX aggregator API that has routed $180 billion in swap volume since 2017) opened its Cross-Chain API to general availability Wednesday. Twelve bridge providers are live from day one, accessible through a single API call.
The partner list includes Circle, Chainlink, USDT0, Relay Protocol, LayerZero, Optimism, Across Protocol, Mayan, Stargate Finance, NEAR Protocol, Gas.zip and Squid Router. The API delivers routes with a median bridge time of 10 seconds and a quote response under 750 milliseconds, per 0x’s product page. The company reports 99.97% uptime on the underlying infrastructure.
For developers, the pitch is consolidation. A wallet or app already on 0x's Swap API can activate cross-chain routing without adding vendors or writing bridge-specific error handling. 0x monitors routes in real time and switches providers when one degrades.
The Competitive FramingCross-chain swaps are a contested market. 1inch launched its Fusion+ cross-chain order-flow product in 2024. LayerZero, Wormhole and Across each run native bridging stacks with direct developer APIs. Those protocols generally require the developer to choose and maintain a specific bridge. 0x is positioning its API as the layer that removes that decision.
Across Protocol, which uses an optimistic oracle to underwrite fast bridge fills, processed more than $15 billion in bridge volume in 2025. LayerZero powers OFT-standard token transfers; Stargate is its primary consumer-facing application. Both protocols are now listed as partners in the 0x Cross-Chain API — meaning 0x is aggregating competitors rather than replacing them outright.
From Private Beta to GAThe Cross-Chain API entered private beta on February 25, 2026, with a subset of bridge partners. Wednesday’s announcement removes the invite gate and expands the partner set to 12. 0x has powered swap infrastructure for Coinbase Developer Platform, MetaMask, Phantom, Robinhood Wallet and Trust Wallet, according to the company’s blog. Cumulative swap volume has crossed $180 billion across 211 million transactions since 2017.
The company has not disclosed how many private beta customers went live with cross-chain routing, or what aggregate volume the beta produced. That data would be the clearest measure of whether the 12-partner launch converts into real transaction flow.
Token DisconnectZRX, the governance and fee token for 0x Protocol, trades at $0.0934, a market cap of roughly $79 million at rank #322, per CoinGecko. The token is down about 5% on the day and 96% from its January 2018 all-time high of $2.50.
The Cross-Chain API does not route fees on-chain through ZRX under 0x’s current model; the company charges integrators at the API level. That structure means the GA launch does not directly affect ZRX tokenomics, even as it expands 0x’s addressable developer market.
0x Protocol just made its liquidity aggregation infrastructure accessible to AI agents, charging a flat $0.01 in USDC per API request. No API key. No account creation. No subscription. Just a wallet and a penny.
The integration, built on top of Alchemy’s AgentPay middleware, uses the HTTP 402 Payment Required standard, a long-dormant corner of the HTTP specification that was literally designed for digital payments decades ago and is only now finding its moment. In English: AI agents can now tap into 0x’s DeFi swap infrastructure autonomously, paying as they go from their own wallets.
How it works and why it matters 0x’s approach strips all of that away. An autonomous agent can hit the Swap API endpoint, attach a $0.01 USDC micropayment, and get back a quote or execute a swap across more than nine chains and over 130 liquidity sources covering more than 9 million tokens. The agent handles its own wallet, its own payments, and its own execution logic.
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Alchemy’s AgentPay serves as the payment layer making this possible. It entered private beta in April 2026 as a protocol-agnostic middleware solution, meaning it doesn’t custody funds or lock developers into a single ecosystem. AgentPay is designed to be compatible with systems from Coinbase, Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and Circle, which gives it a broad interoperability surface across both crypto-native and traditional payment rails.
The HTTP 402 standard is the quiet star here. When the internet’s architects wrote the HTTP specification, they reserved status code 402 for “Payment Required” but never fully defined how it should work. It sat unused for years while the internet built advertising-funded business models instead. Now crypto micropayments are giving it a second life, and 0x is among the first to deploy it at scale for agent-to-service commerce.
