As we explained in the Decentralized Exchanges article, a DEX is an exchange without a central authority, replaced by smart contracts.
Between 2020 and 2021, two were the rulers of the DEX: Uniswap and Pancakeswap, respectively, on the Ethereum network and Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Some of the most promising and best DEX platforms for 2022
Curve
It’s an Automated Market Maker (AMM) with a retro aesthetic developed by Michael Egorov in 2019 under “StableSwap.” Thanks to its highly efficient bonding curves, users can swap stablecoins and wrapped versions of several tokens (over 45) with minimal slippage via liquidity pools. Moreover, it focuses on assets with parity 1 to 1 with national currencies, supporting a wide range of stablecoins like DAI, USDC, USDT, BUSD, PAX, and sUSD. Swaps on the Curve platform cost a transaction fee of only 0.04%.
Curve was initially deployed on Ethereum, but now it has expanded to blockchains like Avalanche, Polygon, Fantom, and some layer-2 solutions. This DEX differs from other AMM platforms because it prefers stability instead of speculation reducing volatility and its slippage fees. In a nutshell, Curve and its pools are designed not only to act as an exchange but also to provide liquidity to other protocols. Its native token is CRV, born to incentivize liquidity providers on the platform; it’s used to vote in the DAO and for staking.
If you want better understand the pros and cons of using Curve.
SushiSwap
This DEX is a “fork” of the popular Uniswap protocol, and now it has become the best DEX for liquidity minig. SushiSwap allows traders to swap assets across over a dozen blockchains and layer2 (14 supported chains); it was one of the first DEXs for several blockchains like Avalanche, Fantom, Harmony, and Celo.
SushiSwap defines itself as “the house of DeFi” and provides an array of products and services like:
tokens swap via AMM;
earn fees and rewards by depositing and staking tokens to the platform with Onsen Menu;
on-chain lending and borrowing solution, Kashi;
a launchpad known as MISO.
Its native token is SUSHI which is staked to earn a fraction of the platform's trading fees and participate in its governance, giving users voting power. On the platform, you can also see xSUSHI, which you get when you stake SUSHI and MEOW that wraps xSUSHI into BentoBox for double yields. Finally, the platform announced the big news: SushiXSwap, a world first-cross chain AMM to rule all the pools, built on Stargate.
QuickSwap
QuickSwap is a DEX that runs on the Polygon network and is the second-most popular dApp developed on this chain. It’s similar to Uniswap and offers the same liquidity pool model. In addition, this AMM supports traditional swaps giving users flexibility when trading.
Its name “Quick” is not a case; users can immediately swap thanks to its high transaction speed and low fees. The platform is an excellent scaling solution that allows traders to swap ERC-20 with the risk of an impermanent loss. Its native token is QUICK, launched in 2021 as a governance token listed on many CEXs. As a Polygon layer2, transaction fees are paid in MATIC.
Balancer
Balancer is another AMM launched in 2020 and used for swapping tokens (ERC-20 assets) through user-created liquidity pools. Moreover, it’s one of the top ten DeFi platforms on Ethereum and provides its own native and governance token BAL. It’s also the eighth largest dApp EVM by total value locked (TVL) and the cheapest DEX.
It functions with balancer pools that allow users to swap from two to eight cryptos that provide the traders' liquidity with a “rebalanced system” so that each asset enables a proportional value to the rest of the pool. Another essential feature of this DeFi platform is the Smart Order Routing (SOR), which permits traders to achieve the highest yield rate considering the traded amount and gas fees. With this method, a pool creator can set the fees required for the extracting process; these can vary from 0.0001% to 10%.
Algebra
Algebra is the first concentrated liquidity DEX and an innovative multichain ecosystem on Polygon.
The main feature of this revitalized DEX is to reduce impermanent loss and maximize profit for liquidity providers and traders with a higher rate of APR, finding the right balance between them. In addition, algebra allows you to swap crypto, provide liquidity, stake ALGB native tokens, and participate in farming to earn extra incentives.
The main innovative features of this platform are built-in farming, adaptive fees, and deflationary token support. Still, the Algebra ecosystem opens up limitless possibilities for every user: traders, arbitrageurs, and liquidity providers. In addition, this platform can support cross-chain transactions among blockchains thanks to Rubic, a multi-chain swaps protocol. As a result, Algebra quickly became an innovative, cutting-edge DeFi leader in the industry in a short period.
Don’t miss two exploding DEX in Cardano: visit SundaeSwap and AstroSwap.
