How Ophis compares
This page is a decision guide, not a sales pitch. It explains what an intent-based swap is, what Ophis shares with CoW Swap, and where the four front-ends below genuinely diverge so you can pick the right one for your trade.
What "intent-based" means
A traditional DEX swap is a transaction: you pick a route, sign it, and broadcast it yourself. An intent-based swap is different. You sign a statement of what you want ("sell 1,000 USDC, receive at least X ETH"), and a competitive network of solvers races to fill it. You never specify the path; you specify the outcome, and the order only settles if a solver meets or beats the price you signed.
Those orders are then cleared in batch auctions. Instead of each trade hitting the chain alone, many orders settle together at a uniform clearing price. This is what gives the model its MEV protection: there is no public pending transaction for a bot to front-run or sandwich, and orders inside a batch can be matched directly against each other (coincidence of wants) before any pool is touched.
Ophis is built on CoW Protocol
Ophis is a fork of the CoW Protocol stack. The settlement contracts, the
batch-auction mechanism, the MEV protection, and the non-custodial design are
shared with CoW Swap, not reinvented. Funds move only when a solver settles
the batch, and the on-chain GPv2Settlement contract code is unchanged.
That matters for how you read the rest of this page: execution quality, MEV protection, and custody are on par with CoW Swap because they are the same foundation. The differentiation lives one layer up, in the interface and the API. The comparisons below are about that layer.
Core differences
Natural-language input vs token-picker
CoW Swap, Matcha, and Velora all drive trades through a token-picker UI: choose a sell token, choose a buy token, choose a chain, set an amount. Ophis adds a natural-language front door. You type "swap 100 USDC for ETH on Base" and a parser turns the sentence into a structured order, which is then signed and settled through the same batch auction. The token-picker still exists underneath; the sentence is an additional way in, and it is the path the agent API uses too.
Cross-chain scope
This is where the four front-ends differ most concretely:
- Ophis: 11 EVM chains as source or destination, plus Solana and Bitcoin as cross-chain destinations.
- CoW Swap: EVM chains plus Solana as a destination. No Bitcoin.
- Matcha: EVM chains plus Solana.
- Velora: EVM only.
Ophis and CoW Swap reach non-EVM destinations through NEAR Intents, a non-custodial cross-chain settlement layer. The practical point for a trader: you do not open a second wallet or hand custody to a bridge. You sign once on the source chain, and NEAR Intents brokers delivery to the Solana or Bitcoin address you named. Bitcoin as a destination is, among these four, unique to Ophis.
Fee transparency
The four projects price trades on different models:
- Ophis: a flat 0.10% (10 bps) on trade volume, applied to every trade. Same-chain stablecoin-to-stablecoin swaps pay a reduced 0.01% (1 bp); cross-chain trades pay the standard rate. The rate is knowable before you trade and does not depend on execution outcome. Because the fee is a fixed share of volume, it never touches your surplus: any price improvement a solver finds beyond your quote is returned to you in full, with no cut taken.
- CoW Swap: a surplus-based model. The fee is taken as a share of the price improvement (surplus) a solver finds beyond your quote, so the cost depends on how the batch fills and is not a fixed percentage of volume.
- Matcha: a tiered model, roughly 0.25% on most pairs and 0.05% on stablecoin pairs.
- Velora: a 15 bps (0.15%) interface fee on most swaps, with a reduced 1 bp (0.01%) on stablecoin pairs.
A worked comparison on a 1,000 USDC trade (non-stablecoin output, e.g. to ETH) makes the gap visible:
| Front-end | Fee on 1,000 USDC | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ophis | 1.00 USDC (0.10%) | Flat, known before you trade |
| CoW Swap | Varies | Share of surplus, depends on the batch |
| Matcha | 2.50 USDC (0.25%) | Lower tier on some chains |
| Velora | 1.50 USDC (0.15%) | 1 bp on stablecoin pairs |
On a same-chain stablecoin-to-stablecoin swap of 1,000 USDC, Ophis charges 0.10 USDC (0.01%), Matcha 0.50 USDC (0.05%), and Velora 0.10 USDC (0.01%). The takeaway is not that one number is always lowest, it is that the Ophis fee is flat and predictable: you know the cost before you sign, independent of how the order fills.