Building the agentic infrastructure stack The protocol has published dedicated documentation for AI agents, including guidance on using the Swap API programmatically and a framework called “0x Skills” tailored specifically for AI coding agents.
There’s also the 0x Cross-Chain API, which entered beta in February 2026 and was designed explicitly for agentic swaps. It’s compatible with various agent payment standards, including x402, the emerging specification built around that same HTTP 402 concept.
What this means for investors 0x is essentially betting that removing all friction from the onboarding process, no keys, no accounts, just pay-per-use, will make it the path of least resistance for agent developers.
The partnership with Alchemy adds credibility. Alchemy is one of the most widely used blockchain infrastructure providers, and its decision to build AgentPay as a protocol-agnostic layer suggests it sees agent-to-service payments as a large enough market to warrant dedicated middleware. The compatibility with major payment networks like Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe hints at ambitions beyond crypto-native use cases.
The risk side is worth noting too. Micropayment models have a history of sounding elegant in theory and struggling with adoption in practice. The internet tried micropayments for content in the early 2000s and mostly abandoned them in favor of subscriptions.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Crypto wallet and trading platform Abra recently enabled access to 17 Altcoins.Abra which is led by Bill Barhydt added native support to 17 altcoins including Digibyte (DGB), Dogecoin (DOGE), Dash (DASH), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Neo (NEO), 0x (ZEX), OmiseGo (OMG), Qtum (QTUM), Vertcoin (VTC), Zcash (ZEC), Golem (GNT), Stratis (STRAT), Augur (REP), Ethereum Classic (ETC), TRON (TRX), Lisk (LSK) and Status (SNT).
In addition to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) users will soon be able to deposit and withdraw an additional 17 Crypto assets.
Native withdrawals for the other cryptocurrencies will be turned on in the coming days.
— Abra (@AbraGlobal) May 8, 2019
Abra is a non-custodial wallet meaning the private keys will not be held by the company but within the user’s device instead. The firm has also previously announced that it will enable users to buy synthetic equivalents of stocks and ETFs using Bitcoin smart contracts.
Abra Partners with Plaid to connect to “Thousands of banks”Abra has partnered with San Francisco based Fintech firm Plaid to connect user accounts to thousands of US banks. App users had to use bank transfers to deposit into their wallets, but with the new feature, they will able to connect to their bank accounts directly in-app using their API.
Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra said:
“The addition of these new liquidity enhancements in our app gives users more ways to move between crypto and fiat. We’re particularly excited about our partnership with Plaid, which brings thousands of additional financial institutions into the Abra ecosystem for US customers.”
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Shrikar Parashar Shrikar is a Blockchain evangelist. He is a die-hard fan of security tokens. He follows the market closely but does not trade. He believes in Hodling.
As promised, the leading US crypto exchange Coinbase has dramatically increased the number of coins supported on its platform. The company just added Stellar (XLM), a few weeks after the long-rumored debut of XRP.
So which coins will land the coveted Coinbase listing next?
Back in December, Coinbase revealed it’s taking a hard look at 31 additional cryptocurrencies. The platform now supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Ethereum Classic, Zcash, 0x, Basic Attention Token and USD Coin.
That leaves 28 coins on Coinbase’s list of prospects.
Coinbase Pro, the company’s professional trading platform, already supports a handful of the coins on the list above: Civic, Dai, District0x, Golem, Loom, Decentraland and Zcash.
On September 24, Monolith announced the addition of Kyber Network’s KNC token to its Visa debit card.
Monolith is an Ethereum-based banking alternative for the world of decentralised finance. Users can now exchange KNC and other Ethereum-based tokens to fiat and load them onto their cards. Monolith Visa debit cardholders can also use KNC to purchase goods and services at 45 million locations worldwide that accept Visa as a payment method. TKN, Monolith’s token, is also listed on Kyber’s Ethereum-based decentralised exchange.
To encourage people to try Monolith, the two teams are collaborating on a giveaway. 30 winners will split a total of $900 in KNC with another bonus being added for users with Monolith Wallets.
