How we tested
- 102 trades: 34 token pairs, each at $10, $1,000 and $25,000. Pairs include ETH and USDG against stocks, memecoins and launchpad tokens, plus token-to-token pairs.
- Same block for everyone. For each trade we took Route’s quote block, then executed every competitor’s actual transaction at that block in a simulation and measured what it delivered. Quoted amounts were not used; some aggregators quote slightly more than their transaction delivers.
- Route checked the same way. 96 of 102 Route quotes delivered exactly the quoted amount through the executor. The other 6 had no Route result and are not counted as Route wins.
- Fees. Compared before Route’s fee and before 0x’s 15 bps fee. Pool fees and token taxes are included for everyone.
- After gas converts each transaction’s gas cost into the output token. Before gas compares token output only.
Results after gas
Ties are within ±0.05 bps. Trades where a competitor returned no route or an error are left out of its row: 10 for Kyber, 27 for 0x and 13 for Nordstern. 0x does not trade many Robinhood Chain tokens.
Results before gas
Against Kyber, Route used less gas on 71 of 94 trades (median 435k vs 559k), which widens its lead after gas. Against 0x and Nordstern, gas was similar or slightly higher for Route.
By trade size (after gas)
Read as Route more / tie / Route less. Gas matters most on small trades, so that is where Route’s lead is largest.
Where Route lost
- Nordstern is the closest competitor. After gas it was ahead on 25 trades, 13 of them by under 1 bp. The larger gaps, up to 15.8 bps, were mostly memecoin trades such as OYSTER, KOOL and SHROOM. Nordstern’s quotes also overstated what its own transactions delivered, by a median of 1.1 bps; this study uses the delivered amounts.
- Kyber was ahead after gas on 3 trades, by at most 2 bps. One of them used a private market-maker venue. Route only uses liquidity anyone can trade onchain, without off-chain quotes or allowlists.
- 0x was ahead after gas on 6 trades, by at most 3.4 bps.
Speed
Quotes from the hosted Route v2 router take about 140 ms end to end in normal conditions. A quote with a ready-to-sign transaction takes about 160 ms. Brand-new pairs and large trades take longer, and an occasional request takes 1 to 2 seconds when the chain data provider is slow.Limits of this study
- One run on one day. Prices and liquidity change; results will differ on other days and pairs.
- Simulated execution at a matched block, not live signed swaps.
- Medians are shown because a few small trades with extreme gaps would dominate averages.