Crypto Basics

News

Governance

Guides

Product Info

George Hristov

## TL;DR

-   For the month of  **April**, CoW Protocol handled a volume of  **$982M**, with a total of  **$5.9M** in generated surplus**.**
-   In exciting news, CoW Protocol launched MEV Blocker and partially fillable limit orders, celebrated its 2nd anniversary, and more 🙂

## Protocol Stats

Over month, CoW Protocol settled a total of  **$982M**

![1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_protocol_stats_64433ed928.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches to highlight are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x8477144e2384367e21c2553e7df392caa736cee652d54f245f96472b6a5c0bce?tab=graph)**):**  The Batch Total volume was  **$16,771.65**, and it was created by three traders, in which two were perfectly CoWed for  **100**% of their volume. One trader was buying  **4 ETH** for **10B PEPE**, the other trader was selling  **4 ETH** for **10B PEPE**, while the non cow trader was selling  **0.2 ETH** for  **699M PEPE.**

![1-1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_1_protocol_stats_f3fdfa181c.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest volume in it** [**(Transaction details)**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x19ad3f4535beb8a045411ea5cdd9bf5cb16482b2cc7b6c688d2864ec4dbf6816?tab=orders)**:**  The Batch Total volume was  **$21,948,438.66M** and it was created by a single trader who swapped  **WETH-stETH**

![1-2-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_2_protocol_stats_55cb058471.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xe9728134f50424b69042b61ac04bc86417be87e4499dc3e383a47aad0855952e?tab=graph)**)**: The Batch Total volume was $**6M** and it was created by two traders who were both swapping  **WETH**  to  **USDT**. Together, the two traders achieved the largest surplus for the month of  **April**, by getting $124,288.12 (**1.72**% surplus) extra.

![1-3-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_3_protocol_stats_39cc8bcd9c.webp)

During the month of  **April**, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$171M**

![1-4-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_4_protocol_stats_a2d30ec441.webp)

In the table below you can see the # of trades that CoW Swap traders have executed as well as the total volume for all trades. Our most active trader made a whopping 4,075 trades with CoW Protocol in  **April**.

![1-5-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_5_protocol_stats_9875e06ced.webp)

## Solvers

In  **April**, no new external solvers were added.

![2-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_solvers_d221b280d6.webp)

You can find all of the Solver Statistics in the following table. Looking at this table, we can see that on average, for the month of  **April**  solvers were able to generate a total of  **$5.9M**  — which means money in the pockets of traders. The highest surplus generated by a solver was  **$1.89M,** generated by the barter solver.

![2-1-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_1_solvers_ec8a9f8c08.webp)

## Governance

It has been a quiet month in terms of governance! The CoW was just chilling.

### Executed Proposals

This month, no proposals were executed.

### Technical Discussions

As an “agora” for technical topics on batch auctions or CoW Protocol related topics, very interesting posts have surfaced in the forum during the month of  **April**.

1.  [Report on the first two weeks of CIP-20](https://forum.cow.fi/t/report-on-the-first-two-weeks-of-cip-20/1630)

