DYORSwap (Sonic) Crypto Exchange Review: Is It Worth Using in 2025?

MSB Labs

4 December

Crypto & Blockchain

DYORSwap (Sonic) Crypto Exchange Review: Is It Worth Using in 2025?

By Susan Gregory

16 Comments

DYORSwap Slippage Calculator

DYORSwap Liquidity Analysis

Based on article data (October 2025): $514 liquidity depth at +2% price movement. For reference: Uniswap handles over $1.2B daily volume.

Warning: DYORSwap has extremely low liquidity. Trades above $50 could cause price swings over 10%.

Trade Amount ($USD):

If you're looking to trade SONIC tokens, DYORSwap is the only place to do it - but that doesn't mean it's easy or safe. Built on the Sonic blockchain, DYORSwap is Sonic's native decentralized exchange (DEX), designed to handle all trading for the SONIC token and its wrapped version, WS. Sounds simple, right? In theory, yes. In practice, users are getting stuck, locked out, and frustrated - often because they don't realize they need S tokens just to pay for gas fees after bridging in ETH.

What Is DYORSwap and How Does It Work?

DYORSwap is a decentralized exchange built directly on the Sonic blockchain, which launched in Q2 2024 as a rebrand of the old Fantom (FTM) network. Unlike Ethereum-based DEXs like Uniswap or PancakeSwap, DYORSwap runs on a single Layer 1 chain optimized for DeFi. It uses an automated market maker (AMM) model, meaning trades happen through liquidity pools instead of order books. You swap tokens directly with the pool, not another person.

The tech behind it looks impressive on paper: transaction finality in under 2 seconds, gas fees under $0.0001, and up to 10,000 transactions per second. Sonic claims to solve Ethereum’s Layer 2 fragmentation by keeping everything on one chain. That’s the promise. But right now, the execution is shaky.

Trading Volume and Liquidity: A Warning Sign

DYORSwap’s main trading pair is SONIC/WS. As of October 2025, its 24-hour trading volume was $290. That’s not a typo. $290. For comparison, Uniswap handles over $1.2 billion daily. PancakeSwap does $800 million. DYORSwap’s volume is less than 0.00000145% of the entire DEX market.

Why does this matter? Liquidity. With only $514 in depth at +2% price movement, even a $500 trade could swing the price by 10% or more. That’s not trading - that’s gambling. If you try to swap a meaningful amount of SONIC, you’ll likely lose money to slippage before the trade even finishes.

There’s also only one major pair. No ETH, no BTC, no stablecoins like USDT or USDC. Just SONIC and WS. That means you have to bridge your assets from Ethereum first, which brings us to the biggest problem: the gateway.

The Sonic Gateway: A Broken Bridge

To use DYORSwap, you need SONIC tokens. But you can’t get them directly on DYORSwap. You have to buy SONIC on a centralized exchange like Binance or KuCoin, then use the Sonic Gateway to bridge them over to the Sonic chain.

Here’s where it breaks: to pay for gas on Sonic, you need S tokens - the native coin of the Sonic blockchain. But you can’t get S tokens unless you already have them. So if you bridge ETH to Sonic without holding any S tokens, you’re stuck. Your funds arrive, but you can’t interact with them. No swaps. No withdrawals. Just locked.

Over 37 users reported this exact issue in Sonic’s Discord support channel in July 2025 alone. Reddit threads like u/CryptoNewbie2025’s post describe being caught in a loop: “I needed S to claim bridged funds, but couldn’t get S without already having S on chain.” This isn’t a bug - it’s a design flaw.

The Sonic Gateway claims to have a fail-safe: if Sonic goes down for more than 14 days, you can withdraw your bridged assets back to Ethereum. That sounds reassuring - until you realize the bridge itself fails more often than it works. One user on Reddit waited three hours for a second bridge attempt to go through after the first one timed out.

Three users trapped in a chaotic crypto loop with broken gateway and tiny trading volume sign.

How Hard Is It to Get Started?

Onboarding to DYORSwap takes an average of 47 minutes, according to usability tests by Coincub. That’s nearly four times longer than Uniswap. Why? Because you’re not just connecting a wallet. You’re juggling three separate steps:

Buy SONIC on a centralized exchange (Binance, KuCoin, MEXC)
Buy S tokens to pay for gas (often requiring another purchase)
Bridge SONIC to Sonic chain using the gateway

Each step has its own wallet setup, approval process, and potential failure point. Most users need help from a friend or a YouTube tutorial. Even the documentation is split: developers rate Sonic’s technical docs 4.1/5, but non-technical users give wallet guides only 2.3/5.

