When you trade crypto without a middleman, you’re using a DEX, a decentralized exchange that lets users swap tokens directly from their wallets without needing to hand over control of their funds. Also known as non-custodial exchange, it’s the backbone of DeFi and the reason you don’t need to trust a company to hold your Bitcoin or Ethereum. Unlike centralized exchanges like Binance or Coinbase, a DEX runs on smart contracts. That means no login, no KYC, and no one can freeze your assets—unless you lose your private key.
Popular DEXs like Uniswap, a leading automated market maker on Ethereum that lets anyone add liquidity and earn fees and Curve Finance, a DEX optimized for swapping stablecoins with near-zero slippage are built to make trading cheap and fast. But not all DEXs are equal. Some, like Libre Swap or Kodiak v2, have tiny liquidity, no audits, and almost no users. Others, like Balancer V2 on Gnosis Chain, offer advanced features like multi-token pools and gasless trades. The difference? One might save you money, the other could wipe out your funds.
DEXs don’t just trade tokens—they enable staking, lending, and yield farming all in one place. You can swap ETH for USDC on Curve, then lock that USDC into a pool to earn CRV rewards. Or trade on SushiSwap and stake your SUSHI tokens to vote on protocol changes. But there’s a catch: impermanent loss, smart contract bugs, and fake tokens are real. A DEX doesn’t protect you from bad decisions—only your own research can.
That’s why the posts here focus on real-world DEXs you can actually use—not hype. You’ll find reviews of Curve Finance on Polygon, Balancer on Gnosis, and SushiSwap on Ethereum. You’ll see what works, what’s risky, and what’s outright broken. You’ll learn how to spot a DEX that’s built for traders versus one that’s just a gambling site with a blockchain label. Whether you’re swapping stablecoins, farming yield, or testing a new chain, this collection gives you the facts—not the fluff.
Polycat Finance is a tiny, under-the-radar DeFi exchange on Polygon with minimal trading volume and a sinking token. It's not safe for serious investors - only for crypto tinkerers willing to risk losing it all.