The "Stable High Return" Paradox in the Context of Web3
Written by: 0xresearcher
Recently, a seemingly simple question has sparked heated discussions in the crypto community: "If I have 10 million, where should I invest it? Can I still achieve a 10% annual return?"
At first glance, this seems like a continuation of middle-class anxiety, but behind it lies a true reflection of the crypto market—where incentive dividends are gradually receding, stable returns are becoming increasingly scarce, and capital is beginning to reassess the "return structure" itself.
In traditional finance, what does a 10% annual return mean? It either involves credit downgrades, leverage, or extremely poor liquidity. The high returns once offered by Web3 were largely driven by incentive-fueled bubble dividends rather than efficiency transformations brought about by underlying structures.
As the "haircut economy" exits, DeFi blue-chip yields are declining, on-chain trading volumes are continuously decreasing, and capital efficiency is gradually becoming the main theme—today's market is truly anxious about the question:
"In the absence of subsidies and a bull market, can Web3 still provide a sustainable return for conservative capital?"
This article attempts to deconstruct possible solutions to this question through several key projects.
DeFi Dividend Recession: Capital Begins to Shift Towards "Real Use + Structural Optimization"
Currently, most users have realized that relying solely on airdrops is no longer sustainable, and the structural issues of on-chain liquidity are becoming increasingly prominent.
On one hand, incentive models are difficult to maintain; on the other hand, liquidity competition among DeFi protocols has reached an extreme, but the infrastructure itself has not seen a qualitative leap. Most Rollups are still replicating Ethereum's old model, and on-chain matching performance is far from meeting real trading needs.
In this context, capital is beginning to seek new return structures, with the core focus shifting from "speculative assets" to "investment structures"—investing in systems that can generate real on-chain cash flow and enhance trading efficiency.
Two directions are beginning to attract market attention:
On-chain trading infrastructure aimed at professional traders, reconstructing matching systems
A composable service layer aimed at developers, providing standardized trading modules
Hyperliquid: An On-Chain Matching System Designed for Professional Traders
Hyperliquid is a full-chain perpetual protocol running on a self-developed L1 chain. This project currently has no tokens and no incentives, yet its trading depth has consistently ranked in the top three across the network for several months.
This is not a coincidence. Hyperliquid redefines the performance standards for on-chain perpetuals, using a "centralized experience + on-chain settlement" design to create a system that is closer to the usage habits of professional traders. Its self-developed L1 chain supports sub-second matching while achieving low slippage and low gas costs, sufficient to support frequent trading of large amounts of capital.
More importantly, Hyperliquid does not position itself as an "airdrop platform" or "retail entry," but rather as a structural product aimed at high-frequency traders. In this system, returns come from real trading depth rather than incentive stacking.
For funds like "10 million," this represents a new on-chain capital strategy: not pursuing one-time short-term returns, but seeking trading infrastructures that gather real users, have high capital efficiency, and possess long-term depth.
Orderly: From On-Chain Matching to Standardized Trading Modules
In contrast to Hyperliquid's vertical integration, Orderly Network offers a "modular trading infrastructure." It does not create a front end or guide users but provides developers with a composable, pluggable trading system.
In simple terms, Orderly aims to become the "Amazon Web Services" of the Web3 trading space, not participating in retail but focusing on development tools and foundational components.
Orderly's structure consists of four core modules:
1. Matching Engine
The performance bottleneck of on-chain matching has always been a barrier for high-frequency strategies. Orderly adopts an off-chain matching and on-chain settlement approach, balancing efficiency and transparency, supporting more complex trading instructions and higher capital utilization.
2. Liquidity Pool System
Unlike AMMs, Orderly introduces a liquidity pool model closer to traditional exchanges, allowing market makers to inject liquidity on demand while ensuring stable depth in the order book. This also lays the foundation for subsequent multi-strategy market making.
3. Clearing and Settlement System
Capital settlement is based on Layer 1, with user asset isolation management, preventing systemic risks from front-end projects or intermediate layers, thereby enhancing capital security.
4. Risk Control System
Orderly modularizes off-chain risk control, making it easier for developers to integrate quickly and lowering the barriers to project setup.
The greatest significance of this modular solution is that developers can quickly build their own trading products like assembling Lego, without needing to construct complex systems for matching, clearing, and risk control from scratch.
Real-World Implementation of High-Performance On-Chain Solutions
Orderly's recent application on Solana provides a very typical case.
Although Solana far exceeds Ethereum in infrastructure performance, it wasn't until recently that a set of "Order Book Infra" capable of matching its performance emerged. Orderly's integration on Solana has achieved:
Off-chain matching engine operation, balancing speed and user control
Processing thousands of order requests per second, meeting the needs of bots and professional traders
Settlement back to the chain, ensuring transaction verifiability
This not only significantly reduces users' real trading costs but, more importantly, it truly transforms Solana's high performance into user capital efficiency.
As a result, Orderly has become one of the few matching protocols that simultaneously supports both Ethereum and Solana, possessing strong cross-chain compatibility.
Opening Real Return Capabilities to Ordinary Users
For most users who cannot engage in high-frequency trading or develop strategies themselves, structural matching returns are no longer out of reach. OmniVault is a typical representative of this trend.
As a one-stop yield platform created by Kronos, OmniVault allows users to simply deposit USDC, and their funds can automatically participate in market-making activities on the Orderly network, running Kronos strategies across multiple chain markets to obtain real, verifiable LP returns. Unlike the returns from "simulated matching" or "internal loop trading," the returns captured by OmniVault come from the real trading activities of on-chain matching orders, offering stronger sustainability and anti-cyclical properties.
Recently, Binance Wallet officially supported OmniVault integration. This global wallet, which accounts for over 95% of market trading volume in 2025, not only opens up access to hundreds of millions of users but also releases the potential for billions of dollars in liquidity. OmniVault's current TVL has approached 7 million USD, with the annualized return rate steadily increasing to 30%, becoming one of the few general entry points that convert "real market-making returns" into "user passive income."
From Incentive Dividends to Structural Dividends, A New Paradigm of On-Chain Returns is Emerging
Whether it's Hyperliquid designed for professional traders, Orderly providing modular infrastructure for developers, or OmniVault opening real return capabilities for users, they collectively demonstrate a trend:
The new paradigm of "stable high returns" on-chain no longer relies on subsidies and speculation but rather on real trading demand and capital efficiency structures.
In the past few years, Web3 capital has rotated through narratives like airdrops, market-making, and restaking, but systems that truly possess the ability to transcend cycles must be built on real use cases and structural optimization capabilities.
Achieving a 10% annual return on 10 million is still possible—but the premise is that you invest in the right structure, not just the latest trend.
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