QuickSwap is a permissionless decentralized exchange (DEX) based on Ethereum, powered by Polygon's Layer 2 scalability infrastructure. By utilizing Layer 2 for transactions, QuickSwap users are able to trade any ERC20 assets quickly with minimal gas fees.^[1][2]

Overview

QuickSwap is a permissionless decentralized exchange (DEX) based on Ethereum and powered by Polygon's Layer 2 scalability infrastructure. Anyone can trade any ERC20 token on QuickSwap. If an asset isn't currently supported on the platform, users can list any ERC20 token on QuickSwap by providing liquidity to enable instant asset swaps. They will then earn fees every time other users trade via that trading pair.^[3]

Liquidity providers (LPs) will be incentivized by both yield farming and liquidity mining opportunities. Users who provide liquidity for incentivized trading pairs on QuickSwap will not only be entitled to a percentage of the platform’s 0.3% trading fees but will also earn QuickSwap's native QUICK governance token for their participation.^[4]

As of September 2022, there are two types of QUICK — Old QUICK and New QUICK. The two tokens were created following a 1:1000 token split in March 2022 when QuickSwap’s community voted to increase QUICK’s supply.^[18]

Features

Permissionless Listings

Just like other leading decentralized exchanges (DEXes), any user can list any ERC20 token on QuickSwap by providing liquidity for the trading pair. There is no requirement to ask permission from any other person or entity before listing an asset.^[5]

Liquidity Mining

By providing liquidity to incentivized QuickSwap trading pools, users are rewarded with QUICK tokens. QuickSwap launched Liquidity Mining on October 9, 2020. Since that date, the market cap of QuickSwap's native QUICK token has increased to over $180 million.^[6]

Layer 2 Transactions

Transactions on QuickSwap are powered by Polygon (formerly Matic Network), a Plasma-based Layer 2 Ethereum scalability solution. This means asset swaps can be completed within ~2 seconds at a tiny fraction of the gas cost on the Ethereum mainchain. Transactions on Polygon achieve finality on the Ethereum mainchain, providing all the security of Ethereum with the massive performance capabilities of Layer 2.^[7]

Non-Custodial Trading

Users can trade on QuickSwap directly from their personal wallets (including MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, and various mobile wallets via WalletConnect). Unlike centralized exchanges, there is no need to deposit tokens onto the exchange before trading. Users, therefore, retain complete custody over their assets during the trading process.^[8]

Yield Farming

There is a trading fee of 0.3% for every transaction on QuickSwap. Users who provide liquidity to trading pairs on the platform are eligible to receive a percentage of trading fees in proportion to their liquidity pool stake. (0.25% are rewarded to LPs, 0.04% to single-asset QUICK stakers, and 0.01% to the QuickSwap Foundation).^[9]

Governance

QUICK token holders decide the future of QuickSwap through governance votes. Token holders are able to vote for various aspects related to the protocol. The ultimate goal of QuickSwap is to hand over power to the community so that the platform can be managed entirely by token holders.

Participating in IDOs

Initial DEX Offerings, or IDOs, are a new way to raise funds for projects in development. In June 2021, QuickSwap partnered with Starter, a leading IDO launchpad on Polygon, in the QuickStart alliance. This partnership enables QUICK token holders the opportunity to participate in IDOs.^[20]

QUICK Token

QuickSwap has its own QUICK token. QUICK token holders are able to create proposals for and vote on various factors relating to the running of the protocol. As of the time of this writing, there are two types of QUICK — Old QUICK and New QUICK. The two tokens were created following a 1:1000 token split in March 2022 when QuickSwap’s community voted to increase QUICK’s supply.^[18]

The Old QUICK token was launched in 2021 as the governance token for QuickSwap, with a total supply of 1 million tokens. There was no seed round, no private round, no pre-sale, and no public sale (ICO/IDO/IEO) of the QUICK token. 96.75% of the token's total 1 million supply was reserved for the QuickSwap community.^[10]

As of May 21, 2021, 90% of QUICK tokens had already been distributed through the liquidity mining rewards program. To motivate new projects and communities to come out to Layer 2 and try Polygon, QuickSwap provided incentivized trading pools. Those who provide liquidity for an incentivized trading pool are rewarded with QUICK tokens in addition to a percentage of the fees generated from swaps.

However, despite the growing market cap, the team soon found out that the scarcity narrative made QUICK price seem too expensive relative to that of other DEX tokens, such as UNI or 1INCH. Consequently, the community increased the max supply of QUICK tokens to the current circulating supply of 1 billion by creating the New QUICK tokens.

