Pyth Network Unveils MEV-Fighting Express Relay Tool

Pyth Network, a prominent Solana-based provider of real-time market data for blockchain applications, officially launched its latest product, Express Relay, on the mainnet at today’s inaugural Pyth Agora 2024 summit in Brussels.

This tool provides a decentralized approach to addressing the ongoing problem of Miner Extractable Value (MEV) during liquidation processing. It also aids in other transactions, which improves market efficiency within decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms.

Express Relay: Pyth Network’s Answer to MEV

MEV traditionally refers to the way miners or validators capture a significant portion of the value from searchers’ DeFi protocol transactions through tips for blockspace. This competitive environment encourages searchers to bid more aggressively for transaction value. Thus enabling DeFi protocols to increase their liquidation reward incentives.

Express Relay transforms this dynamic. It allows the searcher with the most competitive bid to execute the transaction, effectively bypassing miners.

Moreover, it aggregates liquidation and other valuable DeFi transaction opportunities across multiple protocols and blockchains. This streamlines access to these opportunities without individual negotiations and integrations.

Furthermore, it can mitigate miners’ extractive role and allow protocols to save resources. These savings can be used for more productive activities or given back to users.

Pyth Network’s new Express Relay tool connects DeFi protocols directly with a network of experienced searchers through protocol-controlled auctions for crucial transactions like liquidations. In keeping with the principles of decentralization, both DeFi protocols and searchers can integrate with Express Relay permissionlessly by simply adding a few lines of code. This collaboration includes notable searchers such as Flow Traders, Wintermute, Auros, Flowdesk, Caladan, Tokka Labs, and Swaap Finance.

Michael Lie, Global Head of Digital Asset at Flow Traders, shared his enthusiasm for the new tool. He noted Express Relay’s ability to allow market makers to provide deep liquidity during critical times.

“When we seek our ecosystem partners to collaborate with, we aim to have an active role in furthering our mission to create more efficient markets. Therefore, we are thrilled to be part of this new initiative and further our engagement with Pyth,” he said.

Additionally, protocols like Synthetix, Zerolend, Ionic, Synonym, Keom, Jax Finance, Vela Exchange, and Fulcrom Finance have already begun integrating with Express Relay to combat the impacts of MEV. Collectively, these applications represent approximately $1 billion in total locked value across 11 blockchains.

The launch of this tool had a positive impact on the price of the platform’s native token, PYTH. It increased from an intraday low of $0.297077 to $0.306840, marking a nearly 3.3% surge. However, at the time of writing, PYTH is trading at $0.303718.

This announcement follows Pyth Network’s recent strategic partnership with Ondo Finance to launch the USDY/USD price feed across 65 blockchain ecosystems. The collaboration provides real-time data for Ondo’s flagship yield stablecoin, USDY.