0x (ZRX) is DeFi infrastructure that powers trading behind the scenes. Its main product is the '0x API' — technology that lets any app find the best price for a token swap by routing across dozens of decentralized exchanges, so the app's users get good rates without the app building all that plumbing itself. If you've swapped tokens inside MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or many other popular wallets, there's a good chance 0x was doing the routing under the hood. It also runs 'Matcha', a consumer-facing trading interface. ZRX is the governance token: holders vote on how the 0x protocol is run, its treasury and its parameters. It's one of the oldest DeFi projects, dating to a 2017 token sale.
Where it stands today: 0x is quietly essential — its API is integrated into a long list of major wallets and apps (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom, Robinhood Wallet, Trust Wallet and more), routing swaps across 9 million+ tokens on 100+ exchanges over 16 chains, with cumulative volume well into the hundreds of billions. It keeps expanding, notably adding cross-chain swap capability. But there's a key catch for the token: as of 2026 there is no 'fee switch' routing protocol revenue to ZRX holders — governance could enable one, but hasn't. So ZRX is a governance token for hugely-used infrastructure that currently doesn't share in the revenue it helps generate, and it trades as a small-cap far below past highs. So today it's important, widely-integrated plumbing whose token value rests more on future governance decisions than on current cash flow.