StellaSwap: A Key DeFi Gateway for the Polkadot Ecosystem
StellaSwap is a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Moonbeam network, an EVM-compatible smart contract platform within the Polkadot ecosystem. StellaSwap aims to be a crucial entry point into Polkadot's decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape, fostering the growth of DeFi activities in the Polkadot ecosystem by offering diverse trading and liquidity mining services.
Core Advantages and Technological Innovations
- Hybrid AMM Model: StellaSwap employs standard, stable, and concentrated liquidity (V2, V3, V4) Automated Market Maker (AMM) models, aiming to provide users with optimal price discovery and a low-slippage trading experience.
- Pulsar Concentrated Liquidity Engine: Through a partnership with Algebra, StellaSwap launched Pulsar, a concentrated liquidity engine. This technology significantly enhances capital efficiency, by up to 4000x, allowing liquidity providers (LPs) to achieve higher potential return on investment by concentrating liquidity within specific price ranges.
- DOT Liquid Staking (stDOT): StellaSwap offers stDOT, a liquid staking token for DOT. This feature allows users to earn staking rewards while maintaining the liquidity of their DOT assets, and flexibly use stDOT in other DeFi applications. This feature was relaunched after Lido ceased its DOT liquid staking service, providing an important DeFi option for Polkadot users.
Role and Market Performance in the Polkadot Ecosystem
StellaSwap plays a significant role in the Polkadot ecosystem. The platform has repeatedly applied to the Polkadot Treasury for DOT or GLMR grants to maintain and deepen market liquidity, and to promote the growth of DeFi activities within the Polkadot ecosystem. For instance, in March 2024 and October 2025, StellaSwap proposed requests for a 1 million DOT grant.
In terms of asset introduction, StellaSwap partnered with Multichain in March 2022 to launch ApeCoin (APE) trading and mining on Moonbeam, marking ApeCoin's first trading availability across the entire Polkadot network.
According to proposal data from October 2025, StellaSwap's cumulative trading volume has exceeded $2.2 billion; other data shows that as of September 2024, cumulative trading volume reached $1.7 billion. Furthermore, as of September 2024, over 16,000 unique wallet addresses have interacted with StellaSwap. Regarding Total Value Locked (TVL), the DefiLlama platform currently shows 0. However, historical data indicates that StellaSwap was once a leading DEX on Polkadot with a TVL exceeding $2 billion, and reached peak TVLs of $12 million in March 2023 and $28 million in October 2022. The current price of the STELLA token is approximately $0.00065, with an all-time high of $4.55. Users can check the real-time price and trend of STELLA on market platforms such as Svmuu.
Participating in Liquidity Mining
Liquidity Providers (LPs) can earn trading fees and additional token rewards (such as PEN and STELLA) by providing assets to StellaSwap's liquidity pools. The concentrated liquidity model particularly enables LPs to maximize their earnings by concentrating liquidity within specific price ranges. StellaSwap released a detailed guide in January 2024 on providing PEN/DOT liquidity and earning rewards on the platform.
