Spot Trading

TEZEX spot markets are organized around concentrated liquidity in strategically useful pairs. Our current core markets include XTZ / USDT and USDT / tzBTC, connecting tez, dollar liquidity, and Bitcoin liquidity within the same Tezos market environment.

We use these as anchor markets because their role extends beyond the swaps that occur inside an individual pool. Deeper spot liquidity improves execution and price discovery, gives market makers and arbitrageurs more room to operate, and provides stronger underlying markets for lending, collateral, liquidations, and more advanced trading activity.

Anchor Markets and Depth

Adding more pairs does not by itself create a stronger market. The more important question is whether the assets that matter to the ecosystem have enough liquidity around them to support meaningful trading and financial activity.

We are concentrating liquidity around markets that serve that role and extending the structure as new Tezos assets and financial primitives develop. Rather than allowing each new asset to emerge as an isolated pool of liquidity, the aim is to connect it into markets that already provide useful routes between tez, dollar liquidity, Bitcoin liquidity, and other forms of value across Tezos.

The same approach extends naturally to sTez. As sTez moves toward broader availability, we are preparing to build deep XTZ / sTez liquidity around it, creating a direct market between liquid tez and protocol-native staked tez exposure.

See sTez & Liquid Staking for the protocol design, current testing, and the role of XTZ / sTez liquidity within the broader Tezos financial system.

A Connected Spot Market

The broader direction is to make it easier for capital to move between the assets and financial positions used across Tezos.

XTZ provides the native asset layer. USDT provides dollar liquidity. tzBTC brings Bitcoin liquidity into the same market structure. sTez adds protocol-native staking exposure. As additional assets and financial products develop, we are extending the market around them rather than treating each one as a separate liquidity island.

That spot-market foundation also matters to the layers that follow. Margin trading, automated execution, derivatives, and order-book markets all depend on reliable underlying prices and enough liquidity to enter, exit, hedge, and liquidate positions efficiently.