List of Decentralized Crypto Exchanges: 9 DEXs Compared (2026)
Last Updated: September 15, 2026
This list of decentralized crypto exchanges covers nine DEXs as of September 15, 2026. Uniswap is the largest spot DEX with $3.62 billion TVL and $74.4 billion 30-day volume, Hyperliquid leads perpetual DEXs with $14.2 billion open interest, and EVEDEX, dYdX and GMX offer perpetual futures with different matching and fee models.
Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) let you trade directly from a non-custodial wallet and keep custody of your funds at all times. The trade-off: you manage your own security, pay network fees and deal with liquidity pools or on-chain order books instead of a company's matching engine, and liquidity providers also face impermanent loss. Different protocols optimize for slippage, gas costs, stablecoin pricing or leverage, so the right choice depends on the tokens you trade, the networks you use and whether you want spot swaps or leveraged trading on a perpetual DEX. The table below compares spot AMMs and perpetual DEXs by size, fees and documented drawbacks, and the sections after it explain how DEXs execute trades and what to check before connecting a wallet to any decentralized exchange.
List of Decentralized Crypto Exchanges Compared
| Exchange | Type and network | Size | Trading fees | Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVEDEX | Hybrid order book for perpetual futures: matching runs off-chain, settlement on Arbitrum L2 | $678.6M open interest and $647.6M 24-hour volume across 52 perpetual pairs | 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker; funding is calculated every 8 hours and charged hourly | No spot swaps or AMM pools, only 52 pairs |
| Uniswap | AMM with v2, v3 concentrated-liquidity and v4 hook pools; Ethereum holds $2.34B of its TVL | $3.62B TVL and $74.4B 30-day volume, the largest spot DEX by both measures | v3 pool tiers of 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.30% and 1%; v4 pools can use custom or dynamic fees | Ethereum mainnet gas makes small swaps expensive, and anyone can create pools for scam tokens |
| PancakeSwap | AMM with v2, v3 and Infinity pools; BNB Chain holds $2.20B of its $2.27B TVL | $2.27B TVL and $30.0B 30-day volume, the second-largest spot DEX by volume | 0.25% on v2 pools; v3 tiers of 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.25% and 1% depending on the pair | About 97% of its liquidity sits on BNB Chain, and listings include many low-quality tokens |
| Aerodrome | Vote-escrow AMM on Base with stable, volatile and Slipstream concentrated-liquidity pools | $322M TVL and $14.0B 30-day volume, all of it on the Base network | 0.05% on stable pools and 0.30% on volatile pools by default; Slipstream tiers from 0.01% to 1% | Runs only on Base, and much of its liquidity depends on AERO emissions directed by veAERO voters |
| Curve Finance | StableSwap AMM for stablecoins and pegged assets plus crypto pools; Ethereum holds $1.22B of TVL | $1.28B TVL and $3.55B 30-day volume, concentrated in stablecoin and pegged-asset pools | Set per pool, for example 0.015% on 3pool (read on-chain); part of pool fees is distributed to veCRV holders | Built for pegged pairs, with thinner liquidity and a more complex interface for volatile tokens |
| Raydium | Solana AMM with v4, CPMM and concentrated-liquidity pools plus the LaunchLab launchpad | $1.13B TVL and $6.6B 30-day volume, the largest DEX liquidity on Solana | 0.25% on standard AMM pools; concentrated-liquidity pools charge from 0.01% to 1% | Works only on Solana, and permissionless pools list unvetted tokens alongside established ones |
| Hyperliquid | Order book for perpetual futures and spot on its own layer 1 chain, Hyperliquid L1 | $14.18B open interest and $9.54B 24-hour volume across 404 perpetual pairs | 0.015% maker and 0.045% taker on perps at the base tier; 0.04% and 0.07% on spot | Relies on its own validator set, which voted to delist the JELLY market after a squeeze in March 2025 |
| dYdX | Order book for perpetual futures on dYdX Chain, a Cosmos-based application chain | $44.3M open interest and $34.2M 24-hour volume across 119 perpetual pairs | Maker-taker fees tiered by 30-day volume; high-volume makers can earn rebates of 0.5–1.1 bps | Much less open interest than Hyperliquid, and funds must move to a separate chain before trading |
| GMX | Oracle-priced perpetuals traded against GM liquidity pools on Arbitrum and Avalanche | $206M TVL; GMX V2 on Arbitrum shows $31.8M open interest and $21.9M 24-hour volume | 0.04% or 0.06% to open or close a position, plus price impact and an hourly borrow fee | Borrow fees add up on positions held for long periods, and price impact grows with trade size |
Data as of September 15, 2026. TVL and 30-day spot volume: DefiLlama. Open interest and 24-hour volume of perpetual DEXs: CoinGecko. Fees: EVEDEX, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Aerodrome, Curve, Raydium, Hyperliquid, dYdX and GMX documentation.
