In this article, I will discuss which cross-chain decentralized exchange (DEX) has the highest trading volume in 2025. With the rise of DeFi, cross-chain DEXs are becoming essential for seamless asset swaps across different blockchains.
We’ll explore the top platforms, compare their trading volumes, and reveal which one leads the market this year.
What Are Cross-Chain DEXs and Why Do They Matter?
Cross-chain DEXs offer users seamless trading experiences for cryptocurrencies or tokens across various blockchains without having to rely on centralized intermediaries.
Compared to traditional DEXs which operate within the confines of a singular blockchain, cross-chain DEXs leverage the assets on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Avalanche, etc., allowing for easy interchangeability between multiple chains.
Cross-chain DEXs are essential in enhancing the liquidity of a blockchain network. Interoperability is fundamental to user’s access to a blockchain DeFi in comparison to other traditional forms of suturing it. As the trading volume increases within a DEX, its attractiveness as well as liquidity increases, forming a self-perpetuating growth cycle.
The Importance of Trading Volume
Trading volume measures the total quantity of assets transacted within a timeframe on a DEX. This is one of the principal indicators of a platform’s activity, its liquidity, and the prevailing health of the market.
Increased trading activity translates to improved conditions for traders, such as more favorable bid-ask spreads, reduced slippage, and superior execution prices.
As DeFi evolves in 2025, trading volume shifts from being an important indicator to the singular way of discerning leadership in competition between cross-chain DEX systems.
Top Cross-Chain DEXs in 2025: Overview and Volume Comparison
Thorchain
Since the beginning, Thorchain has been a forerunner in cross-chain swapping. Thorchain operates on its own native blockchain, allowing for trustless swapping of native assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and several others.
Alongside maintaining thorchain volume leader position, his daily trading volume has averaged over $500 million. Its user base continues to grow due to its liquidity pools and unique incentivization programs.
Osmosis
Starting out in the Cosmos ecosystem, Osmosis has expanded its interoperability to include Ethereum, Polkadot and Avalanche.
Osmosis makes use of the IBC protocol to enable fast, low-fee cross-chain swaps. By 2025, Osmosis reports daily volumes near $350 million with the customizable AMM pools and community governance.
Multichain Swap
With the ability to route trades through multiple protocols to find the best pricing and liquidity, Multichain Swap has surfaced as a leading cross-chain DEX aggregator.
This drove the rapid growth of the DEX as its ability to bridge several blockchains and offer low fees is unmatched . By mid-2025, Multichain Swap’s daily trading volume reached around $300 million which strengthened its position as a contender.
Which Cross-Chain DEX Has the Largest Trading Volume in 2025?
True Native Asset Swaps
Unlike Thorchain does allow wrapped token-based swaps, it allows cross-chain native asset swaps which reduces counterparty risk. This is favorable for users prioritizing security.
Robust Liquidity Incentives
With respect to Thorchain, the liquidity pools are competitive yielding to both traders and liquidity providers through native token reward system, therefore, increasing the flows of both traders and liquidity providers.
Broad Blockchain Support
Thorchain is able to support a wide variety of blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Litecoin among others which increases its adoption.
Strong Community and Developer Ecosystem
These factors help improve the security of the network and speed up the introduction of new features, in addition to continuous development done.
Future Trends in Cross-Chain DEX Trading Volume
Scalability and Layer 2 Solutions: Better scalability on Ethereum and other chains will lower fees and enhance the speed of transactions, promoting greater trade activity on cross-chain platforms.
Cross-Chain DeFi Composability: Interoperability improvements between protocols will permit sophisticated multi-chain DeFi strategies which will increase overall activity and volumes.
Legal Changes: Volumes will be impacted by the participation of institutions due to encouragement or constraints mposed by clearer regulatory policies.
Breakthroughs in User Experience: More adoption will come from simplified wallets and cross-chain trading interfaces which will promote easier cross-chain trading.
Conclusion
In 2025, Thorchain remains the reigning cross-chain DEX by trading volume due to its asset swap capability, support from various blockchains, and strong liquidity reward programs.
Aspects of DeFi development indicate that the future of decentralized trading will be shaped by cross-chain DEXs that eliminate blockchain silos and enhance accessibility.
For investors and enthusiasts of DeFi, paying attention to Thorchain along with new challengers such as Osmosis and Multichain Swap will be necessary to understand growing complexity in the multi-chain space.
