Key Takeaways: The Unlimited Order Book with Manifest

SOL Strategies CTO Max Kaplan, hosted an X Spaces with Michael Miller, Co-Founder at Manifest, for a discussion on the shift from centralized exchanges to DeFi, the role of orderbooks on Solana, and what it takes to build open, institutional-grade markets on-chain. The conversation focused on why Solana is uniquely positioned to support this transition and how Manifest is building the infrastructure to make it happen.

Date: February 5, 2026

Format: X Spaces Conversation Recap

Participants: Max Kaplan, CTO, SOL Strategies Inc. (CSE: HODL, NASDAQ: STKE) | Michael Miller, Co-Founder, Manifest

Why Solana Is the Right Foundation

Michael opened by emphasizing why Solana continues to attract builders focused on market infrastructure:
“Solana has some of the best tech there is. The team leading Solana understands you can’t hyper focus on one area. It’s very cheap, fast, it works, and has been battle tested.”

Rather than optimizing for a single metric, Solana’s balance of performance, cost, and reliability makes it well-suited for high-throughput financial applications that require consistent performance at scale.

The Shift From CEXs to DeFi Is Already Underway

A major theme of the discussion was how trading behavior is changing as DeFi becomes easier to access. Michael pointed to clear signals that activity is moving on-chain:
“We’re starting to see the shift from CEXs to DeFi because it’s becoming easier to access.”

He pointed to changing market behavior as evidence:
“Two years ago, you would never see a stablecoin being traded more in DEX environments, but now it’s regularly happening. That just proves that this shift is already underway and will only progress from here.”

As accessibility improves and infrastructure matures, Michael believes the growth ceiling for DeFi far exceeds that of centralized exchanges:
“There’s more growth in DeFi than there will ever be in CEXs.”

What Manifest Is Building

Michael described Manifest as a return to first principles – open access, fair markets, and minimal friction:
“Currently, Manifest is the number 1 platform in crypto for USD1 trading. We’ve created an environment that’s open for everyone – going back to the roots of Solana.”

At its core, Manifest is designed to be an open, free market:
“We are an open, free market where everyone can trade for free, and it’s a level playing field.”

By removing fees and structural advantages, Manifest aims to recreate the conditions of a truly competitive market, where participation is based on strategy, not preferential access.

Why Orderbooks Matter for On-Chain Markets

When discussing the future of on-chain capital markets, Michael was clear about what’s required to support more sophisticated assets:
“You want to bring Nasdaq on-chain, but how do you do it? An orderbook.”

Manifest is focused on building exactly that:
“We’ve made the most efficient orderbook possible on Solana.”

Orderbooks, he argued, are essential for deep liquidity, transparent price discovery, and institutional participation, especially as DeFi moves beyond simple swaps and into more complex financial products.

The Future: DeFi as the Center of Price Discovery

Looking ahead, Michael shared a clear view on where markets are headed:
“I foresee DeFi overtaking centralized exchanges in terms of value.”

More significantly, he expects price discovery itself to move on-chain: “I also foresee price discovery switching to DeFi at some point, and that’ll happen rather quickly.”

As infrastructure like Manifest matures, on-chain markets may not just compete with centralized exchanges but replace them as the primary venue for global price discovery.

The Bigger Picture

The conversation underscored a broader trend across the Solana ecosystem: DeFi is evolving from an alternative into a foundation. With performant orderbooks, open access, and improving UX, platforms like Manifest are pushing DeFi closer to its end state, where global permissionless markets rival and surpass their centralized counterparts in both scale and importance.

 

 

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