Minswap DEX

Minswap is an automated market maker on Cardano that combines several pool models in one protocol. Liquidity providers hold two tokens per pool, and as prices move the pool rebalances toward the weaker one, so a provider can end a period worth less than if they had held. That impermanent-loss mechanism is why the registry rejects the AMM category for advised money regardless of protocol quality: the client sees a loss they were never told to expect, in a position we recommended. Minswap held $9.7 million across 64 pools at the 2026-08-14 survey. A product line without two-sided pool exposure would earn its own review.

Review triggers: events that reopen the verdict
• Ships a product line without impermanent-loss exposure that merits its own review

Watched nightly: a warning on its venues or files, or a cited document that changes, reopens the memo. The first confirmation is due 2026-11-15.

The research file

Applicability to the surveyed record

Minswap is a Cardano DEX whose liquidity pools hold token pairs and pay LPs a share of swap fees. Minswap’s own risk guide explains that its AMM changes the two token quantities as relative prices move, leaving LPs with more of the weaker token and less of the stronger one; this directly establishes the shared AMM-LP class.

Current observation and perimeter

The DefiLlama API read on 2026-08-15 classified Minswap as a DEX on Cardano and reported approximately $12.7M TVL plus about $87,700 tagged as staking. Size is contextual only because the shared v1 AMM-LP exclusion applies at any scale.

Control and exit applicability

Pool choice, token pair, curve and trading activity determine inventory and fees. Removing liquidity returns the LP’s then-current pool share rather than the original quantities; Zap Out merely adds a swap into one selected token and therefore introduces execution and slippage rather than eliminating the realized inventory divergence.

Why the class rule decides

The shared v1 AMM-LP dossier controls because fee income requires two-sided AMM inventory rebalancing. Reopen only for an economically distinct Minswap product without AMM inventory exposure, then review its cash flows, contracts and governance, asset and Cardano dependencies, audits and incidents, executable liquidity and stressed exit, and named non-AMM alternatives.

Class rule

The amm lp class is outside the approved structures, so every protocol in it is not approved until the rule changes. The rule is about the structure, not an adverse finding about this protocol, and it is not a client instruction. The events that would reopen it are listed with the memo.

Sources

The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.

• Minswap — protocol introduction · primary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: Cardano DEX identity, token-pair trading, LP participation, swap-fee income, governance
• Minswap — impermanent-loss risk · primary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: AMM reserve rebalancing, two-token inventory, impermanent loss, fee offset, withdrawal loss
• Minswap — Zap In and Zap Out · primary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: paired-asset deposit, LP token, liquidity removal, single-token exit swap
• DefiLlama — Minswap DEX survey record · secondary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: current TVL, staking value, Cardano, DEX category, survey perimeter

Inherited controls

The research above describes the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The layer with the most administrative power sets the position’s effective control; that describes control, not quality or suitability.