At a glance
AMMs and concentrated liquidity
AMMs are foundational on-chain infrastructure. They provide continuous liquidity, permissionless listing and price discovery without requiring an order-book market maker. Their trade-off is structural: price is derived from pool state. When requested size is large relative to available liquidity, execution moves further along the curve and pool-induced price impact can become material. C1 complements that model. A router can use AMM liquidity when it provides the better executable result and C1 when shared inventory provides a more competitive route for the requested buy. C1’s default liquidity model is one-directional. Token inventory is made available to buyers rather than continuously rebalanced as a two-sided market-making position.Intent systems
Intent systems move the routing problem away from the user. Solvers, fillers or resolvers compete to source the requested outcome from AMMs, RFQ sources, proprietary inventory and other venues. C1 sits underneath that execution layer as another possible source of output inventory. The intent system does not need to be replaced. It simply gains access to inventory that has already been made available through FlowState. The distinction matters: the intent network distributes demand; C1 supplies inventory.RFQ and professional market making
RFQ and PMM models rely on professional counterparties choosing when, where and at what size they are willing to quote. They can offer excellent execution when those counterparties have suitable inventory, hedging options and risk appetite. C1 uses a different source of liquidity. Inventory can originate directly from projects, funds, holders and market makers themselves. Professional trading firms can also use C1 as part of inventory-unwind or cross-venue strategies. The two models can coexist in the same routing surface.Order books
Order books provide explicit bids and asks and support richer order types where participants actively maintain depth. C1 does not attempt to recreate a two-sided order book. Its primary public model is ask-side inventory made available at a protected oracle-derived rate and consumed as external buyer demand arrives. An execution venue can consider order-book depth and C1 inventory independently.Traditional OTC
OTC execution is often used when a position is too large to push directly through public market depth. It solves that problem through bilateral or desk-mediated negotiation. C1 is comparable only at the use-case level. It can provide an automated on-chain alternative for inventory that a seller wants to make available without negotiating each fill with a separate counterparty. FlowState is not a centralised OTC desk. Inventory is held by C1 smart contracts, each fill settles atomically on-chain and external execution infrastructure can bring demand to the pool.Where C1 fits
C1 is most relevant when all of the following are true:- meaningful token inventory exists
- the seller does not need the entire position executed immediately
- available market depth is thin relative to the position or likely trade size
- the token can be priced through FlowState’s supported oracle model
- external buyer demand can reach the inventory through one or more distribution paths
Choosing an execution path
Whether C1, an AMM, an intent route, RFQ, an order book, OTC execution or another venue is preferable depends on:- current executable price and available depth
- required execution speed and certainty
- fees, gas and route costs
- inventory and counterparty availability
- market, oracle and smart-contract risk
- the seller’s operational and commercial objectives