How Decentralized Exchanges Execute Trades
DEXs replace a company's order book with smart contracts or a dedicated blockchain. On an AMM like Uniswap, liquidity providers deposit token pairs into a pool, and the protocol prices each swap with a formula. When you swap ETH for USDC, the contract takes ETH from your wallet, adjusts the pool balance and sends USDC back in one atomic transaction. You pay the pool fee to liquidity providers plus network gas. Order-book DEXs like dYdX and Hyperliquid match limit orders on their own chains, which gives traders more control over the execution price. Oracle-based venues such as GMX fill trades at a price from an external feed against a shared liquidity pool. Hybrid models match orders off-chain for speed and settle them on-chain for transparency. Before trusting any venue, check whether its front end, upgrade keys or oracle introduce a single point of control. Cross-chain bridges let you move assets between networks, but every bridge adds its own smart contract risk.
What to Check Before Choosing a DEX
These six factors decide whether a platform fits the way you trade.
- Supported tokens The DEX must list the assets you want to trade. New tokens often launch on one chain first, and liquidity on other networks can lag for months.
- Liquidity depth Shallow pools cause high price impact, so a trade can lose far more to slippage than to the quoted fee. Check the price impact estimate on the amount you actually plan to swap.
- Network fees Ethereum mainnet gas can make small swaps uneconomical during busy periods; layer 2 networks like Arbitrum, Base and Optimism usually cost a fraction of that for the same trade.
- Smart contract audits Unaudited code risks exploits. Look for published reports from independent auditors before depositing significant capital into a new pool or protocol.
- Governance and control Some DEXs distribute voting power through tokens, letting holders change fees or add markets; others keep upgrade keys with the team. Know who can change the rules.
- Interface and tools Built-in charts, transaction history and gas estimates save time; active traders also need limit orders and an API.
If you plan to provide liquidity rather than just swap, read about impermanent loss to understand how price divergence can leave an LP position worth less than holding the tokens, even after fees. Most leading DEXs now deploy on layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum, Base or Polygon to offer cheaper transactions while settling to Ethereum.
Many platforms also reward liquidity providers with native tokens on top of trading fees. Locking those tokens in governance contracts, as veCRV and veAERO holders do, can increase your share of fees or emissions, but it ties up capital and exposes you to the reward token's price. Weigh the advertised yield against that token's volatility and against your opportunity cost before committing funds for months.
Trading on EVEDEX
EVEDEX differs from the AMMs in this list in one important way: it is an order book exchange for perpetual futures, not a token swap venue. There are no liquidity pools, LP rewards or ERC-20 swaps. Orders are matched off-chain for speed and settled on-chain on Arbitrum, and you trade from a connected wallet with margin in USDT. The exchange lists 52 perpetual pairs, including BTC, ETH, SOL, gold, silver, WTI oil, EUR/USD and US stocks, which is far fewer than Hyperliquid's 404. Fees are 0.015% for makers and 0.045% for takers, and leverage reaches 200x on BTC, ETH and SOL for positions up to $50,000 notional. If you need to swap tokens, use a DEX above; to go long or short with leverage, read how a perpetual DEX works. Perpetual futures carry a high risk of loss.
