What is a decentralized exchange (DEX)?
DefinitionA decentralized exchange (DEX) is a set of smart contracts that lets people swap tokens directly from their own wallets, without depositing funds with a company. Prices usually come from liquidity pools rather than from an order book run by an operator.
How a DEX works
Most DEXs use an automated market maker (AMM). Liquidity providers deposit pairs of tokens, such as TON and USDT, into a pool, and a formula sets the price from the ratio of the two tokens. When you swap, you add one token to the pool and take the other out, so the price moves a little with every trade.
You connect a self-custody wallet, sign the swap, and the trade settles on-chain, usually in a single transaction. There is no account to open, and your tokens never sit in an exchange’s wallet.
What you pay on a DEX
- Network fee (gas) for the swap transaction, paid in the chain’s own coin
- Pool fee: a small percentage of each trade that goes to liquidity providers
- Price impact: the larger your trade compared with the pool, the worse your average price
- Slippage: the price can move between your quote and the moment the trade executes
Risks of using a DEX
Check the token’s contract address rather than its ticker, and read what you are signing before you confirm.
- Fake tokens: anyone can create a token with a famous name and ticker and open a pool for it
- Phishing sites that copy a DEX’s interface and ask you to sign a malicious approval
- Bugs in the DEX’s smart contracts or in the token itself
- Thin pools, where even a small swap moves the price a lot
Swapping in Waletifi
Waletifi has an in-app swap between assets such as TON, USDT, ETH and gold. It takes a rate from several markets and shows a live quote countdown, the minimum you’ll receive, a price-impact warning on large swaps and every fee before you confirm. The swap is signed on your phone, and the result is clear: success, refund or failure.
