CoW Protocol Batch Auctions Superior to MEV-based Auctions for Liquidations

**CoW Swap has released a full post-mortem** following the April domain hijacking incident that temporarily compromised cow.fi. **What happened:** - Attackers used social engineering to hijack the domain from the registrar - A phishing site was deployed to steal wallet credentials and seed phrases - The team recovered control and moved operations to cow.finance during the incident **Response measures:** - Real-time communication throughout the crisis - Full transparency report published - Discretionary grants program proposed to compensate affected users The team emphasized that CoW Protocol's backend and APIs were never compromised—only the frontend domain was affected. [Read the full post-mortem](https://x.com/CoWSwap/status/2044924940886163780)

CoW Protocol's DAO has successfully passed **CIP-85**, continuing its deflationary token model. **Key Metrics (April 2024 - April 2026):** - Total buybacks: 77.8M $COW tokens - Total rewards distributed: 66.2M $COW - Net emissions: **Negative every quarter** - Cumulative net reduction: 11.6M $COW The protocol has maintained a **deflationary token supply** for eight consecutive quarters, with buybacks consistently exceeding emissions. This marks a continuation of the trend established in March, where the gap between buybacks and emissions has grown each quarter. The governance proposal CIP-85 passed, setting the framework for continued buyback operations through May 2026. [Read the full April recap](https://cow.fi/learn/cow-dao-monthly-recap-april-2026)

**CoW Protocol's April Performance:** - **292,947 trades** executed across the platform - **47,700 active wallets** participated in trading activity - **$4 billion in monthly volume** processed The protocol launched new integrations and partnerships during April, continuing its expansion as cross-chain execution infrastructure. **Context:** These figures represent steady growth for CoW Protocol, which previously recorded $11.2 billion in volume on Ethereum alone during September 2025 - its second-largest month on record.

CoW Protocol continues expanding its ecosystem with several key integrations: - **Lido Finance** now routes fast swaps through CoW Protocol - **xStocks** brought 50+ tokenized stocks and ETFs to BNB Chain via CoW Protocol settlement - **auto.fun** users gained access to MEV-protected swaps, limit orders, and cross-chain functionality - **cbMEGA** launched on Base with Day 1 CoW Swap support These integrations build on recent infrastructure upgrades, including Atomic Bundles - a smart contract template enabling complex, multi-step DeFi workflows. The feature supports lending loops, collateral swaps, perpetual trading flows, and payment operations. All trades benefit from CoW Protocol's solver competition model, which finds optimal prices while protecting users from MEV exploitation.

CoW Swap celebrated its fifth anniversary in April while crossing $200 billion in cumulative trading volume. **Key Milestones:** - Five years since launch with focus on fairer trading - $200,000,000,000 total volume processed - Continued user growth across the platform The protocol previously set an all-time high monthly volume record of $9 billion in July 2025. CoW Swap protects traders from MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) while finding optimal prices across multiple exchanges and aggregators.