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In the cryptocurrency industry, you have several platforms on which you can trade, and of course, you also have different ways of trading. One type of platform for trading is decentralized exchange. What are the 5 best decentralized exchanges and why?

What is a Decentralized Exchange (Dex)?   

A decentralized exchange (or a Dex) is a platform where you can buy, exchange, and passively generate cryptocurrency. They are decentralized which means that they are not connected to centralized banks (physical or online banking systems). As opposed to centralized exchanges (known as Cex) which follow government regulations and work closely with centralized banks. A Dex can be available on one or several ecosystem(s). An ecosystem is a network (also called a ‘chain’), which determines with which cryptocurrency you will have to pay for the fees (when trading your crypto) and on which platforms you will be able to do so. Here are some of the most popular ecosystems:

• Ethereum (ETH)
• Base (BASE)
• Fantom (FTM)
• Polygon (MATIC)
• Binance Smart Chain (BSC)
• Solana (SOL)

Now that you know what a decentralized exchange is, we are going to introduce you to what we think are the 5 best Dex based on usability, trustworthiness, liquidity, and user experience. Here are our top 5 and their respective network:

• Pancakeswap Finance (Binance, Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, and others)
• Sushiswap (Binance, Fantom, Polygon, Near Protocol, and others)
• Uniswap (Binance, Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche and others)
• Tomb Finance (Fantom)
• Spiritswap (Fantom)

Pancakeswap

Pancakeswap is an easy-to-use Dex for beginners, it has bright colors, great designs, and very low use of slang and jargon it is therefore really inviting for any level of trading experience. They also have their coin named $CAKE on which you can invest. You can, by the way, earn some for free when you pay for super high interest rates fees. Here are some figures (they are frequently updated on their platform):

• Total users: 1,315,658
• Total trade volumes: 17,147,174
• Total value locked (liquidity on their platform): $1,514,008,678

They call themselves ‘Everyone’s favorite Dex’. It is the biggest exchange on the Binance Smart Chain network and it also has the ‘highest trading volumes in the market’. There’s a blog and a documents section you can report to. You can check their figures, learn how to use their products, or just get to know a bit more about their background.

Sushiswap

Sushiswap is another easy-to-use Dex for beginners, it has bright colors too, beautiful designs and it uses basically no slang or jargon which is ideal for any level of crypto knowledge. They, too, have their coin which is called $SUSHI. A reward system is also offered on their platform for investors who own (hold) their cryptocurrency. Whenever you exchange crypto for another on their Dex, you have to pay some fees, and a portion of these will be redistributed and shared between $SUSHI owners (holders). Here are the figures that they share on their platform:

• Total trades volumes: $271.79 Billion
• Total liquidity: $412.63 Million

In addition to that, they also have a blog, FAQ, and academy center where you can learn more about their products and services. They also have forums where you can discuss with the community and you can participate and vote to ‘Shape the future of Sushiswap’.

Uniswap

Another great exchange for beginners is Uniswap, their platform has bright colors too, still with great designs and very little to no use of crypto slang and jargon. Their coin is $UNISWAP (also known as $UNI). They say that they are ‘Trusted by millions’. Here are the figures they share on their exchange:

• Total of users: 90 Million
• Total liquidity: $1.1 Billion

They are very user-friendly with a help center, and a blog and you are also invited to vote whenever they have an important decision to make for the community. Navigating on their platform is simple as they go straight to the point. Their help center is more than complete, they explain to you everything from how to connect your wallet, to how to swap coins and discuss other services or potential issues that you may encounter.

Tomb Finance

Once you are more comfortable with our top 3 exchanges, you will be able to start using Tomb Finance. Tomb Finance is an exchange that is a bit more technical to use and is only available on the Fantom chain. There are more options for transactions but also quite a lot of jargon and not much explanation as to how their protocols work. They have a ‘doc’ section where they explain the more basic transactions such as:

• How to add Fantom chain to your Metamask wallet
• Moving BSC to FTM
• How to wrap Fantom
• How to buy Tomb
• And more

On their platform you can stake your $TSHARE and earn some $TOMB in return, you also have the option to use their liquidity pools. Tomb is an amazing exchange to earn passive income. Earning passive income is the act of generating money by placing your funds for a set period on a platform or in a protocol. Although Tomb Finance is only available on the Fantom network, there is now a new version of their platform that allows users to swap tokens on different networks. When clicking on their ‘swap’ feature, it leads you to a new platform named Lif3 where you can do the following:

• Swap tokens (Exchange a token for another)
• Buy cryptocurrency (With your credit card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay)
• Use Liquidity pools (Place your funds to earn rewards)
• Bridge tokens (Transfer a token from one network to another)
• Consult their community documentation
• Learn more about their ecosystem

The two wallets that are compatible with the platform are Metamask and WalletConnect. The different networks that are compatible with Lif3 are Arbitrum, Base BNB Chain, Ethereum, Fantom, and others.

Spiritswap

Spiritswap is another great Dex, where you have plenty of possibilities in terms of transactions and earning rewards. They are trusted by over 60k users. There are more guidelines on their platform. In fact, when scrolling down on their landing page, you can learn about their ecosystem and their different protocols. Spiritswap is only available on the Fantom chain at present, however you can bridge your tokens. Here is what you can do on their exchange:

• Swap tokens
• Bridge tokens
• Earn passive incomes with Liquidity Pools (LPs) and Farming
• Lend and borrow tokens
• Take part in their community and earn even more with inSPIRIT their governance token

Here are some figures that they share on their platform:

• Total Volume: $21.6B
• Total Liquidity: $37.8M
• Total inSPIRIT rewards: $10.8M

As discussed, there are plenty of Dex within the different networks. Depending on what you plan on doing with your funds, there are lots of options for you to explore.