Curve Swap

Curve Swap is a non-custodial decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM) that exchanges tokens against liquidity pools rather than an order book. StableSwap serves stablecoins and closely priced assets, while CryptoSwap serves assets that move at different prices.

A pool contract calculates output from its invariant, reserve balances, and trade size. Your wallet authorizes the public smart-contract transaction, so an operator does not hold your account or keys. CRV is Curve’s governance token, not the token you need to exchange assets through a pool.

Curve works by applying the selected pool’s AMM invariant to its reserves and quoting a route for the input token, output token, and amount. Before signing, the live app displays the proposed pool route, expected output, price impact, slippage tolerance, pool fee, and estimated gas.

An ERC-20 token input may first require a one-time approval for the quoted spender; approval is a separate transaction. The swap then enforces minimum received: price impact describes the quoted execution, while slippage tolerance controls how far execution may move before the transaction reverts.

StableSwap pools fit assets expected to track the same or a closely related value; CryptoSwap pools fit assets with materially different prices. StableSwap concentrates liquidity around the expected price relationship, so its capital efficiency depends on that relationship; a depeg or badly imbalanced pool changes the quote.

Choose from the actual token contracts, wrapper versions, and pool constituents because ticker symbols do not identify the asset completely. Wrapped and yield-bearing tokens need their exact contract checked, and an interface route does not change whether a pair is genuinely correlated.

Curve runs on Ethereum mainnet and other EVM networks, with pools, tokens, and contract deployments specific to each chain. The live app’s network selector and pool list are the current availability check, so availability cannot be inferred from another chain.

The wallet network, token balance, and quoted pool must be on the same chain, and that chain’s native asset pays gas. A Curve trade stays on the selected network; moving assets to another chain requires a separate bridge transaction.

A Curve trade’s cost is the chosen pool fee, network gas, and the economic loss represented by price impact. Pool fee settings can differ by pool, so read the fee in the live quote; price impact is an execution effect, not a protocol fee.

An ERC-20 approval consumes gas separately when required, and a route with more contract calls can use more gas than a direct route. Compare expected output and minimum received with the fee display, and hold enough native currency for approval and swap transactions.

Curve’s contracts are audited and open-source StableSwap-NG code is public, but neither property makes a trade risk-free. Smart-contract bugs, token behavior, broad approvals, depegs, unexpected routing, compromised front ends, and phishing remain real risks.

Before signing, verify the network, token contract addresses, pool, spender, allowance amount, expected output, and minimum received. An audit covers defined code and scope at a point in time; it does not cover every deployment, router, integrated token, or future change.

Curve swap failures and poor fills usually trace to a network mismatch, missing gas or approval, unsuitable pool selection, or a quote that moved before confirmation.

• Wrong network: switch both the wallet and app to the chain holding the tokens, then rebuild the quote.
• No gas: keep enough of the chain’s native asset for the approval and swap.
• Missing approval: wait for the approval to confirm and verify that its spender matches the new quote.
• High price impact: check for an uncorrelated pair, an imbalanced pool, or an amount that is large relative to available liquidity; widening slippage does not fix the underlying pool or size problem.
• Reverted transaction: refresh the route because the minimum received, deadline, or pool state may have changed. A reverted on-chain transaction can still consume gas.