Curve

Curve is a specialised DEX for trading correlated assets — stablecoins against each other, or liquid-staking tokens (stETH) against the underlying (ETH). It uses a StableSwap AMM that behaves like constant-sum near the peg (near-zero slippage) and falls back to constant-product far from it (preserves liquidity when something depegs). In practice, a $10k USDC→USDT swap on Curve costs pennies in slippage where Uniswap v2 would cost tens of dollars. The 3pool (USDC/USDT/DAI) and stETH/ETH are among the deepest pools in DeFi. The CRV token and its quirky veTokenomics (lock CRV for up to 4 years to direct pool emissions, which spawned the "Curve Wars" between protocols fighting for liquidity) became a template for governance token design across the space.