Glossary
What is DEX?
A DEX (decentralized exchange) lets users swap tokens directly from their wallets through smart contracts, with no custodian holding their funds.
A DEX never takes custody of your assets — trades execute on-chain against liquidity pools or order books, and you sign each one from your own wallet. Most EVM DEXs use the automated-market-maker model pioneered by Uniswap.
Because anyone can list a token by creating a pool, DEXs are where most new tokens first become tradable. Monad's low fees and fast finality make on-chain swapping cheap and quick.
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Related terms
- DEX aggregatorA DEX aggregator searches multiple liquidity sources and splits or routes a trade to get the best overall price and least slippage.
- AMMAn automated market maker (AMM) is the algorithm a DEX pool uses to price trades from its token reserves, instead of matching individual buy and sell orders.
- Liquidity poolA liquidity pool is a smart contract holding two tokens that traders swap against; its balances set the price via an automated market maker formula.
- SlippageSlippage is the difference between the price you expect on a swap and the price you actually get, caused by price movement or low liquidity between quote and execution.