Key Insights
Rango Exchange has grown into one of the leading cross-chain and decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregation protocols, now supporting 71 blockchains, 97 DEXs, and 23 cross-chain protocols. Since its launch in 2021, Rango has facilitated $3.8 billion in swaps across 3.9 million transactions.The platform’s core routing engine optimizes cross-chain swaps by aggregating liquidity and finding the most efficient swap paths across both EVM and non-EVM chains. Its modular smart contract architecture, utilizing Diamond and Middleware contracts, enhances security, scalability, and upgradeability.Rango’s usage remains strong despite a broader market downturn. Over the past three months, it processed $532.5 million in volume (annualized at $2.1 billion) and 892,500 transactions, with the majority of activity concentrated on Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Smart Chain.The 2025 roadmap includes launching the RANGO token, introducing governance mechanisms, providing services in more major wallets and dApps, and expanding blockchain integrations to networks such as Sui, Aptos, Movement, Stellar, and XRPL.
Introduction
The rapid proliferation of blockchains remains one of the few constants in the crypto industry. From Layer-2 (L2) rollups on Ethereum to alternative Layer-1s (L1s) and application-specific chains, new blockchain networks seem to emerge almost every month. While this growing ecosystem offers users a diverse range of tailored solutions, each additional blockchain encumbers the user experience, especially as it relates to bridging and moving across chains. As assets and users become distributed across numerous disparate chains, the transfer of value and information between these isolated ecosystems becomes increasingly cumbersome and inefficient.
Rango Exchange is a cross-chain and decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregation protocol that seeks to address these issues by providing a secure and user-friendly platform for moving assets across networks. The platform aims to provide users with the most optimal bridging path regardless of asset type or blockchain.
Background
Rango Exchange was first launched in August 2021, initially supporting 16 different blockchains and more than 2,000 tokens. It was founded with a vision to create the best platform possible for swapping tokens, regardless of the underlying blockchain. Rango Exchange is led by Co-Founder Vahid Kaya. Before founding Rango Exchange, Kaya had various experiences in software engineering and machine learning. Other team members include Martin (CMO), Sinan (developer), George (developer), and Mecit (developer). In June 2024, Rango Exchange announced that it had conducted a strategic investment round. Notable investors in the round included YZi Labs (formerly known as Binance Labs), Nomad Capital, and Foresight Ventures. As of writing, Rango Exchange supports 71 blockchains, 97 DEXs, and 23 bridges, facilitating over $3.8 billion in lifetime value across 3.9 million swaps.
Technology
Routing Engine
To facilitate cross-chain swaps, Rango utilizes its own routing engine, a mechanism that optimizes trades by finding the most efficient paths across DEXs or liquidity pools to achieve the best possible price and minimize slippage.
Source: Rango Docs
Rango’s routing engine is chain agnostic, supporting both EVM-based blockchains like Ethereum, Arbitrum, BNB Smart Chain, etc., and non-EVM based blockchains like Bitcoin, Solana, Cosmos, etc. Furthermore, the routing engine is able to interact with varying types of protocols such as Request-For-Quote (RFQ), Burn/Mint, Cross-chain Liquidity Pools, IBC, etc., enabling Rango Exchange to source liquidity from a wide-range of options. In addition, Rango has deployed and actively manages approximately 300 smart contracts across 24 blockchains, enabling seamless interaction across all major cross-chain message-passing systems. These include:
Swap Aggregation
Rango Exchange achieves additional efficiency by batching together multiple transactions into a singular transaction whenever possible. For example, imagine a user had a memecoin on Base, but wanted to sell it and hold USDC on Arbitrum. Typically, a user would have to sign 4 transactions to complete this:
Approve memecoin for selling.Sell memecoin for USDC on DEX (i.e., Uniswap).Approve USDC for bridging.Bridge USDC from Base to Arbitrum using a bridge (i.e., Stargate).
Rango Exchange, however, reduces this to just 2 transactions for the user. After the token approval transaction, Rango Exchange aggregates the (i) memecoin -> USDC sell, and (i) USDC approval, and (iii) USDC bridging transaction into a singular transaction. This is achieved through Rango’s V2 smart contract architecture and varying messaging protocols.
