Glossary
Order Flow
The stream of transactions or quote requests a venue receives. In crypto, "order flow auctions" sell that flow to professional fillers for the user's benefit.
Order flow is the raw demand a trading venue sees — every swap, every limit order, every quote request. Capturing order flow has been the central business of brokers, exchanges, and now wallets for a long time.
In crypto, "order flow auctions" (UniswapX, CoW Protocol, 1inch Fusion, MEV-Share) sell the right to fill each order to whichever solver offers the best execution. The user gets MEV protection and better prices; the solvers compete on quality. Wallets like MetaMask increasingly route through order-flow auctions by default.