Serum is an exchange infrastructure provider built on Solana that offers partner protocols on-chain trading at a speed and efficiency that rivals centralized exchanges.

Dexes

Serum

Protocol Code Quality

Protocol Maturity

Protocol Design

Risk Rating

Watch Out

* [Documentation](https://docs.projectserum.com/)

Exploit/Hacks

green

None

* [Website](https://www.projectserum.com/)  
 * Token: SRM  
 * Tags: Dexes

Info

* TVL: $401.2K (Rank #153)  
 * TVL Ranking by Dexes: #37  
 * Blockchain: Solana  
 * Chain TVL  
 	* Solana: $401.17K

Key Metrics

Information


- Code not reviewed by any experienced auditors
- Anonymous team reduces transparency
- No documented protocol hacks since launch


- Core protocol launched in 2020; maturity over 1.5 years reduces technical risk as smart contracts are sufficiently battle-tested
- Top 5% by total value locked reduces risk
- Decentralized governance increases transparency
- At least one critical governance issue documented
- Low voting power concentration reduces risk

Risk Assessment

Serum's open-source nature allows DeFi protocols and other projects to seamlessly plug into its network of liquidity to power their own exhanges or marketplaces.

What we like

The protocol lacks any official audits despite being backed by top institutions and leaders.

What we like less

Serum is a fully on-chain order book built on Solana that enables you to trade peer-to-peer in an efficient, trustless, and non-custodial way.

What it means for you

Summary

#### How Serum works
Serum is a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on Solana to leverage its high speed and low transaction costs. The majority of DEXs use an automated market maker (AMM) model as opposed to an orderbook due to Ethereum's low scalability and high gas fees, which makes an on-chain matching system inefficient. Serum was able to use an on-chain central limit orderbook (CLOB) as it was built on Solana, which can produce blocks every 400-600ms. The CLOB also allows liquidity to be aggregated across pools, rather than being fragmented across protcools. Ecosystem partners can compose with Serum's on-chain CLOB to share liquidity.
#### How Serum makes money
Serum collects fees on each trade. Trading fees are incurred when an order is executed. The protocol has 6 different fee tiers that vary depending on the amount of SRM the user is holding. 80% of the fees earned are used to buy back and burn SRM tokens. This leads to deflationary model over time as usage expands.
#### How you make money on Serum
SRM holders receive discounts on trading fees. The more you stake, the greater the discount. You can also stake SRM to earn 20% of the trading fees.