Arjun Sethi, the co-CEO of a prominent exchange, recently shared an interesting perspective - that CEX and DEX are not actually rivals, but rather different paths leading to the same goal.

In his interview on October 30, he divided the evolution of crypto trading into three acts: the first act is the custodial era, where everyone hands their coins over to the platform for safekeeping; the second act is the era of smart contracts, where code is law; and the third act? It's currently unfolding, but he didn’t elaborate.

This perspective is actually quite new. In the past, the industry often liked to create opposing narratives, with centralized entities shouting about safety and compliance, and decentralized ones advocating for autonomy. But now, as you can see, CEX is working on on-chain reserve proofs, while DEX is optimizing user experience, and the boundaries are indeed becoming blurred. Ultimately, isn’t what users want just "both safe and easy to use"? As for whether the underlying is custodial or a smart contract, it may not be that important.

However, the biggest variable on the road to integration is how to overcome this regulatory hurdle.