Mel Gelderman, CEO of Monolith stated, “We admire Kyber’s efforts in creating a leading decentralised exchange. It will be a key feature in Monolith’s non-custodial banking replacement. Having TKN listed on Kyber, and KNC listed on the Monolith Visa Card makes sense due to our shared vision of the benefits of decentralised finance.“
Kyber Network Technology and Programmes
Kyber is an on-chain liquidity protocol that powers instant and secure token exchanges in any decentralised application. From September 9 to October 21, the project and several of its partners are hosting a virtual hackathon. The purpose of this 6-week event is to educate more developers around the world about its liquidity protocol and token swap technology, and how they can be used to create innovative payment flows and DeFi (decentralised or open finance) products. As part of this competition, $42,000 in bounties are up for grabs across multiple development categories.
As of September 2019, Kyber supports more than 70 different tokens, and powers over 70 integrated projects including popular wallets such as MEW, Trust, Enjin, and HTC Exodus smartphone. The project’s protocol is adding integrations with a growing list of dApps, particularly ones focused on decentralised NFT and ecommerce payments, exchanges and trading integrations, and DeFi.
Monolith Continues Expansion
Monolith is pioneering the real world application of DeFi by shipping the world's first non-custodial Ethereum wallet linked with a Visa debit card. The project is working hard to realise its vision of bringing the token economy to the real-world. On this front, Monolith is busy enabling ERC20 tokens to be spent on its platform. In addition to KNC, ETH, and TKN, Monolith’s debit card can now be used to spend Maker (MKR), Dai (DAI), DigixDAO (DGD), and Digix Gold (DGX) tokens. The Monolith wallet now supports a number of popular ERC-20 tokens.
The Monolith App is currently available in the iOS App Store and will soon be available for public release in the Android Play Store. Recently, the project sent invites to the first 120 people who registered for its Android beta testing.
On September 23, the project announced a community-wide vote to determine which tokens will be added next to the Monolith Card. The two tokens with the most votes out of the following four choices will be selected. Candidates include 0x (ZRX), Chainlink (LINK), Pundi X (NPSX), and Augur (REP). The project is working towards eventually making all Ethereum tokens spendable.
Maker, the largest DeFi project to date, just celebrated its biggest milestone yet with the successful activation of its Multi-Collateral Dai (MCD) upgrade.
Launched on November 18th, the MCD system will allow Maker users to draw out automated Dai stablecoin loans using collateral beyond just ether (ETH), a structural limitation of the Single-Collateral Dai (SCD) system that the MCD has replaced.
As such, SCD Dai that have yet to migrate to MCD are now known as “Sai” and can be upgraded to MCD Dai using Maker’s migration portal. Per the redesign, users can draw out collateralized debt positions — now known as “Maker Vaults” — using ether and Basic Attention Token (BAT) to start, as these were the first two cryptocurrencies vetted into MCD through Maker community governance votes.
In the future, more cryptocurrencies may follow pending similar votes. A key thread to watch going forward will be how conservative or aggressive MKR voters prove when it comes to adding new assets in. Notably, these voters were fairly conservative out of the gate, as they only voted ETH and BAT in out of seven initial contenders, with the other inaugural candidates having been 0x (ZRX), Augur (REP), DigixDAO (DGD), Golem (GNT), and OmiseGo (OMG). As for what comes next, REP is again on the slate to be considered by MKR holders.
For the Maker team, the activation day was the culmination of years of work and thus cause for celebration. As Maker Foundation chief executive officer Rune Christensen commented once MCD was live:
“I’ve been imagining this moment for five years. It’s incredible. MCD can improve the lives of so many people, from the unbanked individuals living in regions like Nigeria to the underbanked in the United States.”
Meet Oasis and the Dai Savings Rate Another major element of the MCD activation is the upgrade’s launch of the Dai Savings Rate (DSR). Akin to a decentralized checking account, the DSR will allow Dai holders to lock their holdings in a smart contract to earn an annual savings rate on those funds.