Make sure to read them and leave comments, as your feedback is much appreciated and will help move forward these important topics. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to follow the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   Launched a new token for all the CoW lovers, welcome to the new  [USDC (Unified Simple Dairy Coin)](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1642183629286637570?s=20)
-   CoW Protocol was highlighted in the latest Consensys Mesh  [report](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1643250373421932544?s=20)
-   Launched  [MEV Blocker](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1643614395002499073?s=20)  alongside GnosisDAO and Agnostic Relayer. Covered in [The Block](https://www.theblock.co/post/225023/ethereum-projects-come-together-on-mev-blocker-rpc-launch-to-share-profits-with-users),  [The Defiant](https://thedefiant.io/mev-blocker-rpc-lets-users-profit-mev),  [Coindesk](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/04/05/mev-blocker-wants-to-help-you-outrun-the-frontrunners/),  [Cointelegraph](https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-projects-unite-to-protect-users-from-mev-induced-high-prices),  [News coincu,](https://news.coincu.com/178822-mev-blocker-rpc-launched/) [Binance,](https://www.binance.com/en/feed/post/386631) [BeInCrypto](https://beincrypto.com/cow-swap-balancer-1inch-and-other-ethereum-projects-unite-to-shield-network-from-mev/),  [Cryptonews](https://cryptonews.net/news/blokcheyn/20768281/),  [Coinmarketcal](https://coinmarketcal.com/en/news/ethereum-projects-come-together-on-mev-blocker-rpc-launch-to-share-profits-with-users),  [Blockchain news](https://blockchain.news/news/ethereum-projects-launch-mev-blocker-to-minimize-invisible-tax),  [Coinpage](https://coingape.com/30-ethereum-apps-united-to-launch-defi-solution/),  [MSN](https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/mev-blocker-wants-to-help-you-outrun-the-frontrunners/ar-AA19vDRa)
-   Launched  [partially fillable limit orders](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1647962760070803457?s=20)

-   Coordinated the launch of the  [Zeromev API](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1648688114733568001?s=20)  funded by the CoW Grants Program with the aim of helping users better understand how much they have lost to MEV when not trading on CoW Swap
-   Re-launched the weekly  [Solver rewards analysis](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1649090216815382529?s=20)
-   CoW Swap made several  [UI improvements](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1650583685304025089?s=20): get notified about your order surplus, connect directly with more wallets: [@ledger](https://twitter.com/Ledger), [@KeystoneWallet](https://twitter.com/KeystoneWallet), [@TrustWallet](https://twitter.com/TrustWallet), cancel multiple limit orders at once, and cancel orders on-chain
-   Added support for  [Ambire wallet](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1651210318880833536?s=20)
-   Started performing  [TWAP UI research](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1651232221825490951?s=20)
-   Celebrated CoW Swap’s  [2 year anniversary](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1651889055683211264?s=20)

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In  **April**, we:

-   Released support for partially fillable limit orders
-   Worked on the CoW cluster migration
-   Made progress on resolving the remaining issues with partially fillable limit orders
-   Worked on improvements for the Solver reward script
-   Created different alerts for transfers from the settlement contract; goal is to detect which approval led to the transfer
-   Evaluated NPM contracts repo for Ethers.js v6
-   Drafted a PR for CIP-20 for driver co-location
-   Planned Q2 features
-   Fixed issues related to the handling of 0x API rate limiting

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements on the UI, as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In  **April**, we:

-   Released 🚀 MEV Blocker & a few small reiterations (Connect! ⛓️)
-   Released the official new version of SDK v2.0 📦
-   Released a new trick in the UI: search of tokens outside of our own lists 🕵️Uniswap tokens will be used as an external source 🦄
-   Released an improvement suggested by vitalik.eth (yes, the one! 🐐) about swap recipients
-   Released Limit Order reiteration 📈
-   Released CoW Swap 1.33: 🎉 which introduced partially fillable limit orders to CoW Swap
-   Released CoW Swap 1.34: 🎉 which provides support for several new wallets: Ledger, Keystone, Trust, as well as a new design for the connect modal (smaller icons to accommodate the new wallets). The update also enabled hard cancellations (on-chain rather than off-chain) and multiple order cancellations (one signature), as well as a new feature that shows any order surplus in a notification.
-   Formed a roadmap for Q2
-   Added FAQ for new features (hard cancellation, multiple cancellations)
-   Released a CowSwap birthday theme

## Open Job Positions

CoW Protocol team is currently NOT looking to hire :(


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Welcome back to another CoW Update, where we break down the most notable developments of the last few weeks at CoW Protocol.