Diamond Smart Contracts
The first aspect of Rango’s smart contract architecture is Diamond smart contracts. Diamond smart contracts utilize the EIP-2535 Diamond Standard to create a modular and upgradeable architecture for their cross-chain swapping services. This design allows Rango to manage extensive functionality without the constraints of the 24KB contract size limit by segmenting features into distinct modules called “facets.” Each facet handles specific operations, such as bridging or swapping, enabling efficient upgrades and maintenance without disrupting the entire system.
Middleware Smart Contracts
The second aspect of Rango’s smart contract architecture is its Middleware smart contracts. These smart contracts facilitate seamless cross-chain transactions by managing token transfers and message passing between different blockchains. Every message passing protocol integrated into Rango, such as Stargate, Axelar, or Wormhole, has a dedicated middleware contract that handles the specific logic required for that bridge’s operations. These contracts are responsible for receiving tokens and associated messages on the destination chain, ensuring that the correct actions are executed upon arrival.
The Diamond and Middleware smart contracts work together to enable seamless, efficient, and modular cross-chain swaps. The Diamond contract serves as the core execution layer, managing different facets that handle specific tasks like swapping, bridging, and routing. Meanwhile, Middleware contracts act as intermediaries between Rango’s Diamond contract and external blockchain bridges, ensuring that assets and messages are correctly transmitted and processed across chains. This layered approach ensures modularity, scalability, and upgradeability, allowing Rango to efficiently aggregate liquidity across multiple chains while maintaining security and flexibility.
Security
Notably, Rango has maintained a clean security record, with no hacks, incidents, or breaches to date, distinguishing it from many other DEX and cross-chain aggregators in the ecosystem. Rango smart contracts are audited before going live in production, and users are never exposed to unaudited contracts while on the Rango platform. Security firms like Peckshield and AstraSec have audited Rango in the past.
Products
Rango API & SDK
Recognizing the importance of enabling broader ecosystem integration, Rango provides a suite of developer tools, including the Rango API and SDK, designed to empower dApp developers, wallet providers, and Web3 protocols to incorporate cross-chain swap functionality into their own platforms. The Comprehensive API Suite offered by Rango is structured into two primary versions: the Basic API (Single-Step) and the Main API (Multi-Step). The Basic API is designed for simpler integrations, focusing on single-step transactions where the user is only performing one action. It provides an interface for initiating swaps and cross-chain swaps, and includes functionalities for relaying arbitrary messages across chains alongside token transfers.
In contrast, the Main API is geared toward more advanced integrations. This API version unlocks the potential of Rango’s smart routing engine, allowing developers to access its route-finding capabilities and offer users optimal swap rates across complex multi-step swap paths.
Affiliate Program
To foster user engagement, reward community participation, and introduce a gamified element to the cross-chain swapping experience, Rango implemented an affiliate program for both individual users and dApps. Users can generate their own unique affiliate link and share it with others. Each time someone completes a swap using the link, the referrer earns 0.1% of the swap amount as a reward. Earnings are typically credited instantly on EVM-compatible chains and can be tracked via the affiliate dashboard. As for dApps, they can participate in the affiliate program by integrating Rango Exchange’s API into their own platform.
Rango Widget
For platforms seeking a user-friendly way to incorporate cross-chain swap capabilities, Rango offers the Rango Widget, a pre-built, customizable, and embeddable UI component. It supports broad customization to align with a project’s branding and user flow, allowing seamless integration of Rango’s multichain capabilities. Developers can explore and configure the widget through the Widget Playground, and then export the code for easy deployment. This integration enhances dApp functionality while enabling monetization through the affiliate program.
Profile & Scoring System
Rango Exchange launched a profile and scoring system aimed at boosting user engagement through a gamified, point-based system. By simply interacting with the Rango platform, such as bridging tokens, swapping assets, or referring friends, users earn points that contribute to their overall profile score. These scores may influence eligibility for future incentives, rewards, or potential airdrops. The campaign is part of Rango’s broader strategy to incentivize active participation and loyalty within its cross-chain ecosystem.