Some benefits to call out:
???? DSR is simple, free, & powerful
???? Available to any Dai holder
???? Exchanges are integrating DSR allowing traders & savers to benefit on idle Dai held
???????? Businesses can earn additional Dai on their capital float
????Stimulates DeFi growth opportunities
— Maker (@MakerDAO) November 16, 2019
At launch, the DSR was two percent, so if that rate were to hypothetically remain constant then 100 Dai locked in the underlying smart contract would generate two extra Dai after one year’s time, for example.
To streamline user access to the DSR and the new Maker Vaults system, the Maker Foundation has expanded its Oasis “all-in-one decentralized finance (DeFi) hub” to include Oasis Save and Oasis Borrow, which join the platform’s already launched Oasis Trade exchange.
Looking to the horizon the platform could be further expanded around other Dai related projects, the Maker team said:
“In the future, additional steps toward creating an ultimate all-in-one DeFi hub will be taken. Oasis might one day include features developed outside of Maker but that use Dai, for example. This will allow for deeper integrations with other DeFi projects.”
On the Dai Rebrand The Dai logo has undergone a calculated re-envisioning as part of the MCD transition, as the stablecoin’s original diamond-shaped logo (which now represents Sai) has given way to a new, more familiar “D” shaped logo that has clearly been designed to make it aesthetically nearer to the logos of the world’s top currencies.
And that’s precisely what the project’s builders are going for, as explained in a recent blog post:
“The Maker Foundation and the larger MakerDAO community are confident that Dai can sit alongside the other major currencies of the world, from inside Bloomberg Terminal platforms to beside cash registers in coffee shops. The new Dai logo is memorable, powerful in its simplicity, and, unlike the old one, easy to draw and digitally replicate. These attributes are very likely to attract new users, increase adoption, and expand brand awareness.”
William M. Peaster
William M. Peaster is a professional writer and editor who specializes in the Ethereum, Dai, and Bitcoin beats in the cryptoeconomy. He's appeared in Blockonomi, Binance Academy, Bitsonline, and more. He enjoys tracking smart contracts, DAOs, dApps, and the Lightning Network. He's learning Solidity, too! Contact him on Telegram at @wmpeaster
Yesterday, MakerDAO rolled out Multi-Collateral DAI [MCD] on its platform. While the platform continues its support for Ethereum-based collateral, support for Brave’s Basic Attention Token [BAT] was also added to the platform. Therefore, MCD would be supporting ETH as well as BAT tokens, for the time being. The platform is also eyeing Augur [REP], Golem [GNT], 0x [ZRX], DigixDAO [DGD], and OmiseGo [OMG] as potential assets on the platform.
The latest addition to the Maker platform requires users to migrate from Single Collateral Dai [SAI] to Multi-Collateral Dai. MakerDAO’s Mariano Conti went on to update the community about DAI’s progress and tweeted,
“Just over 12 hours in, some numbers for @MakerDAO Dai: – 2.4 million Dai – 88% ETH, 11% BAT, 1% Sai – 689 Vaults opened – 470k Dai in DSR – 534 Dai generated in Stability Fees – 6 liquidations already!”
At the time of writing, however, the figures had gone way beyond the same. According to DAI Stats, there were a total of 6,403,697.126 DAI in total. Further, about 6,118,083.014 DAI were acquired from ETH, followed by 269,552.625 DAI from BAT. 335.306 DAI were also obtained from SAI. The ETH stability fee and BAT stability were at 4.00 percent. However, the stability fee of SAI was at 0.00 percent.
Additionally, Dai Savings Rate [DSR] was another addition to the platform. This feature will allow users to lock their DAI into Maker’s DSR contract, while gaining a variable interest rate in DAI. At the time of writing, the DAI Savings Rate was at 2.00 percent, while the DAI in DSR was 542,872.369.
The relabeling of the term. ‘Collateralized Debt Position’ [CDP] to ‘Vault’ is another upgrade on the platform. There were a total of 768 vaults opened, during press time.
However, the total number of DAI locked in DeFi was fairly low. After recording an all-time high of 30.022 million in terms of DAI locked in DeFi, on 7 November, things went downhill. The total DAI locked in DeFi, as of today, was 16.235 million.
