What is liquidity pool

Learn what liquidity pools are on STON.fi, how they facilitate instant trades, and how liquidity providers get a percentage of transaction fees. Discover how to provide liquidity for rewards.

A liquidity pool is like a "reservoir of cryptocurrencies," or more precisely, a pair of scales provided by users known as liquidity providers. Typically, a pool consists of two tokens that form a trading pair, such as TON and USDT. The size of the pool is determined by the amount of each token contributed by participants. These liquidity pools are managed by DEX smart contracts: during a swap, the required amount of Token A is taken from one side of the scale, and the amount of tokens given by the trader, Token B, is placed on the other side. The liquidity pool ensures that transactions are executed as quickly and safely as possible: users do not need to wait for someone with the required amount of tokens — the assets are always available in the liquidity pool. Without funds in the liquidity pool, there would be nothing to trade.

Where do tokens come from in the liquidity pool?

They are deposited there by liquidity providers because it can be useful. Often, token creators, by adding their token to DEX for trading, themselves provide liquidity — otherwise, no one would be able to buy it. Trading is impossible without liquidity pools, and therefore, the operation of DEX itself. Liquidity providers earn income — they receive a percentage for each transaction within the pool. On STON.fi, this is 0.2% of the transaction amount. These 0.2% are distributed among all liquidity providers in proportion to their share in the pool (for example, whoever provided 50% of all liquidity will receive half of 0.2% of each transaction in that pair).

Can I also provide liquidity and receive a percentage of the fees?

Of course! We will talk about this in the following chapters. But remember that liquidity provision must be balanced on both sides of the scale — which means you will need to choose the right liquidity pool and acquire both tokens from the pair in the required volume.

We remind you that within this guide, we provide information in a simplified form, omitting some details and generalizing the principles of DEX operation.