Decentralized Exchange: What It Is, How It Works, and Which Ones Actually Matter

When you trade crypto on a decentralized exchange, a peer-to-peer platform that lets users swap digital assets without relying on a central company. Also known as a DEX, it runs on blockchain code, so your funds never leave your wallet. That’s the big difference from places like Coinbase or Binance — no deposit, no waiting, no third party holding your coins.

That safety comes with trade-offs. Most decentralized exchanges, like Wagmi on IOTA EVM or Puzzle Swap on Waves, only support a handful of tokens. They don’t let you buy crypto with a credit card. You need to already have crypto in your wallet, and you need to understand gas fees, slippage, and liquidity pools. Some DEXs, like the barely-used Wagmi (Kava), a trading platform with under $400 in daily volume and almost no users, aren’t worth touching. Others, like Puzzle Swap, a DEX aggregator built for the Waves blockchain, serve a narrow but real need for users already deep in that ecosystem.

Why do people still use them? Because you control your keys. No exchange gets hacked and steals your life savings. No KYC form asks for your passport. No shutdown leaves you stranded. But you also get zero customer support. If you send funds to the wrong address? Too bad. That’s the price of freedom. And that’s why most people stick to centralized exchanges for buying in — then move to DEXs for swapping tokens they already own.

What you’ll find in this collection are real reviews of DEXs that actually exist — not hype, not theory. We looked at trading volume, liquidity, user activity, and whether the platform still works in 2025. Some, like Wagmi on IOTA EVM, are niche tools for believers. Others, like Coinbit or HaloDeX, are ghost towns with no future. We also cover how wrapped assets like WBTC tie into DEXs, why liquidity matters more than low fees, and what happens when a DEX has no audits or public team. This isn’t a beginner’s guide to blockchain. It’s a practical filter for what’s real and what’s just code on a website pretending to be a trading platform.