CoW DAO

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregators are platforms that search multiple decentralized exchanges to find the best prices for cryptocurrency trades. They aggregate liquidity from various sources like Uniswap and Balancer, routing trades through the exchanges offering the best deals. Advanced intent-based DEX aggregators like CoW Swap go a step further by delegating trade execution to third-party solvers who can provide additional liquidity and protection against maximal extractable value (MEV) attacks. CoW Swap is a leading innovator in this space, offering comprehensive MEV protection and price optimizations for users.

OnChainDen has integrated the CoW Swap Widget into their Safe app, allowing users to seamlessly swap tokens directly from the Safe user interface. This integration batches approvals and decodes CoW Swap data for signers, enabling them to verify transactions with a single signature. Users can benefit from MEV-protected swaps, lowest prices, and advanced order types like limit orders and TWAPs. The integration aims to reduce development costs and time-to-market for building DEX Safe apps while incorporating CoW Protocol's innovations.

CoW Protocol, a decentralized trading platform that aggregates prices across multiple exchanges and protects users from maximal extractable value (MEV), is currently experiencing a technical outage. The issue was caused by a bug introduced during an update pushed by the core development team. The team is working to resolve the problem, but it may take some time before normal operations resume. Further updates will be provided as the situation progresses.

The CoW DAO has implemented CIP-38, which requires the protocol to collect fees from solvers in the form of $COW tokens, effectively creating an ongoing buyback program. Two Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) orders have been initiated, one on Ethereum for 141 ETH and another on Gnosis Chain for 70 ETH, to convert and send the collected fees to a DAO-owned address. Additional TWAPs will be created as new fees are collected. Last week, the protocol collected 88 ETH in fees following the implementation of CIP-34.

CoW Protocol has announced the launch of CoW Hooks, a new feature that allows users to add intent-based interactions before and after token swaps. With CoW Hooks, users can create automations such as sending tokens, swapping, and then staking, or unstaking, swapping, and bridging tokens. The feature also supports opening CDPs (Collateralized Debt Positions) and then swapping and bridging tokens. CoW Protocol claims to find the lowest price for trades across all exchanges and aggregators, including Uniswap and 1inch, while also protecting users from Miner Extractable Value (MEV) issues.

The article examines the shortcomings of automated market makers (AMMs) in decentralized finance (DeFi), such as exposure to miner extractable value (MEV) attacks. It then discusses the benefits of auction mechanisms like Dutch auctions and batch auctions as alternatives to AMMs. Dutch auctions offer solver competition, MEV protection, but are centralized. Batch auctions group multiple orders, enable cross-asset swaps, and incentivize better execution while retaining MEV protection. The article highlights CoW Swap as a major implementation of batch auctions, detailing its approach of collecting order intents, conducting auctions for solvers, and executing winning orders on-chain. It suggests batch auctions aligning with Ethereum's block auction mechanism make them well-suited for DeFi trading.

MEV Blocker, a product launched by CoW DAO a year ago to protect users from maximal extractable value (MEV) attacks, has reached an important milestone. As per CIP-40, MEV Blocker has started earning revenue from builders, allowing CoW DAO to continue supporting the product while keeping it completely free for users. Since its launch, MEV Blocker has rebated almost 1750 ETH to users, with a median refund of 0.007 ETH (approximately $24). It has defined a new category of user-protective RPC endpoints known as 'mev blockers.' MEV attacks are considered theft, and MEV Blocker aims to protect users from such attacks as a public good.

In February, CoW Protocol launched the first live AMM designed to protect liquidity providers from the dangers of MEV. The new CoW AMM received significant media coverage and attention from influencers across the crypto space. Other notable developments included improvements to the user interface, a Twitter Space explaining the CoW AMM, marketing videos featuring memes, the COW token listing on TokenUnlocks, and integration with Ajnas for borrowing DAI against COW tokens.

In March, MEV Blocker, a service that protects users from Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) on decentralized exchanges, safeguarded over $13.5 billion in trading volume. Additionally, the service returned a total of 333 ETH to 226,000 users, providing a layer of protection against front-running and other forms of MEV extraction.

Gnosis DAO, in collaboration with Karpatkey, is launching a 6-month program to incentivize solvers on the Gnosis Chain. The program aims to award 180,000 xDAI to active solvers, with the goal of improving trade execution for users of the CoW Protocol. CoW Protocol finds the lowest price for trades across multiple exchanges and aggregators while protecting users from maximal extractable value (MEV) issues.