The Privatization of Orderflow and Resurgence of the Fat App Thesis

Order flow on Ethereum is increasingly privatized and captured by applications, which the author says supports the "fat app thesis" that value will accrue mainly to the application layer. Per Orderflow.art data as of Aug 19, Ethereum saw over $12 billion in order flow volume over the prior 30 days, with twice as much coming from proprietary applications. Telegram bots accounted for about 17% of transactions and 6% of trading volume as of July, per Dune, while Uniswap Labs' applications originated about 16% of the $8 billion in private order flow volume over the last 30 days. The article also cites Worldcoin's share of Optimism mainnet activity and Pudgy Penguins building their own chain as evidence of the same trend.