All terms
A decentralized exchange, where you trade directly from your own wallet.
A DEX matches trades through smart contracts rather than a company holding your funds. You connect a wallet, approve the trade, and the tokens move between your address and a pool.
You keep custody the whole time, which removes the exchange failure risk. In exchange you take on responsibility for approvals, slippage, gas and picking the right token contract.
Uniswap, Jupiter and PancakeSwap are DEXs. Your funds are never held by them.
That trading on a DEX is automatically safer. You keep custody, which removes one risk and adds others: you approve contracts yourself, you can buy a token that cannot be sold, and there is no support desk when you do.
Common questions
Do I need an account to use a DEX?
Are DEX prices worse than exchange prices?
Where to go next
More defi terms
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Some of these land faster in conversation than in writing. Sessions are one to one and you can ask anything, including the things that feel too obvious to ask.