# Mission

The contagion events of the cryptocurrency markets in 2022 presented a striking illustration of the centralization risks still endemic within the industry. A wave of insolvencies and misaligned incentives between third-party custodians and their customers was a stark reminder of the moral hazard, where TradFi practices infringe upon the ethos of decentralization and self-custody that defines crypto.

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) give users control and autonomy to mitigate the principal-agent problem of untrustworthy centralized actors like FTX. Opacity and trust in a third party are eliminated as users retain self-custody of their assets on permissionless networks where transparency, decentralization, and integrity are intrinsic elements of the underlying blockchain.

However, DEXs still face many obstacles toward broader adoption.

Even in the wake of recent scandals, centralized exchanges (CEX) still dominate crypto trading volume. Offering users more product features, fiat on/off ramping, lower latency, and better liquidity, CEXs remain the premier venues for trading crypto assets. The scalability, UX, and capital efficiency challenges of existing DEXs further reinforce the advantages held by CEXs.

DeFi-native trading has yet to fulfill its full potential. It is time to change the narrative.

No longer should users be forced into trade-offs between control and performance when evaluating whether to trade on a CEX or DEX. Orderly's mission is to bring the performance and features of CEXs on-chain while preserving the benefits of self-custody, transparency, and decentralization native to DeFi.

Orderly is a vertically-integrated DEX on Arbitrum bundling spot, perpetuals, and an integrated money market into a unified trading platform. Trade with lightning-fast speed, universal cross-margin, and a customizable, user-friendly trading interface. No more switching between dApps – trade, earn and borrow all in one DEX.