This post is the first one in a series to list DEXes in Cardano. The list is not exhaustive; we’ll expand it in the future by adding more information and details.
MUESLISWAP
While decentralized token exchanges have enjoyed great popularity on blockchains (e.g., Uniswap on Ethereum), no such platform exists yet on EUTXO-based blockchains (i.e., Cardano). MuesliSwap proposes a novel approach to the model and implements such an exchange by revisiting the traditional order book model.
Game Theory is at the heart of its exchange protocol. Its simplicity, modularity, self-regulation, and complete decentralization differentiate it from the alternatives. Their promoters want to become one of the first operational DEXes in Cardano.
SUNDAESWAP
SundaeSwap testnet launched on December 5th. The testnet has several purposes. First, to identify bugs from being used by thousands of users with fresh eyes instead of developers and auditors working on it for months.
Cardano has set networking settings like block size, CPU limit, and memory limit cautiously because it is in the early stages of its DeFi lifetime. As the IOG team recently communicated, they intend to raise these limits slowly and carefully over time. To further raise these limits, they first want to observe extended periods of heavy traffic in a test network environment and monitor fundamental network performance metrics.
CARDAX
Cardax is a DEX using the Extended Automated Market Maker (EAMM) protocol. They want to provide liquidity to projects issuing Cardano native tokens. Following the activation of the Cardano Mary fork on the mainnet, which brought native tokens and multi-asset support to Cardano, there is a greater need to develop a native exchange. With the launch of the Goguen era, Smart Contracts helped the development of dApps on Cardano.
A native Cardano exchange will solve some of the ecosystem’s commercial issues and shortcomings. Cardax offers exciting features and capabilities to the Cardano network:
- They accept all Cardano native tokens.
- Joining liquidity pools to collect fees on native ADA-Cardano token pairings.
- To automate liquidity-sensitive pricing, they use the EAMM protocol.
- Exchangeability of ADA for any native Cardano token
- Exchange native Cardano tokens in a single transaction.
- Trade and send money to a separate address in one transaction.
- Yoroi wallet allows you to buy ADA or any other Cardano native coin easily.
ARDANA
Ardana is a DeFi hub built on the Cardano blockchain. The Hub will provide Cardano users with proven DeFi primitives to catalyze and maintain their financial ecosystem. Ardana consists of six critical interconnected components: many stablecoins backed by on-chain collateral, the Vaults component, Oracle, Danaswap, the governance protocol running on exDANA tokens, and finally, the AREM module.
The Vaults component is a decentralized stable coin platform that allows users to leverage compatible native Cardano assets by generating stablecoins against excess blockchain collateral. The generated stable coins will hedge popular trading currencies such as the US Dollar (USD), British Pound (GBP), and Euro (EUR). Users can mint stablecoins for different currencies and exchange them on Danaswap, easing a fast and low-cost exchange system.
Developers based Ardana on a set of mechanisms that will maintain the stability of the decentralized stablecoin generation platform. Some fundamental tools that will maintain stability are the settlement mechanism, the debt ceiling mechanism, the stability buffer, and the reserve buffer.
ARDANA Liquidation Mechanism
The liquidation mechanism will liquidate vaults in significant danger of losing liquidity by auctioning the collateral to liquidators. The liquidators repay the vault debt by bidding in dUSD, or any Ardana Stablecoin, to purchase the vault collateral at a discount. The protocol charges a fee for liquidations while allocating a piece to exDANA holders to discourage them.
Users will be free to add additional collateral to avoid liquidations. Conversely, if the value of the collateral asset increases, a user may choose to repay only a portion of the dUSD, release some collateral, and keep the loan instead of liquidating it completely. They send a part of the protocol’s stablecoin revenues to the “Stability Buffer,” a reserve. This Ardana stable currency reserve will serve as a liquid backstop to maintain the Ardana stablecoins’ price stability.
Finally, the debt ceiling is the maximum amount of dUSD that a single form of collateral can generate to guarantee that the collateral portfolio is sufficiently diverse.
OCCAMX
OccamX aspires to be the most popular DEX for Cardano native tokens by offering excellent trading execution and various financial services. While critical crypto assets are available on the platform, OccamX aims to become the leading decentralized spot and derivatives trading platform. Developers designed the OccamX DEX to be an integrated, larger, more efficient, more liquid, and fairer system than its predecessors. A more holistic governance model will drive the DEX. The holistic and elaborate governance layer will increase the amount of “good” liquidity flowing into the protocol.
The OCX token powers the decentralized exchange. OCX tokens allow users to participate in the governance of OccamX. Participation lets users vote on DEX system parameters, project lists, and upcoming DEX enhancement proposals. The OCX token also plays a crucial role in providing liquidity. OccamX uses some well-known concepts, such as AMM algorithms, for market-making; however, it uses unique technological solutions.
Metapools
One of these technological solutions is the multi-asset pool concept called “Metapools,” which allows trading one asset with a subset of all other assets in the so-called Metapool. These Metapools will also enable the provision of unilateral liquidity. With Metapools, the exchange will offer liquidity providers to retain the desired risk profile and traders with a much more powerful and efficient trading mechanism. Metapools solve the underutilization of collateral and the need for over-collateralization in untrusted lending protocols. It also solves excessive market risk for liquidity providers (LPs) in decentralized exchange protocols based on automated market makers (AMMs).