AI agents can now access 0x Protocol's Swap API by paying $0.01 per request in USDC directly from their own wallets, with no API key required, via the HTTP 402 and x402 standard built with Alchemy AgentPay.
AI agents can now access 0x Protocol's Swap API by paying $0.01 per request in USDC from their own wallets, with no API key or account setup required. The integration, built with Alchemy AgentPay, runs on the HTTP 402 standard and extends the protocol's DeFi liquidity aggregation to autonomous software agents for the first time.
The mechanism follows the x402 protocol flow: an agent sends an HTTP request to the 0x endpoint, the server returns a 402 Payment Required response, the agent signs a USDC payment on-chain, and a proxy verifies the transaction before releasing swap data. Payment is accepted via x402 on Base and Solana, or via the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), per the 0x thread on X Tuesday.
Why Agents Need ThisTraditional API access requires an account, a credit card, a key, and a billing cycle. None of those map cleanly to an autonomous process that may need to execute a single swap query before spinning down. The pay-per-request model lets an agent call the endpoint when it needs it and pay only for what it consumes, at $0.01 per call.
0x's Swap API aggregates liquidity across major DEX venues, making it one of the more practical data sources for any agent that needs onchain pricing or routing. Opening it to API-keyless access removes the setup step that would otherwise require human intervention before an agent can run.
Growing StackThe launch adds 0x to a stack of AI-agent payment infrastructure that has grown quickly since early June. AWS plugged Coinbase's x402 into CloudFront on June 19, letting any site behind Amazon's CDN charge agents per request in USDC. Coinbase for Agents launched standalone agent accounts on June 11. Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M) and Ripple's XRPL AI Starter Kit both launched June 10.
The x402 network has processed 75.41 million transactions totaling $24.24 million in volume over the past 30 days, per x402.org. 0x has not disclosed how many agent requests its Swap API has received since the feature launched, and the announcement includes no volume projections.
With many altcoins struggling gruesomely and Bitcoin rapidly usurping almost 70% of the total crypto market cap, some crypto analysts have predicted that there will not be another altcoin season until 2020.
Today’s market, however, may be an indication that it is time for a new altcoin season.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Bitcoin, is recording losses of around 1 to 2% on the day with its price falling to below $10,000. Typically, a declining BTC price also means significant losses for other cryptocurrencies. However, today seems to be an exception, as many altcoin markets are moving in the opposite direction, posting 1 to 2-digit gains.
Bullish Altcoins Although major coins like Ether, XRP and LTC are being affected by the Bitcoin decline, let’s look at some of the other alternative cryptocurrencies that are performing remarkably well today.
Leading the pack is Wanchain (WAN) with a massive 72% gain against the dollar and a 75% gain against BTC on the day. At the time of writing, the coin was trading at $0.4696, with a 24-hour volume and market cap of $63,674,780 and $49,858,746, respectively.
WAN is the native currency of the Wanchain blockchain, an infrastructure that aims to connect the decentralized financial worlds with features such as cross-chain interoperability, privacy, and smart contract functionality.
Wanchain has made a lot of progress since the start of this year, and the project launched its mainnet yesterday ahead of the official activation of its Proof of Stake consensus protocol on September 3rd.
You may also like: Binance Makes a New Push to Secure EU Approval Pushing Back at Reuters: Inside Binance’s Fight for Its European Future Analyst Identifies 3 Altcoin Sectors Positioned to Survive Market Shakeout Factom (FCT), ranked #96 on CoinMarketCap, saw a 17.5% increase against the dollar and a 19.03% rise against Bitcoin. Its price is now above $4.18 for the first time in the last seven days.
Following the same bullish pattern are Zilliqa (ZIL), Siacoin (SC), ICON (ICX), Ardor (ARDR), 0x (ZRX), and Ravencoin (RVN) and others, with gains of between 7 to 17% in today’s trading session.
Although Bitcoin still comprises 68.4% of the total market cap, do these altcoins’ fresh bull runs give a glimpse of the start of a new altcoin season?
