DEX

A DEX (decentralized exchange) is an exchange that runs as a set of smart contracts. You do not open an account or deposit funds: you connect a wallet, pick the tokens and sign a swap. Most DEXs are AMMs, where you trade against a liquidity pool and a formula based on the pool's token balances sets the price. Examples include Raydium and Orca on Solana, Uniswap on Ethereum and Base, and PancakeSwap on BNB Chain.

Every memecoin ends up on a DEX, because anyone can create a pool. That is both the strength and the danger: nobody vets tokens before they launch. Aggregators such as Jupiter look for the best price across many pools at once.