Orderbook

In this guide, you will learn how to get started trading Cardano tokens via the Orderbook feature on MuesliSwap. If you'd like to get a better understanding of the technology behind the MuesliSwap order book, we recommend reading this blog post. If you want to even better understand the rationale behind these mechanisms, please refer to our white paper.

If you want to play around with the DEX without spending any ADA, check out the development version of the DEX that is publicly accessible and running on testnet.

📘 New to Cardano? Make sure you're well informed before using dApps! You can learn more about the Cardano blockchain and the main ideas behind it on its official website: https://cardano.org

Installing a Cardano wallet

In order to trade on MuesliSwap, you will need a Cardano wallet that supports dApps. Check out our Wallets guide on How to install and How to connect a wallet.

💡 A wallet is simply an application that holds your funds. When you create a new account, your wallet will assign you a Cardano address (similar to bank account number), and a secret key that you can use to access your funds. Needless to say, keep your key hidden in a safe place!

💸 To use the Cardano blockchain, you will need the ADA cryptocurrency. To fund your wallet, you can simply send ADA from any of the reputable centralized exchanges to your new address that you've just created. See for example: Kraken, Coinbase, Binance

You can only cancel or edit orders if you have set a collateral, so make sure you check out our guide on how to do that. As the procedure is a bit different for each wallet please check the wallet specific descriptions: Nami, Gero, Eternl

Placing a trade

It is very easy to trade tokens on MuesliSwap! First, head to the trading interface at https://muesliswap.com and find the token you wish to buy or sell under Markets. Clicking on the token entry will open the trading interface, where you can place buy/sell orders and see token information, price data and open orders.

After entering your desired token amounts, you can click the "Swap Instantly" button to trade. As soon as your trade is submitted to the blockchain and fulfilled by a matchmaker, you will receive your assets in your wallet. To learn more about how this works, see Concepts.

Placing a trade incurs a small fee to cover costs for both the matchmakers and the frontend providers. You can save fees by buying MILK. More details on the fees can be found in the Fee Structure page.

As soon as your order has been registered on the blockchain, it will appear on the Open Order page. You can also inspect your order history on the Order History page!

Cancelling a trade

You can see a list of your outstanding orders under the "My orders" tab in the menu. These orders can be cancelled at any time, simply by opening the order detail and clicking on "Cancel". The input assets will be refunded to you immediately. In case your order has been partially filled, you will receive remaining assets of the open order and all assets that have been filled already.

To cancel, your wallet has to be made smart contract ready. Please refer to the wallets page for more information on how to check and set your collateral.

Tip: Sometimes cancellation fails even when the collateral has been set. In most cases, it helps to reload the browser window and to reset the collateral. Please also make sure that the correct wallet is connected. If that doesn't help reach out to us for help by Telegram, Twitter, Discord or email.

Retrieving ordered tokens

The tokens you ordered are delivered directly to your wallet upon being fully matched. There is nothing you need to do in order to retrieve them! In case you want to retreive a part of your order before it has been fully matched, you need to cancel the order or change its limit. You can see whether your order has been matched in the MuesliSwap Order History and in your Wallet history.

Frequently asked questions

Question: How does your DEX work? Is there a high level description?

Answer: We created an exhaustive blog post to the trading concepts of MuesliSwap on Medium, check it out here: https://medium.com/@muesliswap/muesliswap-presents-the-protocol-powering-cardanos-first-dex-3db25a844245 More details can be found in our white paper outlining the MuesliSwap Cardano DEX: https://legacy.muesliswap.com/whitepaper.pdf

Question: Why doesn't my order get matched?

Answer: First of all, note that MuesliSwap is an orderbook-based exchange, meaning unlike with liquity pool based exchanges, orders are pending until a accordingly priced matching order is found. This means if you choose your buy price to high compared to what sell prices are currently available on the market, your order will not find a match. A second point is that in the current version of our protocol, the result of partial matches stays in the contract. That means you have to check the list of open orders to see the current state of your order.

Question: What happens to my ADA / tokens when I place a trade?

Answer: Being a decentralized exchange, MuesliSwap does not hold any assets. Instead, these are stored on the blockchain and protected by a validator script. The assets may only be unlocked if certain conditions are met. These are: a) the trade succeeds, and you get the ordered value, or b) the order is canceled by you.

Question: I can not cancel my order! What is happening?

Answer: There can be several reasons an order can not be canceled. First, make sure that your wallet is smart contract ready . Also, it may be necessary to try several time before the order works. Or, the order has been matched already, in which case you should see the received funds in your wallet. If you have already put a collateral and canceling did still not work, try removing it and setting it again. If it did not work after some attempts, please reach out to us.

Question: I bought tokens with my Nami Wallet, but I received collectibles?

Answer: Nami wallet has a display bug, where tokens could be displayed as collectibles. By hovering over the collectible, you will see the amount of token you received. You can double check on pool.pm or by using another wallet that you have indeed received the correct amount of tokens.

Question: What fees are being paid to use the service?

Answer: The main amount of funds sent to the contract is the amount of token you want to sell or the amount of ADA which you are willing to spend on tokens. This is accompanied by 1.5 ADA, which is the minimum amount of ADA in any transaction on the Cardano network. An additional 0.6 ADA are sent to reward matchmakers for matching your order and to cover Cardano network fees. There is also a small frontend fee for server maintainance and development cost, explained in more detail on the Fee Structure page.

Question: Can MuesliSwap access my wallet?

Answer: No. When you place an order, this is done entirely in your browser and has to be signed by your wallet. We do not receive any data. Note: never share your private keys with anyone!

Question: Are there any risks involved in trading ADA/tokens?

Answer: As always, investing comes with certain risks. When you buy an asset, is value may increase or decrease over time, which may result in gains or losses. As a rule, never invest more than you are willing to lose.