Usage
Despite a broader market downturn in onchain volumes, Rango has seen consistent swap volumes. Over the past 3 months, Rango facilitated $532.5 million in volume, which, when annualized, is $2.13 billion. Furthermore, the majority of Rango’s volume came from popular blockchains like Solana (48%), Ethereum (25%), and BNB Smart Chain (9%). Volume originating from larger, more established blockchains is likely to be more stable and recurring than volume originating from less popular, longer-tail blockchains. While Solana has historically led in volume, recent shifts in market activity have driven increased cross-chain demand across Ethereum, Bitcoin, and BNB Smart Chain.
Of note, the spike in volume and activity in January was due to the launch of the TRUMP memecoin.
As for transactions, Rango has seen a healthy level of activity. In total, 892,500 transactions were conducted over the past 90 days, with the majority coming from Solana (40%) and BNB Smart Chain (23%). Furthermore, the average swap size for the 90-day period was $600, signaling that Rango is favored for smaller cross-chain transaction sizes.
Similarly to transactions, Solana (33%) and BNB Smart Chain (26%) represent the majority of daily active addresses on Rango. Not accounting for overlap in addresses across source chains, an average of 7,000 addresses per day interacted with Rango over the past 90 days. Broken down by the top 5 chains:
1. Solana – 2,298 daily active addresses (33%) | $1,200 average swap per address
2. BNB Smart Chain – 1,837 daily active addresses (26%) | $800 average swap per address
3. Base – 733 daily active addresses (11%) | $700 average swap per address
4. Ethereum – 678 daily active addresses (10%) | $600 swap per address
5. Arbitrum – 406 daily active addresses (6%) | $600 swap per address
Strategic Direction
Since its inception, Rango Exchange has aimed to be more than just a cross-chain swap platform. As fragmentation across blockchains persists, Rango’s long-term vision is to serve as the central liquidity router for all self-custody wallets and dApps, a unified onchain trading layer that rivals centralized exchanges in utility and reach.
Already integrated into leading wallets such as Trust Wallet, Exodus, Binance Web3 Wallet, and Edge Wallet, Rango is well-positioned to become the go-to platform for self-custody trading across all chains. By providing routing capabilities at the infrastructure level, Rango allows any dApp or wallet to offer seamless asset swaps, removing the complexity of cross-chain operations for end users.
A new frontier of growth lies in intent-based services. Leveraging its existing integrations and partnerships, Rango aims to support offchain operations through user intents. For example, users could authorize Rango to execute an intent like “Buy Telegram Gift using BTC,” which the protocol would fulfill seamlessly through its aggregated liquidity and routing capabilities, potentially from within any wallet interface.
These efforts aim to position Rango as an “onchain Binance,” offering a holistic trading experience to both individual users and infrastructure partners.
Technical Roadmap
Rango’s 2025 technical roadmap focuses on decentralization, user growth, and deeper cross-chain interoperability. A major milestone will be the launch of the RANGO token, which will serve both as a governance token and a tool to incentivize community participation. Governance mechanisms will allow token holders to create and vote on proposals, shaping the future direction of the protocol. To further engage users, Rango has allocated 8% of the total token supply for airdrops. Past campaigns like the Badge Trading Competition, and Retro2 have rewarded user activity and referrals, and additional airdrop events are expected in the future. Additionally, a portion of the RANGO token supply is allocated to an IDO.
Rango also plans to significantly expand its technical infrastructure. This includes integrating new and emerging blockchains such as Movement, Sui, opBNB, Aptos, Mantle, and more. These integrations will broaden Rango’s cross-chain reach and liquidity sources.
Closing Summary
Rango Exchange has established itself as a key infrastructure provider for seamless cross-chain asset transfers, integrating with a growing number of blockchains, DEXs, and cross-chain protocols. Its proprietary routing engine, modular smart contract architecture, and product offerings have positioned it as a leading cross-chain liquidity aggregator. With consistent swap volume and transaction activity, Rango continues to prove its utility in an increasingly fragmented blockchain landscape.
Looking ahead, Rango’s focus on decentralization, governance, and interoperability will be crucial for sustained growth. The upcoming launch of the RANGO token and governance system will provide users with a direct role in shaping the protocol’s evolution. Additionally, expanding blockchain integrations and leveraging intents will further solidify Rango’s position as a premier cross-chain aggregation platform. As the crypto ecosystem grows more complex, Rango is well-positioned to streamline and optimize cross-chain interactions for users and developers alike.
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