This article provides an overview of the top three Cardano-powered decentralized exchanges (DEXes) by TVL (based on data from DeFi Llama), i.e. Minswap, WingRiders, and SundaeSwap.
Crypto Hardware Manufacturer Ledger Improves Its Support for Cardano
On Tuesday (April 26), Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson applauded French crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger’s announcement about version 4.0.0 of the Cardano app for Ledger wallets now being compatible with Cardano-powered smart contracts.
Paris-headquartered Ledger was co-founded in 2014 by Eric Larchevêque, Nicolas Bacca, Joel Pobeda, and Thomas France. It currently makes three crypto hardware wallets: Ledger Nano X, Ledger Nano S, and Ledger Nano S Plus.
Ledger’s support team also delighted the Cardano community by announcing that the Ledger Live app is currently working on adding full support for Cardano:
Minswap
According to its white paper, Minswap is “an automated market-maker (AMM) decentralized exchange (DEX) on Cardano which supports multiple pricing functions for a single liquidity pool.”
This is an “elevator pitch” description of Minswap from the project’s FAQ guide:
“We aim to bring an innovative multi-model asset pool decentralized exchange to the Cardano blockchain. Minswap aims to be the best liquidity provider on the market by integrating the best asset pool models from across the DEX ecosystem into one protocol. The combination of stable pools, multi-asset pools, and concentrated liquidity will benefit both traders and liquidity providers. Our tokens are fairly distributed without any private or VC investment. This ensures our community of users are maximally rewarded, not speculators and insiders.“
The Minswap protocol has two types of tokens:
- MIN token: “The governance token of the protocol with future utility.”
- MINt token: “A token that can be converted to MIN through usage of the protocol.
Here are a few more facts about Minswap:
- “MIN tokens are distributed fairly to protocol participants and Liquidity Providers, who can participate in governance and vote democratically on protocol changes.“
- “Minswap is permissionless, meaning anybody can list tokens without needing KYC.“
- “Minswap supported SPOs through the FISO and plans to continue doing so with a community-oriented ADA delegation policy…“
- “Minswap will embrace Community Governance through a DAO, and introduce novel features such as gamification or profit sharing.“
As for token distribution, “78.5% of tokens will be distributed to the community, of which 70% are reserved to reward LPs.”
At present, Minswap “supports CCVault, Nami, Flint, Typhon and GeroWallet,” and it plans to add support for Yoroi in the future.
WingRiders
WingRiders is being developed by Slovakian FinTech startup Vacuumlabs, which is “a software development company that builds modern full stack fintech solutions for startups, scale-ups and incumbent banks.” Vacuumlabs first got involved with Cardano in 2018 when its developers started work on Adalite, which has become the world’s popular web-based Cardano wallet:
“In 2018, Vacuumlabs developers started an internal project to build the first Cardano light wallet. What was supposed to be a ‘weekend project’took weeks, but AdaLite was born. Since then, AdaLite has cemented itself as the leading web-based Cardano wallet, and along with it settled Vacuumlabs as a key development partner in the Cardano ecosystem.“
Given the pedigree of its developers, perhaps it is not surprising to see them proudly call WingRiders “The DEX on Cardano.”
WingRiders lets its users “swap”, “earn” (by providing liquidity), and “fly” (presumably to the moon with the help of native token $WR).
Here is some information about WingRiders (from version 1 of its Lightpaper):
“WingRiders is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) decentralized exchange (DEX) built on top of the Cardano using the eUTxO model on the main chain. The project is powered by VacuumLabs, one of the most widely respected developers in the Cardano space.
“WingRiders’ objective is to be an infrastructure element for the whole Cardano ecosystem, with simple integration into any wallet or Dapp. Accessible via many platforms, supporting connectors and Hardware wallets such as Ledger or Trezor. The platform will be fully decentralized and trustless supporting swaps between Cardano native tokens. Plans exceed the AMM, L1 and Cardano itself.“
On the same day that Ledger made its announcement, the WingRiders team pointed out that their DEX is the first one on Cardano that can talk directly to a Ledger hardware to perform token swap without without requiring a software wallet to act as an intermediary.
SundaeSwap
SundaeSwap, which calls itself “the sweetest decentralized exchange on Cardano”, is “a native, scalable decentralized exchange and automated liquidity provision protocol”.
It is backed by cFund (“an early-stage sector agnostic venture firm in the Blockchain industry anchored by IOHK and managed by Wave Financial”); Alameda Research (the quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm and liquidity provider founded by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried); and Double Peak Group (“a family office focused on investments in the digital asset and blockchain space”).
Here is why the SundaeSwap team decided to build a DEX on Cardano:
“… in simple terms Cardano is faster and cheaper than the alternative smart contract platforms. It also is run by a non-profit foundation and regularly collaborates with high profile academic institutions. All in all it is more advanced and a better option for future projects to be built upon.“
On April 27, the Ledger support team told one user of SundaeSwap that this DEX could be used with a Ledger hardware wallet with the help if Nami wallet:
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
Image Credit
Featured Image by “Quantitatives” via Unsplash
