# SoK: Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) with Automated Market Maker (AMM) Protocols

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.12732 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12732/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 23 Mar 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Auto.gov: Learning-based Governance for Decentralized Finance (DeFi)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.09551/) (2023)
- [DeXposure: A Dataset and Benchmarks for Inter-protocol Credit Exposure in Decentralized Financial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22314/) (2025)
- [QLAMMP: A Q-Learning Agent for Optimizing Fees on Automated Market Making Protocols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.14977/) (2022)
- [The Design Principle of Blockchain: An Initiative for the SoK of SoKs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00479/) (2023)
- [Improving DeFi Accessibility through Efficient Liquidity Provisioning with Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.07508/) (2025)
- [SolRPDS: A Dataset for Analyzing Rug Pulls in Solana Decentralized Finance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.07132/) (2025)
- [Predictive Crypto-Asset Automated Market Making Architecture for Decentralized Finance using Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01346/) (2022)
- [Evolution of ESG-focused DLT Research: An NLP Analysis of the Literature](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12420/) (2023)
- [Investigating Similarities Across Decentralized Financial (DeFi) Services](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.00034/) (2024)
- [Resisting Manipulative Bots in Meme Coin Copy Trading: A Multi-Agent Approach with Chain-of-Thought Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.08641/) (2026)
- [Early Rug Pull Warning for BSC Meme Tokens via Multi-Granularity Wash-Trading Pattern Profiling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.13830/) (2026)
- [Intent2Tx: Benchmarking LLMs for Translating Natural Language Intents into Ethereum Transactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.27763/) (2026)
- [Detecting DeFi Securities Violations from Token Smart Contract Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02731/) (2021)
- [Delta Hedging Liquidity Positions on Automated Market Makers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.03318/) (2022)
- [ZeroSwap: Data-driven Optimal Market Making in DeFi](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09413/) (2023)
- [FRAD: Front-Running Attacks Detection on Ethereum using Ternary Classification Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.14514/) (2023)
- [Slow is Fast! Dissecting Ethereum's Slow Liquidity Drain Scams](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04850/) (2025)
- [WallStreetFeds: Client-Specific Tokens as Investment Vehicles in Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20518/) (2025)
- [DLT-Corpus: A Large-Scale Text Collection for the Distributed Ledger Technology Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.22045/) (2026)
- [ETH-TraceBench: A Large-Scale Event-Stream Benchmark for Ethereum DeFi under Temporal, Protocol, and Contract Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.23659/) (2026)
- [EVAGE: Autonomous MEV Generation and Adaptation via Multi-Agent Harness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.27424/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

As an integral part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) with automated market maker (AMM) protocols have gained massive traction with the recently revived interest in blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) in general. Instead of matching the buy and sell sides, automated market makers (AMMs) employ a peer-to-pool method and determine asset price algorithmically through a so-called conservation function. To facilitate the improvement and development of automated market maker (AMM)-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs), we create the first systematization of knowledge in this area. We first establish a general automated market maker (AMM) framework describing the economics and formalizing the system's state-space representation. We then employ our framework to systematically compare the top automated market maker (AMM) protocols' mechanics, illustrating their conservation functions, as well as slippage and divergence loss functions. We further discuss security and privacy concerns, how they are enabled by automated market maker (AMM)-based decentralized exchanges (DEXs)' inherent properties, and explore mitigating solutions. Finally, we conduct a comprehensive literature review on related work covering both decentralized finance (DeFi) and conventional market microstructure.