CoW Protocol April 2023 Highlights

On April 28th, 2021, CoW Swap was publicly announced and deployed to Ethereum mainnet as a proof of concept to showcase the power behind its underlying mechanism, CoW Protocol.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">CowSwap is live!<br>👉 <a href="https://t.co/16jaKW2324">https://t.co/16jaKW2324</a><br> <br>Check out how CoWs protect your trades from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MEV?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MEV</a> and save 90% of gas costs on your trades👇 <a href="https://t.co/FK9NBlLLUn">pic.twitter.com/FK9NBlLLUn</a></p>&mdash; CoW DAO | CoW Swap &amp; MEV Blocker (@CoWSwap) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1387392829731770375?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

One year later, we made this post:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">🐮🎉 Today is CowSwap&#39;s birthday &amp; we would love to celebrate with you!!🐮🎉<br><br>If you trade on CowSwap today, you&#39;ll be able to find a special birthday gift!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CoWGMI?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CoWGMI</a><br><br>For this amazing year, we put together a nice summary of key moments &amp; stats achieved:<a href="https://t.co/f3RuLdS3Bi">https://t.co/f3RuLdS3Bi</a></p>&mdash; CoW DAO | CoW Swap &amp; MEV Blocker (@CoWSwap) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1519682333103861761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

For many people, this was the first time they heard of the project. Little did they know that with just one swap, it would become their favorite #DEX across Ethereum & Gnosis Chain. CowSwap’s main goal has always been to protect users from MEV attacks (frontrunning, sandwiching and more) through the use of a batch auction settlement layer. Here’s a summary of everything CoW Swap has launched and accomplished so far:

-   **April 28th, 2021 →**  CowSwap is born and rolls out in production, v.1.0
-   **August 13th, 2021 →**  CowSwap moves out of Alpha (Proof of Concept) and launches its upgraded smart contract to tightly integrate with Balancer v2. Composability is the key to Balancer CoW Protocol, where Balancer routes trades directly to CoW Protocol, and CoW Protocol settles trades in Balancer pools more efficiently.
-   **February 4th, 2022 →**  vCOW tokens land on CowSwap, later followed by COW tokens.
-   **February 11th, 2022 →**  CoW DAO is born!
-   **February 17th, 2022 →**  The CoW Investors Guild launches with an astonishing NFT.
-   **March 7th, 2022 →**The First proposal is passed by vCOW token holders, CoW DAO’s participation agreement.
-   **March 29th, 2022 →**  CoWDAO closes a $23M private & CoWmunity investment round. The investment round contains 57 participants from the private round (VCs, Angel Investors, etc) & > 5000 CoWmunity participants.
-   **April 22nd, 2022 →**  CoW-organizes the first mev.day in for Devconnect Amsterdam.
-   **April 28th, 2022 →**  CoW Swap´s 1st birthday.
-   **June 8th, 2022 →**  The CoW Grants program goes live.
-   **July 14th, 2022 →**  CoW Protocols Monthly recaps are born. Subsequently, each month’s news, developments, governance discussions and more are compiled into a newsletter-style article.
-   **September 29th, 2022 →**  CoW Swap´s Token page goes live, users can now mark their favorite tokens and approve them whenever they find convenient, regardless of the actual trading timing.
-   **October 12th, 2022 →**  CoW Protocol team takes over DEVCON VI in Bogota with 4 different talks!!
-   **October 28th, 2022 →**  Data analysis on how much slippage DEX Aggregator users suffer. Do CoWs experience less slippage? Indeed they do :)
-   **November 2nd, 2022 →** CoW Protocol launches support for ERC-1271 signatures. ERC-1271 makes it possible to trade “gas-less-ly” on CoW Protocol with any Smart Contract or Smart Contract wallet.
-   **November 7th, 2022 →**  A new AMM concept is introduced. CoW Native AMMs (aka Surplus Capturing AMMs with single price clearing) protect their LPs from MEV, get less LVR and provide lower fees to traders.
-   **November 16th, 2022 →**  CoW Protocol proudly announces the launch of Seasolver from [@iearnfinance](https://twitter.com/iearnfinance), the leading yield aggregator on Ethereum. This is one of the most novel applications of a solver to date — enabling direct trading of LP positions.
-   **November 22nd, 2022 →**  A partnership with [@ChainPatrol](https://twitter.com/ChainPatrol)  to help identify scammers is launched alongside security portal for users to easily report those F****rs
-   **November 22nd, 2022 →**  Swapr integrates CoW Protocol into its Eco Router.
-   **December 6th, 2022 →** Shapeshift integrates CoW Protocol and routes all orders in Ethereum to the CoWs!!
-   **December 8th, 2022 →**  Significant updates to the CoW Swap UI go live through a new brand refresh :)
-   **December 12th, 2022 →**  The most UN-limited limit orders in DeFi launch. Limit orders from CoW Protocol officially go live
-   **December 19th, 2022 →**  A new contract that allows users to trade directly with ETH or xDAI without having to wrap first launches.
-   **January 6th, 2023 →**  A Smart Order tutorial for users to easily create any sort of financial product through EIP1271 orders launches.
-   **January 25th, 2023 →**  CoW DAO holders approve the hiring of a treasury manager, and retain Karpatkey as the provider for the service..
-   **February 8th, 2023 →** ENS sells $16m worth of ETH (10K) through smart orders without suffering from any MEV, despite revealing their trade intent a week in advance through a DAO vote. A first for DeFi!
-   **February 24th, 2023 →**  With the help of Wherever, CoW Swap launches wallet to wallet notifications, so that users can stay up to date on the latest news.
-   **March 8th, 2023 →**  First implementation of TWAP orders goes live thanks to the CoW Grants program.
-   **March 30th, 2023 →**  CoW Swap launches a new traffic light system to help you understand how close your limit order price is to executing.
-   **April 5th, 2023 →**  CoW Swap, in collaboration with [@beaverbuild](https://twitter.com/beaverbuild)  and Agnostic Relayer, proudly announces MEV Blocker [https://MEVBlocker.io](https://t.co/WIhaaGtP0e). MEV Blocker is a free RPC endpoint that *pays users* to protect themselves from MEV across a wide variety of use cases in DeFi, NFTs, and dApps.
-   **April 17th, 2023 →**  Partially fillable limit orders launch. Enabled by default, partial fills bring faster trade settlement to limit orders.
-   **April 19th, 2023 →**  An API with Zeromev launches that allows users to understand and quantify how much they have lost to MEV. This initiative was funded via the CoW Grants program.