0x is the foremost decentralised exchange protocol currently on the market. They are also one of the first having launched back in 2017.
Many in the cryptocurrency space are convinced that the era of centralised cryptocurrency exchange has to come to an end. This has led to a flood of decentralised exchange protocols that have launched over the past 3 years.
So, with so much competition, is 0x still worth it?
In this 0x review, I will give you everything that you need to know. I will also analyse the long term use cases and price potential of the ZRX tokens.
What is 0x?The 0x protocol website is pretty clear on the overarching goal of the project as it immediately states:
Powering Decentralized Exchange, 0x is an open protocol that enables the peer-to-peer exchange of assets on the Ethereum blockchain.
Back in 2016 the founders of 0x, Will Warren and Amir Bandeali, had a strong belief that blockchain technology was going to be a disruptive force. They saw a future where any asset at all would be tokenized and traded publically on blockchains.
With the versatility and scope that Ethereum brings to the table, they decided that the Ethereum blockchain would be the perfect medium for hosting this type of asset exchange and they set to work on creating the 0x protocol.
Basics of 0xThe decentralized trading offered by 0x is based on an off-chain relay that acts to keep network bloat minimized, and gas prices as low as possible.
For those familiar with the increase in gas prices and bloating that can occur on the Ethereum blockchain (think Crypto Kitties or Ether Delta), you can probably imagine the benefits realized by using an off-chain relay.
For those less familiar with the workings of Ethereum, here’s an explanation of why off-chain is the way to go for decentralized exchanges.
Most decentralized exchanges use Ethereum’s smart contracts to power all of the order functions and trades on the exchange. Using smart contracts in this way keeps user funds within their control, rather than needing to send funds to a third-party (such as Coinbase or Bittrex) and hope that the funds remain safe.
0x Compared to Centralised & Decentralised Exchanges. Image via 0x Blog
Using smart contracts also means a transaction needs to be executed on the blockchain for everything done on the exchange. That includes deposits and withdrawals, as well as placing, modifying, canceling, or filling an order. And every single transaction costs gas to ensure the transaction is processed.
When you consider how many trades a day trader might make, the number of orders being placed, modified and filled would mean gas fees could add up quite quickly. That’s a good part of the downside with decentralized exchanges. They are far ahead of centralized exchanges when it comes to security, but fall behind the centralized exchanges when you consider costs and accessibility.
The 0x protocol addressed these shortcomings of the decentralized exchange by using an off-chain relay together with on-chain settlement. In this scenario, any user is able to broadcast their order off-chain.
These orders can be picked up and filled by another user, and the only part of the entire transaction that occurs on-chain is the actual value transfer. This reduces the number of transactions being run on-chain, thus reducing the potential for bloat, and keeping gas fees from trading actions as low as possible.
The 0x RelayerThe key to off-chain transactions for 0x is the use of what they call “relayers.” These relayers broadcast the orders placed across the public or private order books, as well as bringing liquidity to the network by hosting the order books.
While this function is similar to an exchange, the relayer differs from an exchange because it is unable to provide trade execution. It’s more like a bulletin board that presents maker orders to the network.
In order to fill an order, a taker must submit their own signature along with the makers to the exchange’s smart contract. Relayers are compensated for providing this service with the 0x currency ZRX.
Overview of how the 0x Protocol Functions. Image Source
When a trade is sent through a relayer they are called “Broadcast Orders.” This allows anyone to submit orders to the network easily, and it also allows anyone to see the orders as they are broadcast and then fill them.
The 0x solution can also accommodate point-to-point orders in which the maker specifies a taker when the order is broadcast. With this type of order, users can directly transfer funds using a variety of communication channels, including email and various messaging programs.
When an order is specified as point-to-point in this manner only the specified taker can fill the order, thus protecting the transaction from hijacking by malicious actors.
Additional 0x FeaturesBesides being a basic decentralized exchange, the 0x project has included several other features and products. These include a governance mechanism, open-source smart contracts, and a token registry.
