Q2 2026 - Pyth Express Relay: A Path Forward

Co-authored by KemarTiti (Pythian Council, Pyth Data Association) and @zenyas (Pythian Council, Douro Labs)

Summary

Q1 fees are live and working as designed. With two months of data in hand, the Pythian Council and Douro Labs have reviewed Express Relay’s performance and want to share our findings with the DAO. This post covers what’s working, where the challenges are, and a proposed path forward.

What’s Working: X Stocks

Before diving into the numbers, worth highlighting what’s actually performing well. X Stocks account for ~45% of current volume and ~60% of fee revenue. They’ve held up better than other asset classes (-63% vs -90%+ elsewhere) because xStocks have limited onchain liquidity outside Express Relay, giving searchers better pricing power.

This is a real use case — tokenized assets with thin liquidity benefit from the Express Relay model.

1 Fees: Implementation Successful

In February, OP-PIP-92 activated protocol fees across 35 tokens. The implementation went smoothly — fees are collecting as designed.

Revenue has been steady but hasn’t grown with the fee implementation, largely due to volume shifts.

Volume Changes

The volume decline isn’t fee-related — at 1-10 bps, protocol fees are negligible (a $10k trade costs $1-10). The primary factor: Jupiter launched their own RFQ system and, from a competitive standpoint, removed Express Relay from their aggregator. Jupiter had been the main distribution channel for spot token flow.

Economics

Running Express Relay costs between $5,000-$15,000 monthly (infrastructure, tech support). Current revenue is around $2,000/month. For every $1 Douro spends operating Express Relay, the DAO sees roughly $0.20 in revenue.

The DAO isn’t directly bearing this cost, but it raises the question of whether Douro’s resources could have more impact elsewhere.

Market Context

A few observations from looking at the broader landscape:

1. Distribution matters significantly in OEV/MEV. Products that own their flow (Jupiter) or are integrated with major existing flow (Chainlink SVR via Aave) have an advantage that’s hard to replicate through protocol improvements alone.

2. Solana aggregator dynamics changed. Jupiter’s RFQ launch shifted the competitive landscape. This wasn’t unexpected from their perspective, but it affected Express Relay’s distribution.

3. Tokenized assets remain promising. X Stocks performance shows the model works for assets with limited onchain liquidity — there may be future opportunities here even if the broader product winds down.

Proposal

Based on this review, we’re proposing an orderly wind-down of Express Relay.

What this means:

• Douro Labs will begin a gradual sunset of Express Relay infrastructure

• Communicate timeline to integrated protocols

• Help current integrators transition

• Maintain service during the transition period

• Explore opportunities to license or sell the codebase to interested parties (AMMs, RFQ protocols, tokenized asset issuers) — any proceeds to the DAO treasury

Why: Current revenue (~$2K/mo) doesn’t justify operating costs ($5-15K/mo). Douro’s resources would have more impact on higher-traction areas like Pyth Pro and Pyth Terminal.

Timeline

Next Steps

1. Community feedback — Does this direction make sense? Anything we should consider?

2. Integrator feedback — Reaching out to protocols using Express Relay to understand their timeline needs.

3. Searcher feedback — Talking to active searchers about transition and potential interest in the codebase.