It’s been our honor to share these last two years with the incredible CoWmmunity! Below we’ve included some notable statistics from this period that are worth highlighting.

## Main Protocol Statistics

Total Volume: $23.39 Billion

![1-main-protocol-statistics.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_main_protocol_statistics_bc3c675e41.webp)

Total # of Trades: 595,373

![1-1-main-protocol-statistics.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_1_main_protocol_statistics_9b61f3c308.webp)

Total # of Users:

![1-2-main-protocol-statistics.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_2_main_protocol_statistics_5f263b9c71.webp)

Total number of distinct tokens traded: 3,640 tokens

![1-3-main-protocol-statistics.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_3_main_protocol_statistics_ac95679b1f.webp)

Total number of batches settled: 449K

![1-4-main-protocol-statistics.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_4_main_protocol_statistics_f0ddc1b685.webp)

Top 25 traded tokens:

![1-5-main-protocol-statistics.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_5_main_protocol_statistics_135cd104d4.webp)

Number of currently active solvers:

![1-6-main-protocol-statistics.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_6_main_protocol_statistics_e4d423faf8.webp)

## **User Benefits**

Due to the delegated trading model of CoW Swap, users have been able to save a cumulative total of 7K ETH, which is worth $19.5M at current prices!!!

![2-user-benefits.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_user_benefits_6f908ce630.webp)

But the savings don’t stop there — not by a long shot… CoW Swap has provided its users with an astonishing $119 million in trade surplus. This is $119 million more than they originally signed up for when submitting their trades!

