At the heart of most decentralized exchanges is the DeFi AMM protocol, a system that replaces traditional order books with mathematical formulas to enable instant crypto trading without intermediaries. Also known as automated market maker, it’s what lets you swap ETH for USDC in seconds—no buyer or seller needed. Unlike centralized exchanges where trades depend on matching orders, AMMs use liquidity pools, reserves of paired tokens locked in smart contracts to set prices automatically. When you trade, you’re not buying from another person—you’re interacting with a pool that adjusts prices based on supply and demand, using a simple formula like x * y = k.
This system runs on DEX, decentralized exchanges built on blockchains like Ethereum, BNB Chain, or Solana, and it’s the reason you can trade obscure tokens that never appear on Coinbase or Binance. But it’s not magic—it’s code. Every AMM relies on liquidity providers—people who deposit tokens into these pools in exchange for a share of trading fees. That’s how you get yield farming, staking rewards, and passive income from DeFi. The most popular AMMs, like Uniswap and Biswap v2, use the same basic math, but some add twists: fee tiers, concentrated liquidity, or integration with lending protocols. What they all share is one big risk: impermanent loss. If the price of your deposited tokens shifts too much, you could end up with less value than if you’d just held them.
What you’ll find in this collection isn’t theory—it’s real-world cases. We’ve covered platforms like Biswap v2 that run on BNB Chain, and we’ve called out projects with zero trading volume pretending to be AMM-powered. You’ll see how liquidity pools work in practice, what happens when they’re underfunded, and why some DeFi protocols fail even when the tech sounds solid. We also break down how AMMs tie into broader trends like real-world asset tokenization and liquid staking, because none of this exists in a vacuum. Whether you’re trying to earn yield, avoid scams, or just understand why your swap cost more than expected, the posts below give you the unfiltered facts—not the hype.
Solidly is a dead DeFi AMM protocol on Fantom with only five trading pairs and a $211K market cap. Once praised for its fee-based model, it now has near-zero usage, plummeting token value, and no development. Avoid it for trading or investing.
