Hayden Adams published his first blog post since 2019 on Monday night, arguing that automated market makers will take over the world's largest markets once tokenized assets begin trading against each other rather than against dollars. The post marks a rare public statement from Adams, who has largely stayed silent for over four years.
The Case for AMMs
In the post, Adams laid out a vision where tokenized stocks, bonds, and other real-world assets trade directly on blockchain-based platforms. He argued that in such a system, the traditional order-book model used by exchanges would give way to automated market makers, or AMMs, which use algorithms to set prices and pool liquidity.
AMMs have become a staple of decentralized finance, powering platforms that let users swap tokens without a central counterparty. Adams's argument is that once assets like equities and treasuries are tokenized, they will naturally trade against each other—not against the dollar or another base currency—and that's where AMMs have an edge. He contends that the efficiency of these pools will make them the default infrastructure for the largest financial markets.
The timing matters. Tokenization of real-world assets has been creeping from pilot projects toward mainstream adoption, with major banks and exchanges testing the waters. Adams's post suggests he believes the shift from dollar-pegged trading to direct asset-to-asset trading is the tipping point that will push AMMs into the center of global finance.
A Quick Reply
By Tuesday afternoon, a former trader at XTX Markets had responded to Adams's post. The reply came less than a day after publication, though the content of that response was not immediately clear. The fact that a veteran of one of the world's largest high-frequency trading firms felt compelled to engage suggests the debate is not just academic.
XTX Markets is a major player in traditional currency and equity trading, so a former employee weighing in on AMMs adds a layer of real-world credibility to the discussion. Whether the trader agreed or pushed back, the exchange highlights the growing overlap between crypto's infrastructure and the legacy markets it aims to disrupt.
Adams's return to blogging is notable in itself. He hasn't posted since 2019, a period when decentralized finance exploded and then weathered multiple crashes. His decision to reappear with a bold prediction about the future of market structure signals that he sees the current moment as pivotal.
The blog post and the response it drew underscore a broader question: can automated market makers actually handle the scale and complexity of the world's largest markets? Adams thinks so, but the former XTX trader's reply—whatever it said—shows that not everyone is ready to hand over the keys just yet.
