Here's the current picture of the biggest decentralized exchanges (DEXs) — the main alternative to centralized exchanges — ranked by 24h trading volume, per DefiLlama's market-wide data:
- Uniswap V4 — the flagship DEX/AMM on Ethereum and 17+ chains. $1.06B 24h volume, $208.5K daily fees, $952M TVL. Uniswap
- Uniswap V3 — the earlier generation, still enormous across ~45 chains. $992M 24h volume, $1.73M daily fees (with $370K going to the protocol), $1.58B TVL. Uniswap V3
- PancakeSwap AMM V3 — the BNB Chain heavyweight, also on Ethereum/Base/Solana. $731M 24h volume, $320K daily fees, $310M TVL. PancakeSwap
- PumpSwap — the native DEX for pump.fun's Solana meme-coin ecosystem. $568M 24h volume, $3.8M daily fees — the highest fees on this list. PumpSwap
- Aerodrome Slipstream — the central trading hub on Base. $479M 24h volume, $242K daily fees, $133M TVL. Aerodrome
- BisonFi — a Solana "Prop AMM". $411M 24h volume (no fees/TVL data). BisonFi
- Orca DEX — the Solana AMM. $307M 24h volume, $208K daily fees, $262M TVL. Orca
- Hyperliquid Spot Orderbook — the fully on-chain order book on the Hyperliquid L1. $258M 24h volume, $128K daily fees, $160M TVL. Hyperliquid
A few things worth noting:
- Fee revenue vs. protocol revenue are different numbers — for instance, Uniswap V3 generates $1.73M/day in total fees, but only ~$370K goes to the protocol itself; the rest goes to liquidity providers. Same idea across the board (Aerodrome: $242K fees, $180K to the protocol).
- Curated tooling for these is thin right now — my directory returned nothing for a DEX aggregator category this turn, so I can't point you to a bundled swap tool; the links above are the protocols' own apps.
- Watch out for the trade-offs of going DEX: no KYC and self-custody are the upside, but you take on gas costs, slippage, impermanent loss if you provide liquidity, and smart-contract risk — and small/new pools can have thin liquidity or malicious tokens. None of this is financial advice; the right choice depends on whether you value custody, fees, or convenience more.
Want me to dig into one of these (e.g. Hyperliquid's perp side), or check what's trending in the broader market today?