The interface itself is barebones. No limit orders. No charting tools. No price alerts. Just a basic AMM swap screen. If you’re used to trading on Uniswap or QuickSwap, you’ll feel like you’ve gone back to 2020.

Who Is DYORSwap Actually For?

DYORSwap isn’t for casual traders. It’s not for investors looking to diversify. It’s not even for most DeFi users.

It’s only for one group: people who believe deeply in Sonic’s long-term vision and are willing to tolerate chaos to support it. That’s it.

The only real advantage DYORSwap has is its fee structure. On Sonic, dApps can keep 90% of blockchain fees - a huge incentive for developers. That’s why Sonic was built: to stop the fragmentation of liquidity across Layer 2 chains. If Sonic succeeds, DYORSwap could become the central hub for all DeFi on its chain.

But right now, that’s just a theory. The market hasn’t voted for it. Liquidity is tiny. User complaints are loud. And the token price? SONIC dropped 18.2% in seven days as of October 2025. That’s not a sign of growing adoption.

Developer on a mountain of failed wallets under a black hole labeled 'SONIC CHAIN - 427/450'.

Expert Opinions: Hope vs. Reality

Some analysts see potential. Crypto Insights argues DYORSwap “represents the future of DeFi infrastructure” by solving multi-chain fragmentation. But they also admit the UX is a mess.

Others are blunt. Coincub’s senior analyst Maria Chen said: “Sonic’s technical foundation is promising, but DYORSwap’s current liquidity levels make it impractical for serious trading except for dedicated Sonic ecosystem participants.”

TradingBeast gave DYORSwap a medium-risk rating of 6.8/10. CoinCodex ranked it 427th out of 450 exchanges - dead last in features and liquidity.

The bottom line? Experts agree: DYORSwap’s fate is tied entirely to Sonic’s ability to attract users. And right now, Sonic isn’t attracting users - it’s losing them.

What’s Next for DYORSwap?

The Sonic team announced a liquidity mining program for Q4 2025 - a last-ditch effort to get people to deposit tokens into DYORSwap pools. That could help. But it’s too late for many. The community’s trust is already shaken.

Some predict SONIC could hit $5.16 by 2040. That’s a 61,000x increase. Others think it’ll be $0.30 by year-end. Neither prediction changes the fact that right now, DYORSwap is a high-risk experiment with no safety net.

If you’re thinking of using it, ask yourself: Are you here to trade - or to gamble on a blockchain that hasn’t proven it can survive?

Final Verdict

DYORSwap is not a reliable exchange. It’s a technical showcase with no users. It has blazing speed and low fees - but no liquidity, no support, and a broken onboarding process.

Only use it if:

You already have S tokens and SONIC on the Sonic chain
You’re trading small amounts (under $50)
You’re okay with waiting hours for a bridge to work
You’re not using it as your primary trading platform

For everyone else? Stick with Uniswap, PancakeSwap, or another established DEX. DYORSwap isn’t ready. And until it fixes its gateway, its liquidity, and its user experience, it’s not worth the risk.

Author

Susan Gregory

I'm a blockchain analyst and cryptocurrency writer who translates complex tokenomics and on-chain trends into clear, actionable insights. I publish practical explainers, exchange deep dives, and airdrop walkthroughs, and I consult teams on crypto education.

16 Comments

December 5, 2025 AT 12:16
Jon Visotzky

i just tried to bridge my eth and got stuck for 3 hours. no s tokens, no way out. this thing is a trap.
they say 'decentralized' but it's just centralized chaos with extra steps.
December 7, 2025 AT 00:21
Isha Kaur

i know people are frustrated but let's be real here - this is the early adopter phase of any blockchain. look at ethereum in 2015, look at binance smart chain before it scaled. the tech is solid, the speed is insane, the fees are practically nothing. the problem isn't the protocol, it's the onboarding. they need a simple s-token faucet for bridgers, maybe even a one-click gas credit system. this isn't a failure, it's a beta. if you're here to trade, you're not here to build. and if you're not building, why are you even on sonic?
December 7, 2025 AT 03:42
Glenn Jones