![2-1-user-benefits.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_1_user_benefits_ff60a40b28.webp)

## Top 3 Batch highlights

**[Batch with the largest volume](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x67b9ee6d6d6a96c56ae689c71a588dd1739d98ed4b542b513b7f8896916fd6ee?tab=orders)**

5 different traders selling and buying DAI — USDC, USDC — ICHI, NOTE — DAI, USDC — wNXM and MIM — RDN who all together accounted for a total batch volume of $90,698,916.42, which is an impressive figure!

![3-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_batch_highlights_81a67ec8fe.webp)
![3-1-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_1_batch_highlights_4793fd97bf.webp)

**[Batch with the largest amount of traders](https://barn.explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x0191dbb560e936bd3320d5a505c9c05580a0ebb7e12fe117551ac26e484f295e?tab=orders)**

34 different traders selling and buying ETH — GNO — perfectly batched together to hit the AMM with the best price only once, thus making the 34 trades much more gas cost efficient.

![3-2-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_2_batch_highlights_65f48706b4.webp)
![3-3-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_3_batch_highlights_ce078b6789.webp)

**[Most beautiful CoW](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x4769c7e1bfc28fa2b0648cd450b90c6ae0c73664b9c398a408560cc997981700?tab=orders)**

6 different traders selling and buying USDT — USDT, perfectly matched >$1m against each other with >99% CoW volume (coincidence of wants/ internal matching) generating nice surplus for all

![3-4-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_4_batch_highlights_a190b73ae7.webp)
![3-5-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_5_batch_highlights_483d65732e.webp)

**[Batch with highest surplus](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xdfe24cc3fbf5b15ed356829dc9b756844aa64fdb90bd06ed6c55119b0c7a465d?tab=orders)**

A single trader selling and buying USDC — USDT received a surplus of 4% thanks to CoW Protocol’s batch auction settlement mechanism. In their trade, this translated to around $ 400K

![3-6-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_6_batch_highlights_1ddcdb11c6.webp)
![3-7-batch-highlights.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_7_batch_highlights_f2bc0ad9ac.webp)

## Conclusion

We can’t believe you are growing so fast! It seems like it was just yesterday that you came into this world. CoW Swap was born with the goal of becoming the most MEV-resistant DEX. It is the only DEX designed to give you total peace of mind, reducing MEV value extraction as much as possible for you and batching your trades to save you gas and AMM fees. So what are you waiting for? Go trade on swap.cow.fi and help the protocol scale its benefits!

![4-conclusion.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_conclusion_3bd7e17b67.webp)

More trades → More CoWs → More protection from MEV → Better prices

May the years ahead continue to amaze everyone with the power of CoWs!!


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Holy CoW!! It’s CoW Swap’s birthday 🎂 Happy birthday to moooo, happy birthday to moooo 🎉🎊🥳


CoW Swap’s 2nd birthday celebration!

CoW Swap is excited to announce that partially fillable limit orders are now live.

Partially fillable limit orders, unlike traditional “fill or kill” limit orders, are executed gradually as liquidity becomes available at the specified limit price.  **This means that your limit orders will complete much faster, as they can gather liquidity over time rather than all at once.**

![1-limit-orders.gif](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_limit_orders_f887eeebcc.gif)

Let’s say you want to place a limit order for $10,000 worth of ETH at a price of $1,500 per ETH. With fill or kill limit orders, this trade would only be executed if CoW Swap can find the entire $10,000 worth of ETH at $1,500 per token. If this liquidity is not available in full, the order would not go through.

With partially fillable limit orders, however, the same trade can be executed in smaller increments over time. For example, if there were only $1,000 worth of liquidity for ETH at a limit price of $1,500 when you first place your order, CoW Swap would execute a trade to capture that $1,000 and also execute subsequent trades that it finds at your limit price until the entire $10,000 order is filled.

Partially fillable limit orders have several benefits:

-   Fast order fills regardless of market conditions
-   Increased chance of CoWs (Coincidences of Wants)
-   Surplus capturing trades

Let’s explore how each benefit improves your trading experience.

