Payment card provider Crypto.com has launched a liquidity swap platform, soon after the Binance exchange unveiled a similar offering.
- Called DeFi Swap, it allows users to seamlessly exchange or "swap" tokens in hosted pools and offers yield farming incentives to liquidity providers: the same as Uniswap and, more recently, by the likes of SushiSwap and Binance.
- Each swap incurs a 0.3% fee – also like Uniswap. Binance Liquid Swap, which only launched last week, charges fees depending on the token and liquidity in each pool.
- Crypto.com's DeFi Swap, which is built on top of Ethereum, will not be available in some nations including the U.S. or in Singapore, according to its white paper.
- Crypto.com also "reserves the option" to siphon off up to 0.05% per swap to fund further research and development for the protocol.
- DeFi Swap is decentralized protocol forked from Uniswap V2, but it offers additional yield incentives for users who stake in selected pools, as well as the firm's native CRO tokens.
- DeFi Swap is one of a number of automated market maker (AMM) exchanges that have come to market in recent years.
- Unlike a conventional order book, users effectively trade against a pool of assets kept liquid by token holders who deposit their assets in return for interest and a cut of transaction fees.
- Crypto.com's move closely mirrors that of Binance, which recently launched a platform called Liquid Swap to offer DeFi-like products for an audience more comfortable on centralized exchanges.
- Asked whether Crypto.com was taking aim at Binance, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said: "When we think of competition we tend to look at traditional financial institutions like banks and not other crypto startups."