0x GovernanceIn addition to being used as compensation for relayers, the ZRX token is also used to facilitate the decentralized governance of the 0x platform. Stakeholders of the ZRX token can vote on proposals that will affect the blockchain, thus affecting the future development of the 0x protocol.
0x Update StructureOne huge benefit to 0x is that the smart contracts are open source, and the protocol itself is application agnostic.
This means any developer can build on 0x to create an exchange function, which allows the protocol to serve as a plug-in for other Ethereum dApps. There are already a number of projects being built on 0x because of this, including Publish0x, Augur, Gnosis, district0x, and more.
0x Launch Kit Screenshot. Image Source
0x itself has improved on this even further by releasing the 0x Launch Kit, which enables anyone to launch their own exchange or marketplace in minutes. The Launch Kit removes the complexities of building a relayer. The codebase allows any user to connect to wallets, wrap ETH, make and take orders, and get notified of order state changes.
0x Token RegistryNot least of all 0x includes a token registry contract which stores a list of ERC-20 tokens and the associated metadata for each, such as the token name, symbol, contract address and other details. This is the official on-chain reference that can be utilized to verify address and exchange rates.
Trading Statistics with Asset Swapper. Image Source
It has also been used to create the 0x Asset Swapper and the related 0x Instant. With the Asset Swapper, any digital asset can be programmatically exchanged. This was the base for 0x Instant, which allows anyone to offer simple crypto purchasing as a widget on any website.
You would think a project that began in 2016 would have a fairly large following on most social media sites, especially the big three for cryptocurrencies – Twitter, Telegram, and Reddit.
You’d be mostly right too, except for one change. The 0x team uses Discord, not Telegram. On Twitter, they have a massive 151,000 followers. That’s huge even for cryptocurrency projects. They’re also active on that Twitter account, not only posting their own stuff but also re-tweeting interesting bits from others.
On Reddit, the 0x sub-Reddit has over 15,000 followers, which is a pretty large following too. Things are a bit quieter over here though. Sometimes a few days will go by without any new posts, and most posts only have a few comments and replies. Good, but not great.
Some of the conversation taking place in the 0x Discord. Image via Discord
I would also say the Discord server is just good, not great. Actually, with just over 2,500 members I was surprised because I would have expected a larger following. However, there was quite a bit of interesting discussion going on with a range of different topics.
The 0x team is also on Facebook, with just over 2,000 followers. The account has regular posts, but they are several days apart, and there isn’t a whole lot of interaction.
Finally there is a forum created specifically for the 0x protocol. That has activity similar to Reddit. Posts are spread several days apart, and there are usually just a handful of replies to posts. The good news is it looks as if the more recent posts are gaining the most traction, meaning adoption of the forum may be growing.
The 0x TeamThe 0x team is led by co-founders Will Warren and Amir Bandeali, who serve as CEO and CTO respectively. The team has grown to 38 core members located in San Francisco, but there are dozens more assisting with the project globally.
One notable aspect of the 0x team is the advisors of the project. Fred Ehrsam (Coinbase co-founder), Joey Krug (Pantera Capital Co-CIO), and Linda Xie (Co-founder Scalar Capital) all advise the project.
Some of the 0x Team Members
CEO Will Warren has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California – San Diego. He went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the same university, but never completed the degree, moving on to the founding of 0x instead.
CTO Amir Bandeali graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He went on to work as a trader for four years prior to joining the 0x team in 2016.
The ZRX TokenThe 0x team held an ICO in August 2017, selling 500 million ZRX tokens for $0.07 each and raising $24 million in just 24 hours and 10 minutes.
The ICO was somewhat unique in that there was no marketing performed, and once the sale began registered buyers were only permitted a total of 6.77 ETH ($1,893) worth of ZRX tokens. That cap was put in place to encourage wider distribution of the ZRX tokens, and following the sale the team determined that ZRX tokens were spread across more than 13,000 Ethereum addresses.
ZRX has had a number of spikes and drops during its trading history, but it is notable that the all-time low for the token was $0.103962 on August 16, 2017. That’s notable because it is almost 50% above the ICO price and it occurred the day the ICO ended.