### Fast Order Fills Regardless of Market Conditions

The main advantage of partially fillable limit orders is that your trades will execute (at least in part) even during times of low market liquidity.

Fill or kill limit orders can take a long time to execute, since there needs to be enough liquidity available to execute the entirety of your trade at your limit price. This issue is solved with partially fillable limit orders, so you can always expect fast, efficient order completion regardless of market conditions.

### Increased Chance of CoWs

CoW Swap was built on the concept of “Coincidences of Wants” (CoWs) — an economic phenomenon where two or more traders can swap assets with each other peer-to-peer, without needing to use on-chain liquidity. On CoW Swap, orders are processed in batches that make this peer-to-peer matching possible.

Since partially fillable orders fill up over time, rather than all at once, they get more chances to be matched with other orders in a CoW. This, in turn, means that you get reduced gas fees and zero liquidity pool fees.

For example, if you are attempting to make a $10,000 trade, a traditional fill or kill order will be sent to a single batch and only get 1 chance to find a CoW (which may be unlikely for a large order.) With partially fillable orders, your order could participate in all batch auctions and get a chance to find multiple CoWs against a bunch of smaller orders until the order is filled.

### Surplus Capturing Trades

Partially fillable limit orders are “surplus capturing,” meaning that any price surplus your trade experiences will get passed along to you. If you submit a trade at a certain limit price, but it can actually be executed for less, the protocol will make the trade for the lower price and pass the savings on to you.

For example, if you set a limit order for ETH at $1,500, but the protocol sees that there is actually an opportunity to buy ETH for $1,450, it will buy at this price and pass the $50 in “surplus” on to you.

In practice, surplus capturing orders mean that CoW Swap will find enough surplus (price improvements) at the time of execution to cover what will be your fees so that they don’t affect your orders’ limit price.

## Uses for Partially Fillable Limit Orders

Partially fillable orders have many advantages for one-off transactions and everyday retail traders, but they really shine when put to work as a part of a broader strategy.

Here are some trading strategies that work well with partially fillable orders:

-   **Buybacks for DAOs**: Partially fillable orders provide great benefits for DAO treasury management. Imagine that a DAO wants to perform a large buyback of its token at a certain price. Rather than having to coordinate with multiple stakeholders (such as multiple investors who may want to sell the token) and time the market perfectly, these DAOs can simply set a partially fillable limit order to buy their token for a certain price and buy tokens from the market as liquidity at a favorable price becomes available.
-   **Buy & Sell Walls**: Partially fillable limit orders can be used to set buy & sell “walls” for continuous trades. For example, a trader can submit a partially fillable order that is set to purchase ETH any time it drops below a certain price and sell it any time it goes above a certain price.  
    This is a beneficial use-case for projects that have launched or are launching a token. The nature of token launches makes it hard to predict how the token price will behave initially — something that has a deep impact on the public perception of the project. With partially fillable limit orders, projects can strategically buy and sell their token to ensure that it doesn’t go outside of a certain price range.
-   **Stablecoin Arbitrage**: Stablecoins are a cornerstone of the crypto industry. For most use-cases, stablecoins are reliably pegged to $1, but, on the micro-level, they are usually fluctuating by a few hundredths of a cent at all times.  
    Partially fillable limit orders can be used to capitalize on this arbitrage by setting a 1:1 trade order to swap between stablecoins (such as USDC and DAI). Since partially fillable limit orders on CoW Swap are surplus capturing, this trade will only execute when the price of the stablecoins moves such that there is enough surplus to cover fees. Often, this means that there is also enough surplus to make a profit, so traders may end up swapping $1,000 USDC, for example, for $1,050 DAI.  
    It’s important to keep in mind that this strategy is really only worthwhile when trading in large amounts. The volatility of stablecoin prices is usually so minimal that it takes rather large amounts of capital to make arbitrage worth it. Remember to Do Your Own Research.

