Wallets and aggregators integrate a DeFi protocol when it adds volume or yield for their users and costs their engineers almost nothing. Do the integration work for them: publish a DefiLlama adapter, expose a standard quote or deposit function, and serve live data. Then pitch the numbers to the one product owner who decides.
Why do wallets and aggregators control so much distribution?
Most users never pick a protocol. They tap "swap" or "earn" in a wallet, and the wallet or its aggregator picks for them. DefiLlama tracked 190 DEX aggregators that routed $73.1B of trades in the 30 days to 14 October 2026, a figure equal to about 25% of the $290.6B traded on DEXs in the same period (DefiLlama aggregators, DefiLlama DEXs; the ratio is our arithmetic, and some aggregator volume is also counted as DEX volume).
The routing sits with a few teams. The five largest aggregators handled 61% of that 30-day aggregator volume, and the top ten handled 84% (our arithmetic on the same endpoint). A protocol inside the ten largest routers reaches most aggregated flow on the chains they serve.
Wallets also earn money from these choices. DefiLlama tracks fee income for seven self-custody wallets, and together they took $12.2M in fees in the 30 days to 14 October 2026 (DefiLlama fees). A wallet weighs every new integration against that revenue and against support tickets from users who lose money.
Who makes the integration decision?
The decision maker differs by partner type, and so does the pitch.
| Partner | Decision maker | What they integrate | What they need from you | Typical blocker |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DEX aggregator | Integration engineer, with a BD lead for priority | Swap venues and liquidity sources | A callable quote function, gas costs, test pairs | Unreliable quotes or high gas per swap |
| Yield aggregator | Strategist who writes vault strategies | Lending markets, pools, yield tokens | Deposit and withdraw functions, reward data, exit liquidity | Rewards that end soon or withdrawals that queue |
| Wallet swap screen | Product manager for swaps | Usually an aggregator, sometimes a venue directly | Better fills than the current default, measured per pair | No measurable gain for users |
| Wallet earn screen | Product manager for earn, with risk or legal review | Staking, lending and vault products | A one-step deposit, a clear withdrawal time, contract control details | Risk review, regional rules |
| Data and analytics sites | Maintainers of public adapter repos | TVL, volume and yield data | Adapter code computed from chain data | Missing or wrong methodology |
For swap venues, the routing details matter most. We cover them in how prop AMMs change where on-chain order flow goes.
What should you ship before the first conversation?
Ship the parts that let a partner test you without a meeting. Work in this order:
- List on DefiLlama. Fork the adapters repository, write an adapter that computes TVL from chain data, and open a pull request (DefiLlama docs). The queue moves fast: 459 pull requests were merged into the repository in the 30 days to 14 October 2026, with 28 open on that date (GitHub; counts from the GitHub search API). Partners check this page first.
- Get your pools into yield data. DefiLlama's yield service listed 16,843 pools from 501 projects on 14 October 2026, and 2,745 of them held $1M or more (DefiLlama yields; the $1M count is our arithmetic). A strategist compares you against that list, so make sure your APY breakdown separates base yield from token rewards.
- Publish a standard interface. For a venue, a quote function any router can call inside a transaction. For a yield product, standard deposit and withdraw functions with no custom approval steps.
- Write the adapter for them. Open a pull request to each target router or vault repository that accepts outside code, with tests that pass.
- Serve live data. An API with your rates, depth, utilisation and withdrawal times, so a wallet can show users the numbers without a second integration.
- Prepare a one-page control sheet. Admin keys, timelock, audits and incident contact, for the earn team's risk review.
How do you pitch once the code is ready?
Pitch with a number the product owner can check on their own screen. For an aggregator: the share of test swaps on your top pairs where your quote beat the route the aggregator picked, with the date range. For a wallet: the yield, the withdrawal time and the fee income their users would generate, all at today's rates.
Reach the right person through the channel they already use. Integration engineers live in GitHub issues and developer chats. Wallet product managers announce new chains and new earn products publicly. Each of those announcements opens a short window when they need protocols to fill the screen.
Market share follows these integrations. We took FastLane from 10% to 75% market share before Chainlink acquired the engine. Our notes on how blockchain infrastructure protocols grow market share cover how a protocol becomes the default integration.
How long does an integration take?
Code-first integrations move fastest. In a sample of 100 pull requests merged into the DefiLlama adapters repository in the 30 days to 14 October 2026, the median time from opening to merge was 11 hours, and 93 merged within three days (our arithmetic on GitHub data). Router repositories set their own pace, so ask each maintainer how they review outside code. A wallet earn screen takes longer, because it adds risk review and, in some regions, legal review. Build the plan around the slowest partner and start it first.
What is the decision rule?
Integrate where your users already are, in order of effort:
- DefiLlama adapter merged and TVL methodology published.
- Yield pools listed with base and reward APY separated.
- Standard quote, deposit and withdraw functions documented, with test cases.
- Pull requests opened to the ten routers or vault platforms that carry the most volume on your chain.
- One measured, dated proof point per partner type.
- Wallet product owners mapped to the chain and earn launches they have announced.
If a partner would need more than a day of engineering to test you, do that work yourself before you ask for a call.
To map the routers, vault platforms and wallets that decide your volume and rank them for outreach, start with The Diagnostic at $2,500.