Deciphr Academy
Track 4 · Module 17 · Lesson 7 of 7 · 7 min read

How can a company compare selling its tokens on a centralised exchange with selling them into a DEX pool?

Short answer

Compare what arrives after every fee, how far the trade moves the price, and who holds the tokens along the way.1,2,3 In the made-up Brindlecove case, a deep order book pays more for a large sale, while the pool keeps Brindlecove in control of its tokens but costs more as the sale grows.4,5

Wyndhollow ExchangeThistlewake pool1. Deposit 50,000 BRDLthe exchange holds it2. Sell on the order book0.10% taker fee3. Withdraw9,889.10 USDC1. Approve 50,000 BRDLit stays in your wallet2. Swap in the pool0.30% fee + price impact3. Arrives9,496.59 USDCMore USDC, or more control? Made-up numbers.
Fig. 7. Two ways to sell 50,000 made-up BRDL tokens. The exchange pays more here, but holds the tokens for a while. The pool keeps custody with Brindlecove but moves the price further.

The question

Suppose a project needs cash and decides to sell some of its own token. This lesson follows Maya, the made-up finance lead of Brindlecove Labs, as she compares two made-up venues for selling 50,000 BRDL. It uses only the methods in Lessons 1 to 6.1,6

There are three things to compare.1,2,3

  1. What arrives. The amount left after every fee: trading fees, withdrawal fees and gas.7,8
  2. How far the price moves. On an order book, a big order eats through price levels. In a pool, a big trade moves the price along the curve.1,2
  3. Who holds the tokens. On an exchange, the exchange does until you withdraw. On a DEX, you do until the swap.5,3

Route 1: the exchange

Selling on a centralised exchange takes several steps.3,5,1

  1. Deposit the tokens with the exchange, which then has custody of them.3,5
  2. Place a market order. It is a taker order, so it pays the taker fee.1
  3. The order fills against the bids on the book, at their prices, which fall the further it reaches.9,1
  4. Withdraw the proceeds to a wallet you control, paying any withdrawal fee.5,7

Route 2: the pool

Selling into a pool takes one transaction from your own wallet, after an approval.10,11

  1. Approve the pool's router to spend only the tokens you are selling.11,12
  2. Swap. The pool takes its fee from the amount paid in, and the constant product rule sets what comes out.13,6
  3. The stablecoins arrive in your wallet in the same transaction. You pay gas.10,8

What size does

The bigger the trade compared with the pool, the worse its average rate.4,2 Lesson 4 used Uniswap v2's method on the made-up Thistlewake pool. A sale of 5,000 BRDL got about 0.8% less than the starting price, while a sale of 50,000 BRDL got about 5% less.6

An aggregator could split the sale between pools to reduce this.4 After a big sale, the v2 whitepaper says, arbitrage traders tend to pull the pool's price back towards the wider market.13

Side by side

Wyndhollow Exchange Thistlewake pool
Who holds the BRDL before the sale Wyndhollow, after the deposit5 Brindlecove, until the swap3
How the price is set Bids on the order book9 x × y = k2
Fee Taker fee, plus a withdrawal fee1,7 Pool fee taken from the BRDL paid in, plus gas13,8
What sets the cost of a big sale How many bids sit near the price1 How big the sale is compared with the pool2,4
Risks to check Custody and the exchange's solvency14,15 Approvals, fake tokens and sandwich trades12,16,17
How the two numbers were worked out

Exchange: 50,000 × $0.198 average fill = 9,900 USDC; less the 0.10% taker fee (9.90) = 9,890.10; less the 1 USDC withdrawal fee = 9,889.10 USDC.1,7

Pool: 50,000 × 997 × 200,000 ÷ (1,000,000 × 1,000 + 50,000 × 997) = 9,496.59 USDC, rounded down. Gas comes on top, paid in the chain's own coin.6,8

Our viewThere is no single best venue. A deep exchange order book can pay more for a big sale, and a pool keeps custody with you. Work out the numbers each time, and know who holds your tokens at every step.
Sources
  1. Trading (order types). Coinbase Developer Documentation, Coinbase Exchange (read 22 October 2026).
  2. How Uniswap Works. Uniswap Developers documentation (read 22 October 2026).
  3. What is DeFi?. ethereum.org (read 22 October 2026).
  4. What is a DEX aggregator?. 1inch Learn (read 22 October 2026).
  5. Get ETH. ethereum.org (read 22 October 2026).
  6. UniswapV2Library.sol (getAmountOut). Uniswap v2-periphery source code on GitHub.
  7. Fee schedule. Kraken (read 22 October 2026; rechecked 24 October 2026; the fee table sits under the page's “Kraken Pro” heading).
  8. Uniswap Labs Terms of Service (last modified 28 July 2026). Uniswap Labs; read via a Wayback Machine copy of 19 September 2026, as the live page showed a bot check.
  9. Exchange Matching Engine. Coinbase Developer Documentation (read 22 October 2026).
  10. Uniswap v2 Swaps. Uniswap Developers documentation (read 22 October 2026).
  11. Universal Router Overview. Uniswap Developers documentation (read 22 October 2026).
  12. How to revoke smart contract access to your crypto funds. ethereum.org (read 22 October 2026).
  13. Uniswap v2 Core (whitepaper). Hayden Adams, Noah Zinsmeister and Dan Robinson, March 2020.
  14. Crypto Asset Custody Basics for Retail Investors – Investor Bulletin. US Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Investor Education and Assistance (staff views), 12 December 2025.
  15. Investor Advisory: Exercise Caution With Third-Party Verification/Proof of Reserve Reports. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Office of the Investor Advocate (staff views); read via a Wayback Machine copy of 11 August 2026, as the live page showed a bot check, 8 March 2023.
  16. How to identify scam tokens. ethereum.org (read 22 October 2026).
  17. Maximal extractable value (MEV). ethereum.org (read 22 October 2026; rechecked 24 October 2026).
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General education built from the publicly available sources listed above. Not financial, legal, tax or investment advice. Naming a company, project or regulator is not an endorsement either way. Last checked 2026-10-24. Terms and disclaimer.