Analysis of the Interface Layer Innovation Experiments of DEX: Slingshot and DexGuru

This article is an original piece by Chain Catcher, author: Echo, editor: Gong Quanyu.
In March this year, DCG, the parent company of Grayscale, wrote about its investment strategy, highlighting the interface layer and middleware layer as key investment directions. The former refers to projects that integrate middleware and have user-friendly front-end experiences, mentioning the aggregation DEX project Slingshot.
Recently, Slingshot has launched on the Polygon network, and its UI interface is significantly different from other mainstream aggregation DEXs. Another similar DEX project, DexGuru, has also launched. Chain Catcher will provide a detailed introduction to these two DEX projects that focus on user-friendly interfaces in this article.
1. Slingshot
Slingshot was born in the Concourse open community, which is also the team behind the well-known DeFi data statistics website DeFi Pulse. Slingshot was formerly known as the on-chain aggregation trading protocol DEX.AG, and after completing a $3.1 million financing round last year, it was renamed Slingshot. This round of financing was led by Framework Ventures, with participation from well-known investment institutions such as Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, and Digital Currency Group.
According to reports, Slingshot aims to attract traders and newcomers to its all-in-one DeFi platform with its consumer-facing brand and products, backed by its DEX aggregation API and innovative on-chain protocols. After launching on the Polygon network, Slingshot also plans to support other layer two networks like Arbitrum.

According to Chain Catcher's observations, Slingshot's trading interface mainly presents the following features:
First, it allows users to directly add and pin target tokens to the left-side list, eliminating the need to search for tokens in the dropdown list every time they click the trading box, simplifying the trading steps for users.
Second, it integrates various trading data. Many DEXs only display trading data on separate interfaces, while Slingshot directly shows the 24-hour trading volume, latest transaction history, price fluctuations, K-line charts, etc., of the target currency on the trading interface, which is more conducive to users making trading decisions.
Overall, Slingshot's trading page logic is more similar to centralized exchanges, laying out various trading data around the target currency while supporting trading between the target currency and any other currency, making it more user-friendly for those accustomed to centralized exchanges.
2. DexGuru
DexGuru is also a decentralized trading aggregation platform, founded by Nick Sawinyh, the founder of defiprime.com. It supports users to conduct aggregation trading on networks such as Ethereum mainnet, BSC, and Polygon. In April this year, it secured $1 million in seed funding, led by ParaFi Capital, with participation from Lemniscap, The LAO, Divergence Ventures, BitScale, and others.
According to the introduction, DexGuru's interface innovation lies in combining analysis and research tools with trading execution functions, with real-time data from each on-chain market fully integrated into a single UI. DexGuru aims to establish a "Bloomberg Terminal" in the DeFi space, presenting on-chain market data in an actionable and insightful manner to help traders analyze data from major blockchains compatible with EVM.
Specifically, DexGuru's trading interface is divided into four main sections: the top navigation bar, the left liquidity bar, the central trading bar, and the right trading data bar, with most information also centered around the target currency.

In the top navigation bar, users can select the target currency and view its market capitalization, circulation, website, Twitter, and other information to gain a deeper understanding of the token;
In the left liquidity bar, users can view the total on-chain liquidity of the target currency, as well as information on liquidity pool additions/exits for that currency;
In the central trading bar, users can view K-line charts similar to those of centralized exchanges, compare K-line trends with other currencies, and utilize features like note-taking and setting colors and sizes. Below the K-line, users can select any token for buying/selling operations.
In the right trading data bar, users can view the on-chain trading volume, trading history, and K-line trends of that currency. Notably, DexGuru also labels the types of addresses initiating trades, marking specific icons for addresses with trading volumes of $10,000-$100,000, $100,000-$500,000, and over $500,000 in the past 30 days, which can help users assess token trading conditions, on-chain capital movements, whale accumulation, and market sentiment based on different categories of traders.
Overall, DexGuru provides a more diverse range of information data than Slingshot, but the interface also appears more complex, with the target audience leaning towards professional on-chain traders.
Currently, mainstream DEXs like Uniswap still focus on liquidity, capital utilization efficiency, and other factors, while an increasing number of DEXs are beginning to innovate in UI design, which will also help DeFi gain more momentum for development.