Surplus goes back to you, in full
Both Ophis and CoW Swap run batch auctions where solvers compete to beat the price you signed. The extra value a solver finds beyond your quote is the surplus (price improvement). On this point Ophis is at exact parity with CoW Protocol: surplus belongs to the trader.
The difference is where each project takes its cut. CoW Swap's fee is itself surplus-based: it keeps a share of that price improvement. Ophis runs a flat volume fee instead, so it takes zero cut of surplus. Every basis point a solver wins beyond your quote is returned to you in full, on top of the known flat fee. You are never charged a price-improvement fee on Ophis.
Agent-first API
Every front-end here exposes some programmatic surface, but they target different
callers. CoW Swap and Velora publish orderbook / REST APIs and SDKs aimed at
integrators wiring up an order flow. Matcha exposes the 0x Swap API. Ophis is
built for agents: a public POST /api/intent endpoint that takes a
natural-language sentence and returns a structured order with no API key, plus
a hosted MCP server so an LLM agent can discover and call the swap surface as a
tool. The same sentence a person types is the same sentence an agent posts.
Where each excels
- CoW Swap: the most mature production solver network and the deepest liquidity reach across EVM chains. If solver-network maturity is your first priority, this is the reference implementation.
- Matcha: the broadest EVM chain coverage of the four.
- Velora: competitive low fees, especially the 1 bp stablecoin rate.
- Ophis: natural-language input, Bitcoin as a destination, a flat and predictable fee, and an agent-first API. It is the option built for English-in / order-out and for autonomous agents.
Trade-offs (honestly)
Ophis runs its own solver and orderbook on Optimism, where its stack is self-hosted; on the other chains it surfaces, it relies on CoW's hosted infrastructure and solver network. CoW's production solver network is more mature and more battle-tested than the Optimism-focused stack Ophis operates directly. If you are trading large size on a chain where you want the deepest, most-proven solver competition, CoW Swap is the more conservative pick. Ophis's advantage is the interface and API layer described above, on top of the shared settlement foundation.
Reference table
| Ophis | CoW Swap | Matcha (0x) | Velora (ex-ParaSwap) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How you trade | Natural language, e.g. "swap 100 USDC for ETH on Base" | Token picker (signed intents) | Token picker | Token picker |
| Settlement | CoW Protocol batch auctions (shared foundation) | CoW Protocol batch auctions | 0x aggregation / RFQ | Aggregation across DEXs |
| Cross-chain scope | 11 EVM chains + Solana + Bitcoin (via NEAR Intents) | EVM + Solana (via NEAR Intents); no Bitcoin | EVM + Solana | EVM only |
| Fee model | Flat 0.10% (10 bps) on trade volume; 0.01% (1 bp) on same-chain stablecoin-to-stablecoin pairs | Surplus-based: a share of price improvement, not a fixed % of volume | Tiered: ~0.25% on most pairs, ~0.05% on stablecoin pairs | 0.15% (15 bps) on most swaps; 0.01% (1 bp) on stablecoin pairs |
| Surplus (price improvement) | 100% returned to the trader; Ophis takes zero cut (flat volume fee, not a surplus fee) | 100% returned to the trader, but the fee itself is a share of that surplus | Returned via positive slippage, route-dependent | Returned via positive slippage, route-dependent |
| Agent API | Public POST /api/intent (no key) + hosted MCP server | Orderbook REST API and SDK | 0x Swap API | REST API and SDK |
| Rebates | 21.25% of WETH fees paid back monthly as volume-tier rebates | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| MEV protection | Yes (batch auctions) | Yes (batch auctions) | Partial / route-dependent | Partial / route-dependent |
Read next
- Fees & rebates: the full flat-fee model, the stablecoin rate, and how rebates accrue.
- How it works: the intent lifecycle, batch auctions, and per-chain settlement. Live service status is on the Status page.
- FAQ: How is Ophis different: the short version of this page.
Competitor fee and chain details reflect each project's public documentation as of June 2026 and may change. Sources: CoW Protocol fees, Matcha fees, Velora UI fees.