Balancer
Balancer is similar to Uniswap. It allows you to swap Ethereum tokens in a very convenient user interface, without bids/asks, deposits or order management. All it takes to do a trade is two to three clicks.
Uniswap
Uniswap is the most popular decentralized exchange in the Ethereum ecosystem. You can swap any Ethereum asset for another. Moreover, Uniswap is known to have very low gas prices (Ethereum fees) which makes it a very attractive place to trade.
Curve
Curve is a decentralized exchange optimized for extremely efficient stablecoin trading with very little slippage. For example if you want to trade DAI for USDC, Tether or TUSD, Curve is the way to go.
Kyber
Kyber is a blockchain based liquidity protocol that allows users to do simple token swaps. It aggregates liquidity from a broad range of reserves in order to offer competitive prices.
Matcha
Matcha is a trading platform built by the 0x team, a well-known team in the Ethereum space. Matcha aggregates liquidity from a vast number of exchanges and lets you find the best price across all of them.
Synthetix
Synthetix is a decentralized exchange allowing you to get synthetic exposure to all sorts of assets such as commodities, fiat and cryptocurrencies, indexes as well as inverses. Synthetix also allows you to short and long any of the assets available on its exchange.
Loopring
Loopring is a decentralized exchange built on a cutting-edge Layer 2 technology called ZK Rollup. Effectively, this means that you don't have to pay any of the gas costs you would incur on a normal decentralized exchange built on Ethereum
Exchange guide
Available tokens
Decentralized exchanges differ a lot in how many tokens are traded on them and how much liquidity there is for each token. Some decentralized exchanges are more popular than others so they attract more trading activity.
Fees
The fees you pay don’t go to a company but to the Liquidity providers on the decentralized exchange platform. The amount is set by the protocol varying between 0.2 -1%. Transaction fees you pay to the network validators are another cost factor. Some exchanges have lower transaction fees due to how their contracts are built.
Liquidity
The level of liquidity on an exchange affects the cost at which you can execute trades without moving the market. If there's a high level of liquidity your purchase won’t have a large impact on the price.
Features
A good decentralized exchange should be simple to use with a pleasing user interface and some advanced features like limit orders, availability on different Layer-2 networks, community support in reach and more.
FAQ
See all questions
What is a decentralized exchange?
Decentralized exchanges allow users to swap cryptocurrency assets by using smart contracts and on-chain transactions to reduce or eliminate the need for an intermediary. Instead of having to go through an exchange where you have to identify yourself and give-up custody over your assets a DEX lets you remain in control.
What is a DEX aggregator?
A DEX aggregator is a platform that scans all decentralized exchanges for you to find you the best price on the market. Typically, the network fees are a bit higher but if you’re trading large amounts the savings on the token price can be worth the higher network cost.
Who controls a decentralized exchange?
The smart contracts powering a decentralized exchange are “immutable” meaning they exist on the Blockchain forever and no one can change them. The fees go to liquidity providers and sometimes to the decentralized organization (DAO) that developed the contracts.
Why are decentralized exchanges popular?
On a decentralized exchange anyone can list any token for trading and anyone can buy a token from anywhere in the world. There is no centralized gatekeeper that prevents you from listing your own token. Moreover, because everything happens on-chain there are efficiency gains which translate into lower costs for end-users.
Are there fees involved for a decentralized exchange?
There are two kinds of fees involved. Liquidity provider fees which go to the people who sell the asset to you and network fees which go to the validators securing the Blockchain you are transacting on.
Academy
Exchanges explained!
If you’re a crypto-trading beginner, look for a platform with a simple and straightforward interface. A good exchange starts simple, and hides complex features for advanced traders in the settings.
Learn more about exchanges
