Token swaps & fees
Every token swap on downbad is routed through the Haystack DEX aggregator. The fee is 0.10% — the same default rate the Haystack SDK ships with — and it's already included in the quote you see before signing. No markup on top, no spread, no surprise deductions.
How a swap works
When you enter an amount, downbad asks Haystack for the best price across every supported Algorand DEX — Tinyman v2, Pact, Folks, Algofi, Algomint, TAlgo — and quotes you the combined output. If the best price comes from splitting the trade across two pools, the router does that automatically and the whole route settles atomically in a single Algorand transaction group.
The output amount shown in the “To” field is the expected output after the 1% fee. The “Min received” line is what you'll receive in the worst case if the price moves against you by up to your slippage tolerance.
The 0.10% fee
The fee is a flat 0.10% of the input amount, taken in the output asset by the router before the swap settles. It doesn't depend on swap size or how many DEX hops the route uses.
That 0.10% is split as follows:
- 0.075% goes to the Haystack protocol — the routing service that finds you the best price across DEXs.
- 0.025% comes back to downbad as a referral, which funds development of the marketplace.
Other costs
Two small Algorand-network costs sit alongside the 1% fee, but neither is a downbad or Haystack charge:
- Network fees — every transaction in the swap group pays the standard Algorand fee (0.001 ALGO each). A typical swap is 3–6 transactions, so this is usually well under 0.01 ALGO.
- Asset opt-in MBR — if you're receiving an ASA you don't already hold, Algorand requires a 0.1 ALGO minimum balance reservation for that asset. This is held by the network, not paid to anyone, and is returned if you ever opt out of the asset.
Why route through an aggregator
Going direct to a single DEX charges that pool's own fee but only sees its own liquidity. Aggregation matters when a token trades on multiple DEXs or when a single pool can't absorb your size without moving the price.
The router compares every route, splits across pools where useful, and returns the combined best price — atomically, in one transaction group. Add the 0.10% routing fee on top and you usually still come out ahead of a single-pool swap once price impact and missed routes are factored in.
See also
Tokens to swap are listed on the tokens page. For peer-to-peer trades without a router, see deals.