Ekubo: The Best AMM You’ve Never Heard Of
While attention flocks to meme-driven tokens and hype-fueled launches, Ekubo is quietly becoming one of the most important pieces of crypto trading infrastructure. It’s already the #5 largest EVM DEX by volume — and trades at a fraction of the valuation of its peers.
Led by the former Uniswap V3/V4 architect, Moody Salem, it's already dominating Starknet (90%+ market share) and quietly preparing to break out across Ethereum.
Now trading at a ~$51M FDV with zero VC allocation, Ekubo has all the ingredients for a multi-billion dollar re-rate.
TLDR
- ◆Founder is Uniswap’s ex-chief engineer. Developed V3. Designed V4. Praised by Andre Cronje, Hari (Spearbit/Cantina), and every serious DeFi builder you know.
- ◆Ekubo’s AMM is faster, cheaper, and more composable than anything on-chain today. Its gas footprint is tiny (~80k gas/swap), and its lean architecture supports extensions like limit orders, oracles, and TWAMMs — all live.
- ◆90%+ market share on Starknet. Will likely own the BTC <> L2 order flow when Starknet kicks off its Bitcoin strategy (more on this below).
- ◆Just launched on Ethereum. Matcha already routing 100% of $10k USDC<>USDT trades through Ekubo despite only $1M in liquidity. Their execution is simply better.
- ◆Fair launch. No VC unlocks. Airdrop + treasury + Ekubo Inc. (team pledged to never sell). 65% staked. Almost no active sellers.
- ◆Revenue-funded buybacks. Protocol buys $EKUBO from fees and holds it for DAO staking rewards. ~$600k run rate today — before ETH + BTC catalysts.
- ◆Highest volume/TVL ratio of top EVM DEXs. Ekubo’s volume to TVL ratio on Ethereum is 22.96. The next highest is Maverick Protocol at 5.16 and Uniswap at 0.24.
Built by the Architect of Uniswap V3 & V4
Moody Salem, Ekubo’s founder, wrote the code behind Uniswap V3 and designed V4. He’s respected by the deepest technical builders in crypto — including Andre Cronje and Spearbit/Cantina’s Hari.
With Ekubo, he’s taken everything learned from Uniswap and built something leaner, faster, and more composable:
- ◆~80k gas/swap (best-in-class)
- ◆Modular extension layer already powering oracles, limit orders, and TWAMMs
- ◆Superior capital efficiency and routing, evidenced by Matcha routing 100% of $10k USDC<>USDT trades to Ekubo — even with just $1M in liquidity.
Upcoming Catalysts
1. OP_CAT Momentum → Trustless BTC <> Starknet Bridge
OP_CAT is a proposed Bitcoin opcode that would enable native covenant functionality — allowing Bitcoin scripts to enforce how BTC can be spent in the future. This unlocks use cases like trustless bridges, vaults, and more expressive smart contracts directly on Bitcoin.
OP_CAT’s progress opens the door to a trust-minimized bridge between Bitcoin and Starknet. This would position Ekubo to become the leading AMM for native BTC and its derivatives — a vertical with few credible competitors.
2. $100M in STRK incentives targeting BTC TVL on Starknet
Starknet will be subsidizing Bitcoin TVL to the tune of $100M in $STRK. Ekubo, with dominant market share, will be the primary recipient of flows and liquidity incentives.
3. Runes trading will happen on Ekubo
Multiple launchpads are etching Runes collections on Bitcoin via Starknet. These will be traded directly on Ekubo, opening a novel BTC<>DeFi bridge and new attention vector.
These are real, funded initiatives with liquidity behind them — not speculative.
Token Setup
- ◆$EKUBO trades at the lowest volume-to-FDV ratio of any top 10 DEX — despite stronger fundamentals
- ◆65%+ staked
- ◆Buybacks funded by protocol revenue (~$600k annual run rate, and climbing), held by the DAO, and will eventually be distributed to stakers
- ◆No VC allocations, no unlock overhang
This is one of the cleanest and fairest token distributions in DeFi, in the hands of long-term aligned stakers.
How to buy Ekubo
- ◆Set up Argent or Braavos wallet to trade on Starknet
- ◆Bridge funds to Starknet from Ethereum
- ◆Withdraw from CEX: Withdraw ETH or STRK to Starknet directly from Binance, ByBit, OKX.
- ◆Bridge from Etheruem: Use starkgate.starknet.io to bridge your funds from Ethereum to Starknet
- ◆Bridge from any chain: Use the following apps to bridge from any chain to Starknet
- ◆Swap for EKUBO using any asset on app.ekubo.org
Affiliate Disclosures
- •The author and/or others the author advises do not currently hold, or plan to initiate, an investment position in target.
- •The author does not hold an affiliated position with the target such as employment, directorship, or consultancy.
- •The author is not being compensated in any form by target in relation to this research.
- •To the best of the author's knowledge, the information provided here contains no material, non-public information. The accuracy of the information is the responsibility of the reader.