The OccamX team has also innovated to provide traders with even more capabilities. One such innovation is index pools that provide index tokens in exchange for liquidity of all assets represented and backed by the index token. The key idea behind OccamX Index Pools is to use inactive liquidity tokens that are “pegged” to the value of the underlying liquidity in the liquidity pools.
OccamX is essentially the merger of these and many other DeFi mechanisms that form a single decentralized meta-trading platform. As such, OccamX will take DeFi capital efficiency to a new level. Each Lovelace or Satoshi of liquidity supplied will earn double for the market maker.
ERGODEX
ErgoDEX is a decentralized exchange based on the revolutionary UTXO-based Ergo (and soon Cardano) blockchain. It uses a protocol designed to be a fast and secure financial contract platform with radically new DeFi functionality and a proof-of-work protocol that can interface with the Cardano blockchain. This cross-chain capability will add Oracle groups to the Cardano blockchain and ErgoDEX and an order book allowing anyone to trade tokens on both chains.
Ergo is a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain founded in 2019 by some of Charles Hoskinson’s favorite programmers, who also worked on smartcontract.com (now known as Chainlink). The platform uses Turing complete Smart Contracts, with sophisticated capabilities including zero-knowledge proofs, ring signatures, oracles, and customizable block sizes.
ERGO partnered in 2020 with EMURGO to explore stablecoin R&D and the provision of DeFi applications. They are leveraging each other’s expertise in Cardano technical frameworks and UTXO-based Smart Contracts.
ErgoDex, a cross-chain DEX between the Cardano blockchain and Ergo, is currently under development and will be launched in beta in Q3 2021. The plan is a full launch in Q2 2022, following the Goguen mainnet, which brings Smart Contracts to the Cardano blockchain, enabling the implementation of DEX and Oracle groups.
MINSWAP
Minswap is a decentralized multi-group exchange on Cardano. It exchanges tokens with minimal cost, minimal time, and maximum convenience. Their goal is to offer the Cardano blockchain an innovative decentralized multi-asset group exchange. Minswap aspires to be the market’s finest liquidity provider by combining the best asset pool concepts across the DEX ecosystem into a single protocol. Traders and liquidity providers will profit from combining stable pools, diversified asset pools, and complete liquidity.
Minswap offers a different approach. For example, see the features highlighted in their Whitepaper, such as:
- Multi-function liquidity pools.
- Multi-group routing.
- Functioning as a blockchain price oracle or automatic babel rate redemption.
They also focus more on construction than fundraising. However, comparisons are difficult since no DEX has launched or provided test environments.
Minswap will establish various AMM liquidity pools and allow users to route their trades via the most efficient pools (this multi-pool routing feature could later become a DEX aggregator).
They’ll also include features that will assist the Cardano ecosystem to grow, such as an IFO launch pad, allowing other projects to launch their tokens without fear of IDO sniper bots. They’ll also have an SPO-friendly delegation policy that promotes network decentralization. Its mission is to be a unique platform for companies to publish their tokens and for supporters to buy and support them.
Market Makers
Market makers have always backed centralized backlog exchanges. Large trading businesses or brokerage houses with much cash, financial competence, and regulatory compliance are often market makers. They earn from the trading spread by facilitating high liquidity on centralized exchanges (difference between the bid and ask prices). However, with the emergence of decentralized exchanges and DeFi, automated market-making (AMM) has gained traction, allowing individual shops to become market makers and benefit swiftly from trading fees.
In an AMM exchange, individual market makers, now called liquidity providers (LPs), pool their funds to become a single sizeable automated market maker. Traders can exchange tokens in these liquidity pools based on a deterministic algorithm. Although convenient and suitable for blockchain smart contracts, AMM presents its problems: non-permanent loss, low capital efficiency, and early execution. These problems are being addressed in different ways by Ethereum blockchain projects, with different tradeoffs. However, no such DEX is being developed in the Cardano ecosystem, alone in an optimized AMM.
ADAX
ADAX is an automated liquidity protocol that facilitates transactions within the Cardano ecosystem, wholly decentralized and non-custodial. It has no order book: they remove all intermediaries, complexity, and cumbersome procedures, offering users unlimited freedom to trade without censorship or losing control over their assets. Users can control their tokens and not give up their private keys to register their orders on a centralized exchange. This way, decentralization is about user privacy and eliminating the risk of asset loss if the exchange’s security is compromised.
They believe adapting to changes in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrencies is essential. That is why ADAX has accelerated its development to coincide with the launch of the new Cardano functionality. Now that Cardano Smart Contracts are live in the mainnet, ADAX will facilitate token exchanges, participate, ensure market liquidity, and enable users to fully use the network’s capabilities. Their unique protocol is beautiful and fast, providing a decentralized pricing mechanism that smoothes the depth of the order book. ADAX has a team with a track record of success in several crypto companies. By bringing a wealth of experience, expertise, and industry best practices, ADAX will benefit users within the Cardano network.
ADAX’s vision is no less ambitious than becoming UniSwap, a unicorn in the Cardano network. ADAX seeks to prevent the need for centralized intermediaries, paving the way for fully decentralized, censorship-resistant, and secure commerce in the Cardano ecosystem. ADAX users can execute Smart Contract-based transactions instantly and at only a fraction of the cost of the Ethereum network.