ZRX Price Performance. Image via CMC
Unlike most altcoins that fell throughout most of 2018, ZRX saw three more significant peaks throughout the year. The first was in late April and May when the price briefly moved above $2 again. It fell quickly from that height, trading below $0.70 by June, but then jumping back above $1 in conjunction with the 0x v2 testnet launch.
It dipped back below $1 but remained in the $0.70 to $0.90 range over the next few months as enthusiasm over the mainnet launch of 0x in September kept price elevated. Surprisingly the price began falling in October after Coinbase announced it was listing ZRX.
Since then the price has been steadily retreating and as of September 9, 2019, the price of ZRX is down to $0.160732.
As we’ve seen from the historical movements in ZRX the token seems to get a healthy boost when the team meets major milestones. With that in mind, it could be good to keep an eye on the project’s roadmap to determine when the next major announcement might occur.
Buying & Storing ZRXIf you’re interested in buying ZRX you’ll be pleased to know that it is available from a huge number of exchanges. The greatest volume is at MXC, followed by HitBTC and BitMax. It’s also available from Coinbase, Binance, OkEx, Bittrex, Poloniex and many others.
The volume is well spread out across these exchanges which means that ZRX is not dependent on a singular market. There is also strong liquidity on the individual order books. For example, on Binance the ZRX / BTC books are deep and there is high turnover.
Once you have your ZRX in hand (so to speak) storing it is easy. It’s an ERC-20 token, so it can be stored in any wallet with ERC-20 support. That includes MyEtherWallet and MetaMask, as well as the hardware wallets Trezor and Ledger. There are also a number of software wallets that can be used such as the Exodus desktop wallet.
DevelopmentOften there can be a mismatch between the amount of development that a project claims that they are doing vs. the amount that is actually been done.
Therefore, I often like to dive right into their public code repositories and check out the amount of coding activity. Below are the top three most active repos in the 0x GitHub.
Code Commits to Select Repos over past 12 months
As you can see the developers are really active and have been pushing regular commits over the past year. These are also only three of the repos when there are a further 71 others with varying degrees of code commits.
This ranks 0x pretty highly when it comes to raw developer output. In fact, if we were to take a look at it compared to some of the other blockchain projects it is ranked at 13 in terms of code commits and 14 with overall activity.
Indeed this level of coding activity could make sense when viewed in the context of the broader roadmap. For example, in September of last year they released v2.0 of their protocol which required extensive testing and iterations.
0x RoadmapLooking ahead, there are some really exciting projects and features that the 0x developers are working on. These include larger protocol upgrades as well as numerous 0x Improvement Proposals (ZEIPs).
There are a number of these so I won't go into them here but some of the most exciting include the 0x Mesh & networked liquidity. This is a a peer-to-peer network for sharing orders which will serve as an alternative to the Standard Relayer API
There is also some really exciting research that is taking place on coordinators. These are essentially a service that will enforce certain rules over the execution of trades. They combine the best features of Order matching and the Open Orderbook.
There is also the many strides that are being made on the launch of v 3.0 of the 0x protocol. This has currently been deployed on the Kovan testnet. One of the most interesting features of v3.0 will be the inaugural launch of 0x staking.
The 0x team keeps their community fully updated about their development in their official blog as well as their broader documentation.
Conclusion0x is attempting to bring the strengths of both decentralized and centralized exchanges to the crypto space while leaving the weaknesses behind. Decentralization provides security of funds, while the use of off-chain relayers gives users the same low-cost trading they’ve come to expect from centralized exchanges.
By keeping settlements on-chain users receive all the benefits of a decentralized exchange, with transactions cleared just once to keep fees at a minimum. Adding smart contracts to manage the entire process keeps everything as secure as possible.
When you consider the huge amounts that have been involved in so many different centralized exchange hacks, it’s clear that a good decentralized solution is necessary.
0x could be that solution, but we wonder if their first-mover advantage will be enough to keep them in the lead as Binance prepares to launch their own decentralized exchange, and other leading centralized exchanges explore the possibility of decentralization as well.
