> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.boltliquidity.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bolt vs Alternatives

> How Bolt compares to CEX-DEX searchers, prop-AMMs, RFQ and oracle DEXs, and TradFi market makers

## Four categories, one missing entity

Every approach to onchain execution today does one of three things: operates offchain, works one venue at a time, or routes around the problem. None captures cross-venue inefficiency natively and onchain.

Bolt holds four capabilities together. Others hold some.

1. **Synchronizes all venues to one price.** Not just prices or executes on a single venue.
2. **No gatekeeper dependency.** No reliance on exclusive block-builder or venue relationships.
3. **Prices ahead of every venue.** Forecasts convergence rather than reporting or reacting.
4. **Captures the spread** across all venues. Paid for the synchronization, not just providing data.

## Capability matrix

| Capability       | CEX-DEX searchers |  Prop-AMMs  | RFQ + oracle DEXs |   TradFi MMs   | **Bolt** |
| ---------------- | :---------------: | :---------: | :---------------: | :------------: | :------: |
| Onchain-native   |         No        |   Partial   |      Partial      |       No       |  **Yes** |
| Cross-venue sync |         No        |      No     |         No        |       No       |  **Yes** |
| Prices ahead     |      Reactive     | Single-pool |    Signed quote   | Venue-by-venue |  **Yes** |
| Captures spread  |      Offchain     |   One pool  |      Per fill     |    CEX desk    |  **Yes** |
| No gatekeeper    |         No        |     Yes     |        Yes        |       No       |  **Yes** |

Bolt is the only one that is cross-venue and onchain on every row.

## Category-by-category contrast

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="CEX-DEX Searchers">
    **What they do:** Capture cross-venue CEX-DEX arbitrage via exclusive deals with block builders.

    **The structural difference:** They run an offchain stack that pays for blockspace and depends on vertical builder integration that regulators are increasingly scrutinizing. They capture one divergence at a time and move on. Bolt is onchain-native with no gatekeeper dependency, forecasts convergence continuously, and records every divergence as data. The mechanism is durable where the builder-deal model is not.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Prop-AMMs">
    **What they do:** Single-venue proprietary pools, repriced by offchain oracles, with inventory hedged offchain.

    **The structural difference:** The differentiator is coordination scope and location. A prop-AMM prices and manages its own single-venue book offchain. What it does not do is synchronize pricing across many venues, onchain, to one <Tooltip tip="The near-future fair price Bolt may lean toward when short-horizon signal is strong enough. Falls back to the composite when it is not.">convergence price</Tooltip>. Bolt does exactly that. A prop-AMM optimizes one pool. Bolt's synchronization layer coordinates the whole market.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="RFQ + Oracle DEXs">
    **What they do:** Market makers quote offchain, settle onchain. Pricing is signed per trade.

    **The structural difference:** Signed quotes fill one trade. They do not make venues agree. A signed quote is pricing infrastructure. Bolt is synchronization infrastructure: one executable convergence price across the market, not per fill, but per tick.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="TradFi MMs">
    **What they do:** Deep capital, sophisticated market making. They treat onchain as a satellite to their CEX desks.

    **The structural difference:** They cannot atomically synchronize onchain; for them, onchain is a side strategy, not core architecture. Bolt's core architecture is onchain synchronization. And the moat is the convergence dataset and flywheel, which capital alone cannot shortcut: the data is accumulated over time, not purchased.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## The three canonical distinctions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Isn't this an oracle?" icon="database">
    Oracles report past prices. Bolt forecasts the near-term fair price and quotes it as an executable convergence price.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Isn't this arbitrage?" icon="shuffle">
    Arbitrage executes convergence once and moves on. Bolt forecasts and coordinates convergence continuously, and records every divergence as data.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Isn't this market making?" icon="chart-bar">
    Market makers optimize execution venue by venue. Bolt synchronizes the whole market to one price.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Capital efficiency comparison

| Dimension                | Traditional AMMs                            | Bolt                                                      |
| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| Pricing mechanism        | Bonding curve derived from pool depth       | Convergence price from cross-venue engine                 |
| Execution quality driver | Capital depth (deeper pool = less slippage) | Convergence accuracy (engine precision = better fills)    |
| Capital turnover         | Sub-1x                                      | Up to 100x                                                |
| LP risk model            | Full directional exposure, impermanent loss | Hedged inventory, fee-based returns                       |
| Scaling                  | Requires proportional capital growth        | Scales through price coverage and data, not balance sheet |

<Tip>See [Capital Efficiency](/capital-efficiency) for the full breakdown of how convergence pricing decouples execution quality from capital depth.</Tip>

***

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Capital Efficiency" icon="coins" href="/capital-efficiency">
    How convergence pricing decouples execution quality from capital depth.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How Bolt Works" icon="cog" href="/how-bolt-works">
    The four-step pipeline from market data to settlement.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>