A staggering 40% of Solana’s transaction volume is now driven by memecoins, according to an update shared with CI. And yet, the majority of these assets never even reach centralized exchanges (CEXs).
Memecoins are increasingly bypassing CEXs altogether, launching and thriving in decentralized finance (DeFi) instead. This raises the question: Are CEXs losing their relevance when it comes to early-stage crypto assets?
Memecoins are choosing decentralized exchanges (DEXs) as their launchpads, finding far greater success before even considering CEX listings.
Is it because CEXs are becoming stale, bogged down by bureaucracy, and ultimately too slow to adapt? DeFi offers what CEXs can’t—an environment of immediate access, greater liquidity, and a more democratized approach to token growth.
Tristan Frizza, Founder of Zeta Markets, a Solana-based perps DEX, delves into why memecoins are turning their backs on CEXs and finding a natural home in DeFi.
Frizza explains how derivatives trading is shifting toward DEXs, as memecoin traders look for more flexibility and innovation.
Frizza also covered why CEX fatigue is real—and how DEXs, like Zeta, are seizing this opportunity to redefine token listings.
Our conversation with Tristan Frizza is shared below.
Crowdfund Insider: We’re seeing more memecoins launching on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) instead of centralized exchanges (CEXs). What’s driving this trend, and what’s the appeal of DEXs for these types of assets?
Tristan Frizza: This shift highlights the evolving dynamics of crypto markets. Memecoins are speculative, community-centric, and move rapidly, making them well-suited for DeFi’s fast, open environment. DEXs provide immediate market access without the regulatory and listing hurdles that often come with CEXs.
The DEX landscape enables tokens to launch with minimal friction, allowing communities to participate in trading instantly and directly, which is an enormous appeal for developers and investors. This ease of access aligns with the spontaneity and community-driven nature of memecoins.
Crowdfund Insider: Do you think this preference for DEXs among new tokens like memecoins signals a broader trend, one that could impact CEX relevance?
Tristan Frizza: Absolutely. We’re seeing that DeFi offers advantages that align well with the ethos of crypto—decentralization, accessibility, and speed. This cycle, especially with memecoins and DEX-first tokens, has shown that real opportunities and wealth generation are happening on DEXs, where assets can build momentum from day one.
For many traders, by the time a token reaches a CEX, it’s often considered “too late” to capture those strong returns. DEXs provide that early access, allowing communities to participate in price discovery and growth without waiting for a centralized listing. As DEXs continue to enhance accessibility and user experience, we may indeed see a shift in relevance, with DEXs becoming the preferred venue for early-stage assets.
Crowdfund Insider: What about user experience and liquidity? These are often challenges for DEXs—how does Zeta Markets address them?
Tristan Frizza: User experience and liquidity are crucial for any trading platform, whether a DEX or CEX. At Zeta Markets, we’ve focused on delivering a streamlined experience that matches the quality and familiarity of traditional exchanges while preserving DeFi’s core values.
Our order book model provides price stability and depth, distinguishing us from the automated market makers (AMMs) common on many DEXs. As technology continues to evolve, the differences between DEXs and CEXs will become less noticeable, making liquidity easier to onboard across platforms. By integrating with Solana’s ecosystem and collaborating with professional liquidity providers, we ensure our platform can support both high-demand assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum and niche tokens like memecoins.
Crowdfund Insider: The term “democratized trading” often comes up with DeFi. Can you explain this more broadly in the context of Zeta Markets and DEXs?
Tristan Frizza: Democratized trading means removing barriers and leveling the playing field. Traditionally, asset launches and early trading access have been controlled by large institutions and accredited investors. With DEXs, retail traders have the same access as institutional players, allowing them to participate from day one. At Zeta, we’re committed to providing a marketplace where individuals can engage with new assets without gatekeeping.
This open-access approach aligns with DeFi’s mission of providing financial opportunities that are accessible to anyone, anywhere.
Crowdfund Insider: How does Zeta Markets fit into the broader DeFi ecosystem on Solana, especially regarding derivatives?
Tristan Frizza: Solana has proven to be a game-changer for DeFi, particularly in speed and scalability. At Zeta Markets, we’ve built a derivatives-focused DEX that leverages Solana’s robust infrastructure.
