In the past, users had to rely on centralized exchanges to trade their cryptocurrency. But, things have come a long way since then and you have other options. And, nowadays decentralized exchanges provide users with a competitive alternative.
Not sure what decentralized exchanges are?
It’s okay if you’re unfamilar with what decentralized exchanges are. Here’s a helpful explainer you can read to learn what a DEX is.
Now that you’ve got a grasp of the basics, let’s move onto a few examples. We’ve put together a list of some innovative and popular DEXes that people like to use in the Ethereum community.
Uniswap
Funded by an Ethereum Foundation grant and launched in November 2018, Uniswap is one of the most popular decentralized exchanges and is known for its wide selection of trading pairs. Uniswap’s code is open source and it has no investor tokens.
Uniswap’s smart contract let’s you swap ETH or ERC-20 tokens on-chain by pooling liquidity. Each swap is charged a 0.03% liquidity fee which is added to the pool incentivizing users to contribute equal parts ETH and ERC-20.
KyberSwap
KyberSwap’s a DEX that allows users to swap tokens, powered by the Kyber Network. Kyber Network, a liquidity protocol which aggregates liquidity reserves, held an ICO for its KNC token in late Q3 2017. Kyber Network Crystal (KNC) tokens have a variety of uses on the Kyber Network.
For example, each swap performed on the Kyber Network require the fees to be paid in KNC which is then burned. Paying your fees in KNC gives you a discount. Otherwise, the smart contract swaps part of your payment for the KNC to pay the fee. KNC’s also needed to open your own liquidity reserve to earn on the Kyber Network.
KyberSwap recently added the option to place limit order trades. No deposit is required and you receive a 50% discount on the 0.1% fee when you pay in KNC.
Radar Relay
Radar Relay is the most popular 0x protocol relayer. With the 0x trading protocol, users submit signed trade order. Users’ orders are kept in orderbooks off-chain and eventually all trades settle on-chain.
Those who keep orderbooks are called relayers because they relay signed orders off-chain. When the order is taken off the book, the other party signs the pre-signed order transaction. And then, the transaction’s submitted and the funds transfer from their wallets.
And, one of the best parts is that there are no sign-ups, deposits, and currently no fees. Radar Relay offers an experience more reminiscent of traditional exchanges. There’s no fees to place limit orders; Only trades that take orders off the books, or taker orders.
DEX.AG
DEX.AG is a free site that searches over 10 of the most popular DEXes for the best price, saving you time and money. Instead of having to run around to each individual site, DEX.AG scans Uniswap, Kyberswap, Radar Relay, Eth2Dai, and loads more DEXes for the best price for your trade.
Simply, enter the token and quantity of what you’re looking to buy or sell and DEX.AG finds you the best deal. And if you hit the ‘Buy Now’ button, DEX.AG will walk you through completing your trade via MetaMask or your web3 browser wallet.
And best of all, you and your trade are interacting directly with the DEX’s smart contract. So, there are no additional fees on top of fee of your selected exchange.
Thanks for reading
Good luck finding the right decentralized exchange for you. And if you have any questions, we’re here to help in our Discord.