As of April 2022, QUICK token holders can convert Old QUICK to New QUICK. Holders can still buy or sell Old QUICK on centralized exchanges, as QuickSwap continues its transition from Old QUICK to New QUICK.^[18]

QUICK mining rewards will run for another 3.5 years (4 years total). Gradually, the token emissions will slow down with less being distributed as the years' pass. The treasury wallet is equipped with multisig, and it requires 3 out of 4 signatures from QuickSwap curators Nick Mudge, Sameep Singhania, Lunar Digital Assets CEO Roc Zacharias, and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal to increase security and eliminate the chance of a future rug pull.^[11]

Token Distribution

Dragons love Unicorns: A Tribute to Our Mother (5%)

Because QuickSwap is a fork of Uniswap, the team allocated 5% of the total QUICK token supply for liquidity mining via UNI-pools.^[12]

Curators and Advisors (3.25%)

Because QuickSwap is a community-focused project, only 3.25% of the total supply was allocated to QuickSwap’s curation and advisory team. The tokens that were distributed to QuickSwap’s founding members are locked in vesting contracts that release slowly over the next 392 days.

A Future Airdrop

To reward early users, QuickSwap has reserved 1% of the total supply to be distributed via an airdrop at some future date. Though originally the team intended this airdrop for MATIC stakers, the team is now working to determine a better strategy. It's possible that a portion of these rewards will go to Matic stakers, while others will go to QuickSwap’s users and token holders. The exact specifications of this future airdrop have not yet been determined.^[13]

Marketing

The team used the remaining 0.75% of the QUICK supply to fund their initial marketing campaign. They distributed these tokens to members of various DAOs and distinguished industry personalities to encourage their interest and participation in QuickSwap.^[14]

CelsiusX Partnership

In February 2022, QuickSwap announced its partnership with CelsiusX, the DeFi arm of the Celsius Network. The partnership aims to create a bridge for smooth transitions between DeFi and CeFi and facilitate quicker adoption.^[21]

As such, CelsiusX is building the crucial infrastructure required for wrapping tokens to facilitate their easy movement across blockchain networks. This will enable native CeFi users to gain access to various DeFi opportunities like liquidity mining and staking, and enable DeFi users to benefit from the interoperability and scalability of CeFi platforms.^[22]
The team behind QuickSwap exclusively told NewsBTC the following about their collaboration with CelsiusX:

CelsiusX is bringing 3 assets (cxDOGE, cxETH, and cxADA) that currently have little to no utility or use on Polygon over and each of their respective communities with them. The team will be seeding the liquidity for 3 trading pairs, $10 million in liquidity for each pair. In addition to added liquidity, we expect to see a major increase in volume.^[23]

Dragon's Quick (dQUICK) Token

QuickSwap team introduced dQUICK or Dragon's Quick token in April 2021. It is the asset users receive when they deposit QUICK tokens into the QuickSwap "Dragon’s Lair" pool (staking contract). The price of dQUICK changes over time depending on how much QUICK is deposited in the staking contract. In simple words, users deposit QUICK, and they get a variable rate of dQUICK in return. The value of dQUICK increases over time as swap fees are generated. When the users unstake (or withdraw from the staking contract), their dQuick is burned, and they get back more QUICK tokens than they put in depending on the rate. The lower the dQUICK rate, the more QUICK users will receive when they unstake. The longer a user holds dQUICK, the more QUICK tokens they will withdraw when the time comes. There are no lockup periods, so the user can withdraw anytime.^[15][16]

The rewards for the Dragon’s Lair or staking QUICK come from the exchange fee generated on QuickSwap. Out of the 0.3% fee charged by Quickswap, 0.04% is used to market buy QUICK tokens and distribute them to stakers. The acquired QUICK from fees is then divided up proportionally between the dQUICK holders in the Dragon's Syrup Pools, meaning their dQUICK increases in value relative to QUICK.^[17]

These Syrup Pools have a finite number of rewards in participating tokens that expire once the limit is depleted. As most Syrup Pools have run out of rewards for Old QUICK tokens, the Syrup Pools currently accept only New QUICK token.^[18]

QuickSwap’s V3 beta

QuickSwap V3 beta was launched on September 12, 2022, on the Polygon chain. Additionally, this will pave the way for the new Dragon's Lair, which will debut a few days after the V3 beta. New $QUICK holders will be able to stake their New QUICK to start earning a portion of the trading fees collected on its DEX.^[19]