Derivatives are a cornerstone of mature financial markets, offering traders tools to hedge, speculate, and manage risk. Zeta brings these tools to DeFi with perpetual futures, allowing traders to leverage their positions in a decentralized way. This capability adds depth to Solana’s DeFi ecosystem, attracting seasoned and emerging traders interested in everything from traditional assets to speculative tokens like memecoins.
Crowdfund Insider: With memecoins and other new assets increasingly launching on DEXs, what challenges do you think DEXs face as they compete with CEXs for broader user adoption?
Tristan Frizza: The primary challenges are user experience, liquidity depth and security. We aim to break down the barriers in DeFi so that using our platform feels as seamless as any CeFi or Web2 trading experience. User experience is critical, as many DeFi platforms still feel complex for newcomers, our focus is to make onboarding as seamless as possible by focusing on wallet and chain abstraction.
Finally, liquidity depth can vary, so building strong relationships with market makers and optimizing our order book model helps us provide a stable, familiar trading environment for our users.
From a security point of view, we’ve established rigorous protocols to ensure asset safety such as platform audits, insurance funds and internal controls, which have led to Zeta being one of the few perps protocols on Solana with no protocol exploits in its entire history of operation.
Crowdfund Insider: Let’s talk about liquidity. How do you ensure sufficient liquidity for newer assets that might not be as established as BTC or ETH?
Tristan Frizza: Liquidity is essential for any trading platform, and at Zeta, we’ve designed our order book-based exchange to mirror the trading mechanics of centralized exchanges. This approach allows more established and professional market makers to quickly onboard due to its familiarity.
We work closely with Solana-native market makers and professional liquidity providers who are highly skilled at launching new markets and ensuring consistent price depth. Solana’s high-speed infrastructure further supports liquidity across a wide range of assets, including newer or niche tokens, allowing us to offer robust liquidity for a diverse set of trading pairs.
Crowdfund Insider: What are the primary benefits of launching Zeta X on Bullet, and how does it improve on the current version of Zeta Markets?
Tristan Frizza: Zeta X on Bullet represents a significant step forward for us. Bullet is Solana’s first rollup solution, bringing scalability to our platform. By deploying Zeta X on Bullet, we can offer faster, more efficient trading, delivering a more reliable trading experience.
This ensures that users including liquidity providers face no compromises when switching from a centralized exchange to Zeta X. Our current model’s evolution enables us to support more users and advanced trading features while maintaining the decentralization and openness that DeFi traders value. We’re excited to bring this level of performance to Zeta, setting a new standard for DEXs on Solana.
Crowdfund Insider: As a derivatives-focused platform, what role do you think derivatives play in the DeFi ecosystem, and why is Zeta’s focus on this area significant?
Tristan Frizza: Derivatives add a layer of sophistication to DeFi, providing tools that traders can use to hedge against risk or leverage their positions.
This simultaneously facilitates an environment that offers enhanced speculation for those seeking leverage and a method to manage risks for those looking to hedge. Additionally due to the inherent capital efficiency of a derivatives platform it also allows deeper liquidity.
By offering derivatives on a decentralized platform, we’re bringing these benefits to a broader audience. Zeta’s focus on perpetual futures and other derivatives is designed to attract professional-grade traders who want to explore advanced trading strategies and trade larger volumes without relying on a CEX. As DeFi grows, we believe that derivatives will play a central role in its maturation and lead to new use cases like yield products and stable coins.
Crowdfund Insider: With all the rapid changes in DeFi, where do you see Zeta Markets and DEXs like it in five years? Will they become the primary way people access crypto markets?
Tristan Frizza: I think DeFi has the potential to evolve the financial landscape, and DEXs will play an increasingly prominent role in this transformation especially as web3 technologically catches up and performance gaps become smaller.
In five years, we envision Zeta Markets as the go-to platform for professional and retail traders. Zeta X is designed to be uncompromising. It will be as performant as centralized exchanges but offer radically superior transparency and verifiability while also being far more performant than DEXs in the past.
With on-ramps, wallet abstraction and bridges, DEXs like Zeta X will also be able to go after the same customers that CEXs have traditionally had a hold over.