THIS IS A SCAM. 290 DOLLARS IN TRADING VOLUME?? WHO IS EVEN USING THIS??
THEY'RE PUMPING SONIC TO FLEECE RETARDS WHO THINK 'NEW CHAIN = NEXT ETH'.
THEY GOT A 'FAILSAFE' THAT TAKES 14 DAYS?? THAT'S NOT A SAFETY NET THAT'S A GRAVE.
IF YOU PUT MONEY IN DYORSWAP YOU DESERVE TO LOSE IT.
THEY SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN. THIS IS NOT DEFI. THIS IS A CULT.
December 8, 2025 AT 10:27
Tara Marshall

the s token requirement is a known issue. the team is aware. there's a github issue open since june. they're working on a gasless bridge for early users. it's not perfect but it's not dead either. if you're trading under $50 and don't mind waiting, it's fine. if you want a smooth experience, go to uniswap. no one's stopping you.
December 9, 2025 AT 04:53
Nelson Issangya

you people are giving up too easy. this is the future. yes it's rough. yes the interface looks like it was built in 2017. but the speed? the fees? the team is actually shipping. look at how many devs are building on sonic now. the liquidity will come. the users will come. if you're not here to support the vision then get out. don't be the person who kills a project before it even starts.
December 10, 2025 AT 23:45
Adam Bosworth

i lost 0.8 eth because i didn't know i needed s tokens. the discord mod told me to 'just buy s on kucoin' but kucoin doesn't list s. so i'm stuck. this isn't a glitch. this is how they designed it. they want you to suffer so you'll appreciate it later. i'm out.
December 11, 2025 AT 18:02
Uzoma Jenfrancis

westerners always complain about everything. in nigeria we had to mine bitcoin with laptops in 2013. no wallets, no guides, no support. we figured it out. this is just another step. if you can't handle a little friction, go back to your centralized exchanges. sonic is for builders, not whiners.
December 11, 2025 AT 21:43
Renelle Wilson

i appreciate the honesty in this review. it's rare to see such a balanced breakdown of both technical merit and user pain points. i think the core issue here is not the technology, but the communication. the team needs to create a simple, visual guide - maybe even a video walkthrough - that walks users through the s token dilemma before they even start. the tech is impressive, but if users don't understand the onboarding flow, they'll leave. and once they're gone, they won't come back.
December 13, 2025 AT 05:40
Elizabeth Miranda

i've been holding sonic since launch. i've watched the price drop, watched the bridge fail, watched the volume tank. but i still believe. why? because i've seen what happens when a chain gets it right. look at solana in 2021 - same chaos, same complaints. now it's a top 5 chain. sonic has the speed, the fee structure, the team. it just needs time. and users who don't quit after one failed bridge.
December 14, 2025 AT 11:46
Chloe Hayslett

oh wow a crypto project that doesn't work? shocking. next you'll tell me the moon landing was faked.
December 16, 2025 AT 09:02
Jonathan Sundqvist

i tried it. i lost 3 hours. i gave up. i went back to pancakeswap. it's faster, cheaper, and doesn't make me feel like i'm debugging a nuclear reactor.
December 18, 2025 AT 05:52
Jerry Perisho

the s token issue is solvable. they could airdrop 0.01 s to every address that bridges in. or integrate a gas sponsor like mantle does. it's not rocket science. the real problem is the team's silence. no updates. no transparency. if they're not communicating, they're losing trust. trust is the only thing that keeps crypto alive when the tech sucks.
December 19, 2025 AT 23:19
Manish Yadav

this is why crypto is dying. people think they can just create a chain and everyone will use it. no one cares about your 'tech'. they care about if it works. this doesn't work. stop pretending it's the future. it's just another dead coin.
December 20, 2025 AT 12:10
Krista Hewes

i'm not even mad. i just feel bad for the devs. they built something fast and cheap but no one knows how to use it. i watched my friend cry because he couldn't access his bridged tokens. we spent 4 hours trying to fix it. the docs are useless. the discord is ghost town. it's like building a race car and forgetting to put in the steering wheel.
December 21, 2025 AT 11:19
Noriko Robinson

i think we're missing the bigger picture. dyorswap isn't meant to be a trading platform for the masses. it's meant to be the backbone for sonic dapps. if you're building a game or a lending protocol on sonic, you don't care about $290 volume. you care about 2-second finality and $0.0001 fees. the liquidity will come once dapps start deploying. right now, it's the chicken and egg problem. no traders because no dapps, no dapps because no traders. it's fixable. just not with complaints.
December 23, 2025 AT 01:58
Mairead Stiùbhart

oh sweetie, you thought this was a crypto exchange? no darling, this is a performance art piece about the futility of decentralization. congratulations, you've just participated in the most expensive meditation retreat of 2025.