Glossary
DEX
Decentralized exchange: a smart-contract venue where users swap tokens directly from their wallets, with no custodial account or central order-book operator.
A DEX lets you trade without depositing funds with anyone. The two dominant designs are AMMs (Uniswap, Curve, Balancer — price set by a formula over pooled liquidity) and on-chain order books (dYdX v3, Loopring — limit orders matched on-chain or off-chain with on-chain settlement).
DEXes can't be shut down or freeze a customer account, and they don't need KYC. The trade-offs are public order flow (front-running opportunities) and the inability to reverse a mistaken transfer.