Why DeFi Now? Integrating On-chain Liquidity into the Institutional Trading Stack

Talos’s Anton Deshchenko, Senior Product Manager, and Drew Turchin, Head of Business Development and Partnerships at Uniswap Labs, explored why now is the moment for institutions to embrace DeFi, how the infrastructure has matured, and what it means for operational workflows.

Watch the replay.

Summary

Why Now? Structural tailwinds for on‑chain execution

For much of Talos’s history, client demand centered on centralized venues. Over the past two years, however, DeFi has matured into a strategic liquidity source that institutions can no longer ignore. Institutions are no longer asking if they should engage with DeFi, but how.

• Transaction costs are down dramatically  
• Execution speeds are now sub-second on Layer 2 networks
• Regulatory clarity has improved
  

“DeFi markets are now too liquid and too strategic to ignore. Institutions should no longer be asking if they should engage with DeFi—they should be asking how.” – Drew Turchin

Liquidity depth and asset breadth

Blue-chip assets (BTC, ETH) are tradable across both CeFi and DeFi. The real unlock is access to emerging and long-tail assets that aren’t listed on Tier 1 exchanges or quoted OTC. Examples include tokens like Euler and Hegic, which offer meaningful depth on-chain but little to no centralized venue liquidity

Use cases Talos is seeing:

• Buyside: Alpha capture and early exposure.
• Sellside: Meeting client demand for broader market access.

“The real unlock is access to markets you simply can’t reach anywhere else.” – Drew Turchin

Unified access through the Talos platform

Talos has integrated Uniswap v2, v3, v4 directly into its platform, with UniswapX integration in progress. DeFi liquidity now appears side by side with CeFi venues in Talos’s market data cards, allowing aggregation into a single trading view. Clients can execute through familiar workflows—with confirmations, fills, and reporting handled the same way they already operate.

““Our goal from the start was to make DeFi feel just like any other liquidity venue our clients connect to through Talos. It had to be seamless and familiar, not something that required rethinking workflows.” – Anton Deshchenko

Best execution through smart aggregation

Talos applies its smart order router and algo suite across both centralized and decentralized venues. Uniswap Labs provides institutional-grade APIs and execution routing logic, sourcing liquidity from pools, aggregators and professional market makers. Together, this ensures best execution even for fragmented long-tail assets, with fill success rates >99%.

“We’re not just matching in a single venue—we’re actively competing sources against each other to find the best possible execution.” – Drew Turchin

Settlement Speed and Risk Reduction

Beyond liquidity, DeFi offers operational unlocks. Example: Swapping ETH for USDC via DeFi completes in seconds, compared to multiple steps and longer settlement cycles in CeFi or OTC.

• Atomic, instantaneous settlement.
• Simplified workflows vs. multi-step CeFi or OTC settlement processes.
• Reduced counterparty risk and greater capital efficiency.

“It’s not just a speed improvement—it’s a huge simplification of the post-trade process, and in many cases it’s safer and more capital efficient.” – Anton Deschchenko

Key takeaways

• DeFi has moved from experimental to institutional-grade infrastructure.
• Institutions can now access it seamlessly through Talos, without retraining or changing existing workflows.
• The real value lies not only in execution quality but also in operational efficiency and market breadth.
• The question is no longer whether institutions will engage with DeFi, but whether they can afford not to.