Best DeFi Protocols
Top rated: Uniswap Protocol 8.9
The base layer everything else is built on.
4rated →
7.8/10
Decentralised Exchanges
Company file: Curve Finance, owners, incidents →
Curve
Purpose-built for assets that should trade near parity, and still the best venue in the market for large stablecoin swaps. The Vyper compiler bug of 30 Jul 2023 is the material mark on the record: about $69M was taken from several pools, and only about $17M is confirmed saved. The LlamaLend lending markets carry separate risk: some took bad debt in the 10 Oct 2025 crash.
Best for: Stablecoin and pegged-asset swaps at minimal slippage
Company file: Curve Finance, owners, incidents →How this score was reached
7.8 is the weighted average of the five pillar findings below. Dependable, with trade-offs a reader should know about first.
- Custody & Security30%
- 7.0
- Cost & Fee Transparency20%
- 8.6
- Regulation & Legal Standing5%
- 6.2
- Performance & Reliability30%
- 8.8
- Access & Support15%
- 6.9
Non-custodial with extensively audited swap contracts, but the 30 Jul 2023 Vyper compiler bug drained about $69M from several pools. Whitehats saved about $17M during the attack; later returns by attackers are reported but no confirmed final total exists, so we count it as partial. The core StableSwap logic has not been exploited. Separately, LlamaLend markets on volatile collateral took bad debt in Oct 2025 with no repayment, and the curve.fi domain was hijacked in 2022 and 2025.
Very low fees on pegged pairs and fully transparent on-chain pool parameters.
Unlicensed by design. Governance is on-chain and heavily concentrated in locked-token holders, which is a real control question even if not a regulatory one.
Best-in-class execution for large stablecoin swaps; slippage on size is materially lower than general-purpose AMMs.
The interface is unapologetically for people who already understand what a pool parameter does. Documentation is thorough but not welcoming.
Strengths
- The lowest slippage available for large pegged-asset swaps
- Transparent on-chain parameters with nothing hidden behind a UI
- Deep, mature liquidity across many chains
Against it
- Lost about $69M to the 2023 Vyper compiler bug; only about $17M confirmed saved
- LlamaLend lending markets took bad debt in Oct 2025 — a separate risk from the swap pools
- Governance is concentrated in locked-token holders
- The interface is hostile to newcomers
Best in the world at one thing
For large swaps between assets that should trade at parity, nothing prices better. That is not a marginal advantage — on size, the difference between Curve and a general-purpose automated market maker is measured in real money, which is what its performance score rests on despite ranking third overall.
What holds it back is 30 July 2023, when a bug in the Vyper compiler — not in Curve’s own logic — drained about $69M from several pools. Whitehats saved about $17M while the attack ran; attackers later returned more to some affected protocols, but no confirmed final total exists, so we treat the recovery as partial. The LlamaLend lending markets are a separate risk decision: some took bad debt in the 10 October 2025 crash and lenders have not been repaid. It stays in the custody score because the lesson is a general one: a protocol inherits the risk of everything it is compiled and composed with, and audits of the contract do not cover the toolchain beneath it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Curve safe after the 2023 exploit?+
The vulnerability was in the Vyper compiler rather than Curve’s own code. About $69M was taken from several pools and only about $17M is confirmed saved. The core StableSwap logic has not been exploited, and the custody score sits below Uniswap’s for this reason. The episode is a reminder that a protocol is only as safe as its dependencies.
Why use Curve instead of Uniswap?+
Slippage on pegged pairs. Curve’s curve is designed for assets that trade near parity, and on large stablecoin swaps the execution difference against a general-purpose venue is substantial. For anything else, Uniswap is deeper and scores higher on custody.
Who controls Curve?+
Governance is on-chain but heavily concentrated in holders of locked tokens, who accumulate voting weight by locking for longer. That is a real control question — governance can change parameters while your liquidity is deployed — and it is reflected in the compliance score.
Assessed by
By James Park
NFT & Web3 Gaming Analyst · September 27, 2026
◆ Disclosure
CoinRadar Daily is a non-commercial project. We have no commercial relationship with Curve, earn nothing from any link on this page, and carry no advertising or sponsorship anywhere on the site. Findings rest on public sources; we did not open an account or transact.
Rubric v2.0How we score →
The rest of the decentralised exchanges table
- 03Curve — you are hereStablecoin and pegged-asset swaps at minimal slippage7.8
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