Balancer vs Curve
Neutral on-chain benchmarking of slippage, revert rates, and overall execution quality.
Protocol Scorecard
Balancer and Curve are both decentralized exchanges (AMMs), where trades execute directly against on-chain liquidity pools. The comparison comes down to pool depth, fee tiers, and how exposed each venue's order flow is to MEV such as sandwich attacks.
Across the trades ClearTrace benchmarked, Balancer posted a slippage score of 92.1/100 versus 89.8/100 for Curve — a meaningful but not decisive edge of 2.3 points. The score reflects realized slippage only — derived from median slippage versus a 1-minute VWAP, where a higher number means lower slippage. MEV exposure and revert rates are tracked as separate metrics. Balancer was measured over 8,873 trades and Curve over 35,571.
The sample sizes differ substantially (Curve: 35,571 trades; Balancer: 8,873), so Balancer's score reflects a narrower slice of activity and may move as more volume is observed.
On this data, Balancer holds the stronger slippage score, but the gap reflects routing and slippage differences rather than one venue being universally better — results shift with trade size, token pair, and market conditions, and MEV exposure and revert rates are separate considerations. Scores update on each data refresh; see our methodology for the full approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which has better execution quality, Balancer or Curve?
Based on ClearTrace's slippage score (median slippage vs a VWAP baseline), Balancer edges out Curve, 92.1/100 versus 89.8/100 (a 2.3-point gap).
Does Balancer or Curve offer better MEV protection?
ClearTrace publishes a slippage-based score and per-aggregator revert rates — not a per-aggregator MEV-protection score. On slippage, Balancer was tighter (~7.9 bps vs ~10.2 bps). For MEV specifically, the dashboard surfaces detected sandwich activity as a separate metric.
Is Balancer or Curve better for large trades?
For large orders, the venue with deeper liquidity for your pair usually wins on price impact. Both Balancer and Curve are AMMs, so compare pool depth for your token pair; the live dashboard tracks current execution quality.