Decentralized Exchanges

Uniswap is the first fully decentralized automated market maker (AMM)¹, a protocol that facilitates peer-to-peer market making and swapping of ERC-20 tokens. Uniswap protocol was created in 2018 and is now available on 5 networks with highest liquidity on Ethereum, along with thousands of options for tokens to swap. 

Users can choose to provide tokens to Uniswap pools for Liquidity Pool (LP) rewards. Using Uniswap v2 on Ethereum, Liquidity providers receive 0.3% of swap fees distributed as rewards directly back to their pooled tokens; LP tokens can also be staked for farming rewards. 

Network Compatibility:  ETH, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Base

Governance Token³: UNI

• How to Swap Tokens on Uniswap, Guide by Uniswap Labs
• https://app.uniswap.org/#/swap ⁶
• What is Uniswap? User Docs
• Uniswap Analytics
• Twitter: @Uniswap

¹Automated Market Maker (AMM) An AMM is a decentralized exchange that utilizes crypto asset pools (liquidity pools) to facilitate trustless crypto transactions. Instead of a traditional order book, assets are priced according to an algorithm in relation to pool assets. Simply put, an AMM is a decentralized protocol for crypto trades, a decentralized exchange (DEX). 

²TVL (Total Value Locked) refers to the USD value currently staked in the protocol. A high TVL assumes high liquidity, and results in less slippage when making DEX transactions. High TVL protocols are generally safer.

³Governance Token refers to a token that represents ownership in a protocol, token holders have the right to vote and participate in the direction of the protocol; the group of holders are also referred to as a DAO. Learn more: What Are Governance Tokens?, Binance Academy

Curve Finance is a high liquidity AMM, with focus on stablecoin pooling. Curve concentrated liquidity⁴ pools offer the lowest slippage⁵ rates on stablecoin swaps. The Curve model is conservative in low volatility tokens, homogenous pairs and blue chips for concentrated liquidity. 

Network Compatibility: ETH, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon

Governance Token: CRV

• https://curve.fi/ 
• Original UI: https://classic.curve.fi/
• Official User Docs & Guides
• Understanding Curve Liquidity Pools
• Twitter: @CurveFinance

⁴Concentrated Liquidity refers to the ability to select a particular range along the price curve to provide liquidity. With concentrated liquidity, an LP can be concentrated into a target price; Think highly correlated, low volatility pools like USDT/USDC where the price does not diverge. This LP target lowers slippage for traders. Read more about Liquidity Pools.

⁵Slippage can cause you to lose coins due to price movement either during or invoked by your swap, there are two reasons for slippage: protocol liquidity and price volatility. Low liquidity swaps will result in high slippage; always look for the protocol that has the highest liquidity for the lowest amount of slippage. You can adjust your slippage settings on the toggle option of any DEX swap interface to set limits on what you will allow and widen the range for low liquidity swaps. Slippage settings will automatically revert to the last trade you made, so make sure these are low for everyday transactions. Token trading pairs, volume and protocols can be found on individual token pages of CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap.

⁶Plain Text Links - For all protocols listed (DEX, farm or bridge) you will see an inclusion of plain text links. Get into the habit of recognizing your URLs; Avoid clicking embed links from email and personal messaging, normalize copy pasting URLs into the browser bar instead. Bookmark trusted links to mitigate phishing attempts and trojan attacks. 

Sushiswap is a protocol fork⁷ of Uniswaps AMM code launched in 2020 with a new tokenomics⁸ structure for their protocol fee distribution⁹. While both Uniswap v2 and Sushiswap charge transaction fees of 0.3% for every DEX trade. Sushiswap fees are distributed 0.25% to the liquidity providers and 0.05% to SUSHI holders, whereas Uniswap v2 0.3% fees are entirely distributed to liquidity providers. 

Network Compatibility: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism 

Governance Token: SUSHI

• https://app.sushi.com/en/swap
• How to swap on Sushiswap, Guide by Sushiswap
• What is Sushi? Official User Guides & Documentation
• Sushiswap TVL, Volume & Pool Analytics
• Twitter: @SushiSwap

⁷Protocol Fork refers to a protocol that uses the code of another existing protocol, often with its own updates and improvements. Learn More: What are Blockchain Forks?, OpenSea

⁸Tokenomics are the economics of any given token and are important to understanding use, distribution, supply and demand characteristics of cryptocurrencies. Learn more: What is Tokenomics?, Coinmarketcap 

⁹Fee Distribution is the process of distributing exchange fees from token swaps on an AMM DEX. 

1inch is a DEX aggregator¹⁰ finding low fee and low slippage routes for spot trading. 1inch sources routes from over 20 DEXs across networks to provide you with the one offering lowest fees at the time of swap. 

Users who stake the 1INCH DAO¹¹ token on the protocol, participating in governance, will receive a 5% gas refund on all ETH fees used for 1inch DEX transactions.

Network Compatibility: Ethereum, Arbitrum, BSC, Optimism & more

Governance Token: 1INCH

• https://app.1inch.io/
• Official User Guides & Docs
• 1inch DAO
• 1inch Tokenomics
• Twitter: @1inch 

Learn More:

• Five Things About 1inch, 1inch
• What is 1Inch and How to Use it?, DappRadar

¹⁰DEX Aggregator refers to a system that aggregates routes from a variety of decentralized exchanges in order to fulfill your trade. Learn More: Dex Aggregators; The Search Engines of DeFi Trading, The Defiant

¹¹DAO is an acronym for (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) DAO members hold protocol ⁶governance tokens voting for decisions on the direction of protocols and treasuries. Dapps and protocols are governed by DAOs. Learn more:  What is a DAO?, OpenSea