CoWSwap vs KyberSwap
Neutral on-chain benchmarking of slippage, revert rates, and overall execution quality.
Protocol Scorecard
CoWSwap and KyberSwap are both DEX aggregators: rather than holding liquidity themselves, they split each order across many underlying pools to find the best available price. Because both compete on routing quality, the difference between them shows up in execution — realized slippage and MEV exposure — far more than in their headline rates.
Across the trades ClearTrace benchmarked, KyberSwap posted a slippage score of 86.8/100 versus 84.8/100 for CoWSwap — a meaningful but not decisive edge of 2.0 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. KyberSwap was measured over 40,916 trades and CoWSwap over 14,438.
On this data, KyberSwap 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, CoWSwap or KyberSwap?
Based on ClearTrace's slippage score (median slippage vs a VWAP baseline), KyberSwap edges out CoWSwap, 86.8/100 versus 84.8/100 (a 2.0-point gap).
Does CoWSwap or KyberSwap offer better MEV protection?
ClearTrace publishes a slippage-based score and per-aggregator revert rates — not a per-aggregator MEV-protection score. On slippage, KyberSwap was tighter (~13.2 bps vs ~15.2 bps). For MEV specifically, the dashboard surfaces detected sandwich activity as a separate metric.
Is CoWSwap or KyberSwap better for large trades?
For large orders, aggregators such as CoWSwap can split a trade across multiple pools to reduce price impact, which often helps on size. The right venue still depends on the specific pair and amount — the live dashboard tracks current execution quality.