Zenlink on Moonriver: A Deep Review of the Low-Liquidity DEX

• DATE: 21 11 25
• BY: Stellan Marwick

When you hear "Zenlink on Moonriver," it sounds like a powerful DeFi tool - a cross-chain bridge, a multi-chain DEX, built for the future. But the reality? It’s a niche experiment struggling to stay alive. As of November 2025, Zenlink’s Moonriver version has a 24-hour trading volume of just $14.73. That’s less than the cost of a coffee. For comparison, Solarbeam, the top DEX on Moonriver, trades over $1,600 in the same time. If you’re looking to trade crypto on Moonriver, Zenlink isn’t the place to start.

What Zenlink Actually Does on Moonriver

Zenlink is a decentralized exchange protocol that runs on Moonriver, Kusama’s Ethereum-compatible parachain. It’s not a standalone exchange like Uniswap. Instead, it’s designed to connect liquidity across Polkadot and Kusama parachains using its ChainHub technology. On Moonriver, it lets users swap between three tokens: ZLK (its native token), MOVR (Moonriver’s native token), and one stablecoin variant. That’s it. Only four trading pairs exist. No ETH, no BTC, no popular memecoins. Just ZLK, MOVR, and a stablecoin.

The platform uses an automated market maker (AMM) model - meaning trades happen against liquidity pools, not order books. You need to deposit equal values of two tokens to add liquidity. That’s standard. But here’s the catch: the pools are tiny. The biggest pair, ZLK to the stablecoin, trades just $14.73 a day. That means even a $50 trade can cause over 8% slippage. Users report failed trades because the price moves too much before execution.

Why Zenlink’s Liquidity Is So Poor

Liquidity is the lifeblood of any DEX. Without it, you can’t trade without massive price impact. Zenlink’s Moonriver version suffers because:

• Its native token, ZLK, was delisted from Binance in Q2 2025 - cutting off a major source of buying pressure.
• Moonriver itself has collapsed. Its total DEX volume is under $132,000 per day. That’s less than 0.01% of Uniswap’s volume.
• Developers have moved on. Zenlink’s Moonriver GitHub repo had only 12 commits in Q3 2025. Solarbeam had 287.
• No incentives. Unlike Solarbeam, which gets 20% of Moonriver’s treasury funds, Zenlink gets no funding or airdrops to attract liquidity providers.

As a result, liquidity providers have left. Why lock up your tokens in a pool that barely moves? The math doesn’t add up. Even if you earn fees, the slippage and failed trades make it not worth the risk.

How Zenlink Compares to Other Moonriver DEXs

Here’s how Zenlink stacks up against the two main competitors on Moonriver as of November 2025:

Moonriver DEX Comparison (November 2025)

DEX	24h Volume	Trading Pairs	Market Share	UX Rating	Cross-Chain?
Solarbeam	$1,675.98	25	82.2%	8.7/10	No
Huckleberry	$191.26	18	17.1%	7.9/10	No
Zenlink	$14.73	4	0.7%	6.2/10	Yes

Solarbeam dominates because it has depth, features, and funding. It supports yield farming, NFT trading, and has a clean interface. Huckleberry wins with gamified rewards and better stablecoin liquidity. Zenlink? It’s the only one with cross-chain swaps - but that feature is useless if you can’t even swap $100 without losing 8% of your value.

Is Zenlink’s Cross-Chain Feature Worth It?

Yes - in theory. Zenlink’s ChainHub protocol lets you swap assets from Moonriver to other Polkadot parachains like Astar or Pendulum. That’s technically impressive. But here’s the problem: no one is using it.

Only 18% of Zenlink’s total volume comes from Moonriver. The rest is on Astar, where liquidity is higher. On Moonriver, there’s no demand for cross-chain swaps because there’s no liquidity to swap to. If you try to move ZLK from Moonriver to Astar, you’ll likely find the destination pool empty or the price so skewed it’s not worth it.

Think of it like a highway with no cars. The road is built. The signs are clear. But no one’s driving. The feature exists - but it’s a ghost.

How to Use Zenlink on Moonriver (If You Must)

If you still want to try it, here’s how:

1. Install MetaMask, Trust Wallet, or Math Wallet.
2. Add the Moonriver network manually:
   • Network Name: Moonriver
   • RPC URL: https://rpc.api.moonriver.moonbeam.network
   • Chain ID: 1285
   • Currency Symbol: MOVR
   • Block Explorer URL: https://moonriver.moonscan.io
3. Buy some MOVR (for gas) from a centralized exchange and send it to your wallet.
4. Go to zenlink.pro/moonriver and connect your wallet.
5. Select a pair (only ZLK/MOVR or ZLK/stablecoin work).
6. Enter your amount. Watch the slippage - if it’s above 5%, walk away.

Expect a 25-35 minute setup if you’re new. Common mistakes? Wrong RPC URL (63% of support tickets), not having enough MOVR for gas (31%), or picking a pair with no liquidity (27%).

Security and Fees

Zenlink’s smart contracts have been audited by CertiK and PeckShield. The latest audit (March 2025) fixed three medium-severity bugs. That’s good. No exploits have occurred since. But audits don’t fix liquidity.

Fees are low - between $0.001 and $0.015 per swap. That’s cheaper than Ethereum. But you’re still paying gas in MOVR, which has dropped 72% since January 2025. If you’re trading small amounts, fees aren’t the issue. Slippage is.

User Reviews and Real Experiences

User feedback is brutal:

• Reddit user u/DeFi_Trader88: "Tried swapping $100 on Zenlink - 8.7% slippage killed the trade. Went to Solarbeam instead with 0.2% slippage. Zenlink’s cross-chain feature is cool but useless when you can’t trade without massive price impact."
• CoinGecko reviews: 2.8/5 average from only 7 reviews. Top complaints: "high slippage," "limited tokens," "failed transactions."
• Trustpilot: 2.1/5 overall (mostly from Astar users, not Moonriver).

One user summed it up perfectly: "Zenlink on Moonriver is like having a fancy sports car with no gas - technically impressive but can’t go anywhere useful."

Is Zenlink (Moonriver) Worth It in 2025?

No - unless you’re doing one of these:

• Testing cross-chain mechanics for research or development.
• Wanting to hold ZLK as a speculative bet on Polkadot’s future.
• Have $10 or less to lose and want to experiment with Moonriver’s ecosystem.

For everyone else - trading, swapping, earning yields - Zenlink on Moonriver is a dead end. The numbers don’t lie. Volume is collapsing. Liquidity is gone. Developers have shifted focus to Astar. The community is silent. Even the Moonriver treasury is funding Solarbeam, not Zenlink.

If Moonriver makes a comeback in 2026 - and that’s a big "if" - Zenlink might get a second life. But right now? It’s a relic. A prototype that never found its users.

Stick with Solarbeam if you’re on Moonriver. It’s the only DEX there that actually works.