What a uniform clearing price means in a batch auction
Understand clearing-price consistency, why different token pairs use different rates and how directed-pair rules differ from a universal price claim.
The reference
All swap guides
Browse 484 guides to DEX aggregation, BNB Chain, swap execution and integration.
What an intent means in decentralized trading
Understand signed outcome constraints, solver-selected routes and the difference between an intent and an executable transaction.
What atomic execution means for a DEX route
Understand all-or-nothing same-chain route execution, its transaction boundary, and why separate approvals or cross-chain steps are different.
What is a DEX aggregator?
Understand how DEX aggregators compare liquidity, choose swap routes and settle trades, with a worked example and practical limits to quoted prices.
What liquidity aggregation means in practice
See why aggregation accesses independent pools and quotes rather than merging every venue into a single shared reserve.
What order surplus means after an intent is filled
Calculate the improvement over a signed limit for sell and buy orders while keeping surplus separate from investment profit.
What request-for-quote liquidity adds to a DEX route
Explain how professional market-maker offers enter an aggregated route and why offchain quote formation can still lead to onchain settlement.
Why an aggregator cannot create missing liquidity
Understand why a router can find available markets but cannot manufacture buyers, reserves or a viable exit for an unsupported token.
Why reaching a limit price may not fill a DEX order
Explain why a chart touching a target does not establish that a DEX limit order had executable liquidity and valid settlement conditions.
Why routes use a wrapped native token
Understand why routes use wrapped native assets as token-compatible intermediaries and why wrapping is distinct from a market trade.
Why swapping back does not restore the original amount
Use a controlled AMM example to distinguish reversible curve movement from the fees and state changes that make a real round trip lose value.
Why swaps and signed orders have deadlines
Understand validity deadlines for swap transactions and signed orders, and why an expiry is not a promise of timely execution.
Why the same token has liquidity in many places
Explain why one token pair can have several pools across venues, versions and fee tiers, and how that affects route discovery.
Why transaction value can be zero during a token swap
Explain why an ERC-20 swap can show zero native transaction value even while it transfers a substantial token balance.
A route can be optimal for a snapshot and weaker at execution
Separate route-search quality at the quoted state from changes that occur before execution, and understand why refreshes can change the path.
Avoiding unit and denomination errors in swap comparisons
Keep units, reciprocal rates and decimal display consistent when reading token quotes and comparing exchange relationships.
How a maximum-hop rule changes routing
Understand direct-only, maximum-hop and excluded-source rules as constraints that change which swap routes are eligible.
How quote sampling estimates an AMM's output curve
Understand amount samples, allocation grids and the limits of approximating a nonlinear swap-output curve.
How smart order routing finds a token swap path
Follow the decisions behind route discovery, size-aware quoting, split allocation and executable swap construction.
How to read route percentages
Read branch allocations without double-counting downstream hops, and identify the denominator behind each route percentage.
More liquidity sources do not always mean a better quote
Explain why a long supported-DEX list is only one input to execution quality and why redundant sources may add little.
Prop AMMs on EVM: what proprietary market making changes
Understand prop AMMs, how EVM execution affects their quotes, and why a competitive displayed price still needs settlement-quality evidence.
Single-hop vs multi-hop swaps
Distinguish direct swaps, sequential intermediary routes and parallel split paths, including where intermediate tokens go.
Thinking about DEX liquidity as a routing graph
Model tokens as nodes and executable markets as directed connections to understand routes, parallel venues and capacity limits.
What a route breakdown tells you and what it leaves unknown
Learn what venue names, branches and amounts reveal about a route, and which execution assumptions still need separate documentation.
What does best mean to a swap router?
Distinguish maximum raw output, minimum input and cost-adjusted objectives when a router labels a path best.
What happens when a swap crosses a liquidity tick?
Explain tick boundaries as changes in active liquidity and show why a single pool swap can require several pricing steps.
Why a router compares multiple fee tiers
Understand why routing compares separate fee-tier pools instead of assuming the lowest posted trading fee gives the strongest exchange.
Why a router does not inspect every possible path
Explain candidate pruning, hop bounds, allocation granularity and why a practical quote is not a proof of global market optimality.
Why A-to-B-to-A is not an ordinary swap path
Distinguish an ordinary token conversion from a route that returns to its starting asset, and understand why loops need a separate objective.
