[Use Case] How Merkle Trade Powers High-Performance DeFi Trading on Aptos with Nodit

Merkle Trade is a decentralized perpetual exchange (PerpDEX) operating on Aptos, with more than $21 billion in cumulative trading volume and over 10,000 daily active users. Designed for retail traders, the platform focuses on accessibility and ease of use, supporting familiar onboarding flows such as MetaMask and Google SSO while enabling high-leverage trading of up to 1000x.

To support this level of performance, Merkle Trade selected Aptos for its high throughput and low-latency architecture—critical requirements for real-time trading environments. As one of the early platforms scaling within the Aptos ecosystem, Merkle Trade continues to expand rapidly, with a strong emphasis on delivering a user experience that feels as seamless as centralized exchanges while remaining fully decentralized.

As usage and transaction volumes increased, Merkle Trade required a blockchain infrastructure foundation capable of supporting high-frequency on-chain activity without compromising reliability or performance. Nodit became the infrastructure layer that enabled Merkle Trade to operate and scale its DeFi trading platform with confidence.

The Challenge: Scaling DeFi Trading on Aptos

Aptos offers strong performance characteristics, but operating directly on-chain at scale introduces complexity. For Merkle Trade, the core challenges included maintaining stable node connectivity, handling large volumes of on-chain data in real time, and minimizing operational overhead associated with infrastructure maintenance.

Running and maintaining in-house nodes would have required significant engineering resources, constant monitoring, and rapid response to performance issues. For a trading-focused team, this meant diverting attention away from product innovation and user experience.

Merkle Trade needed an infrastructure solution that could abstract this complexity while meeting the demands of a production-grade DeFi platform.

Why Nodit: Infrastructure Built for High-Volume, Real-Time Trading

Merkle Trade adopted Nodit’s Aptos node and data infrastructure to support its high-volume trading operations. Nodit delivers trusted blockchain infrastructure optimized for high-throughput environments, enabling teams to access and process on-chain data reliably and efficiently.

With Nodit, Merkle Trade secured stable, low-latency RPC endpoints and indexed blockchain data, allowing transactions and queries to be handled smoothly even during periods of peak activity. This consistency ensured that the trading experience remained responsive and dependable for end users.

Beyond performance, Nodit helped establish operational trust by reducing the infrastructure burden on Merkle Trade’s engineering team. Node monitoring, maintenance, and performance optimization were managed at the infrastructure layer, enabling the team to focus on building and improving trading features rather than managing blockchain operations.

Results: Performance Without Infrastructure Overhead

By leveraging Nodit, Merkle Trade was able to operate its DeFi trading platform on Aptos with greater confidence and efficiency. The platform achieved stable access to on-chain data, faster response times for trading-related queries, and improved reliability across user sessions.

This infrastructure foundation enabled Merkle Trade to scale its service without introducing additional operational complexity. Instead of worrying about node uptime or data consistency, the team could concentrate on improving trading logic, user experience, and market features.

For users, this translated into a smoother, more dependable DeFi trading experience—one that feels closer to traditional high-performance trading systems while remaining fully on-chain.

Infrastructure as a Strategic Advantage

Merkle Trade’s experience highlights a broader shift in the Web3 ecosystem. As DeFi platforms move beyond experimentation into production environments, infrastructure choices increasingly become strategic decisions.

By partnering with Nodit, Merkle Trade secured an infrastructure layer built for scale, performance, and operational reliability. This approach demonstrates how specialized infrastructure providers can play a critical role in enabling advanced DeFi applications—without becoming visible to the end user.

As Aptos and other high-performance blockchains continue to attract sophisticated financial applications, enterprise-grade infrastructure will be a key enabler of sustainable growth. Merkle Trade’s journey shows how the right infrastructure foundation can support innovation while keeping complexity under control.

About Nodit

Nodit is an enterprise-grade Web3 infrastructure platform that delivers stable node services, high-performance data APIs, and real-time onchain event streaming across 20+ blockchains. Designed to support mission-critical applications in exchanges, gaming, logistics, and finance, Nodit provides the performance, scalability, and reliability enterprises need. Expanding into validator services, Nodit is positioned as a trusted core infrastructure for both developers and institutions worldwide.

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