## Get Started with Partially Fillable Limit Orders on CoW Swap

Partially fillable limit orders are now enabled by default for all limit orders on CoW Swap. If you’d like to disable partially fillable orders and go back to fill or kill orders, you can do so through a toggle in your trade settings.

As with all other order types on CoW Swap, partial fills:

-   Aggregate liquidity from the best prices available on-chain
-   Improve prices via Coincidence of Wants (peer-to-peer matching)
-   Protect users from MEV
-   Take fees in the sell token, not in ETH (unless you’re selling ETH!)
-   Don’t charge for failed transactions
-   Are free to place and free to cancel

Give partially fillable limit orders a try today and let us know what you think by reaching out on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol)!


large_cow-swap-improves-the-limit-order-experience-with-partially-fillable-limit-orders-cover-photo.webp

medium_cow-swap-improves-the-limit-order-experience-with-partially-fillable-limit-orders-cover-photo.webp

small_cow-swap-improves-the-limit-order-experience-with-partially-fillable-limit-orders-cover-photo.webp

thumbnail_cow-swap-improves-the-limit-order-experience-with-partially-fillable-limit-orders-cover-photo.webp

cow-swap-improves-the-limit-order-experience-with-partially-fillable-limit-orders-cover-photo.webp

Partial fills bring faster trade execution and increased chances of Coincidence of Wants to limit orders on CoW Swap


CoW Swap Improves the Limit Order Experience with Partially Fillable Limit Orders

## TL;DR

-   For the month of March, CoW Protocol has handled a volume of **$1.9B**, with the total amount of surplus generated for that month was  **$9.26M**.
-   In terms of Governance, CowDAO executed 1 CIP about the continued funding to No MEV labs for development services.
-   In regards to exciting news, CoW Protocol participated in the Safe Account Abstraction hackathon, gave an outstanding talk for DAOs in EthDenver, tested the first implementation of TWAP (time weighted average orders), gave a facelift to the limit orders UI and more :)

## Protocol Stats

Over this month, CoW Protocol has settled a total of  **$1.9B**

![1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_protocol_stats_9a0524efdf.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches to highlight are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xe072122299a23d64b8159c70579387a67cb0cb6cc68a4567cdb2338730606541?tab=graph)**):**  The Batch Total volume was  **$2,030,226.68,**  and it was created by four traders who were perfectly CoWed for  **100**% of their volume. One trader was swapping $**950K of USDC-USDT**, another trader was swapping  **$1M USDT- USDC**, another trader was swapping  **$12K USDC-USDT**, while the other trader was swapping  **$40K USDC-USDT**

![1-1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_1_protocol_stats_f53691106f.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest volume in it (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x325986462ce556186fbe9b6693d6ed7fd0ce2067d79bf557b168ec55740ad532?tab=graph)**):**  The Batch Total volume was  **$18,566,138.66** and it was created by two traders who were swapping  **USDC**  to  **DAI** and **USDC** to **DAI**.

![1-2-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_2_protocol_stats_66ab2d7583.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x4b4bd531476cb3fd6925e3f4ed22c1c5a4632029dde8aa589ccfa6635808945a?tab=graph)**):**  The Batch Total volume was  **$3,130,248.85** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **ETH**  to  **USDT**. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of  **$82,092.58**, by getting  **$81.6K**  extra, which at the time of trade was roughly **2.61% surplus**.

![1-3-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_3_protocol_stats_f91fe1fa71.webp)

During the month of March, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$166M**

![1-4-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_4_protocol_stats_ce0d8b2f06.webp)

In the table below you can see the # of trades that CoW Swap traders have executed as well as the total volume for all trades. Our most active trader made a whopping 3410 trades with CoW Protocol in March.

![1-5-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_5_protocol_stats_57bb98d011.webp)

## Solvers

![2-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_solvers_16db7bceb0.webp)

You can find all of the Solver Statistics in the following table. Looking at this table, we can see that on average, for the month of March Solvers were able to generate a total of  **$9.26M**, which was money in the pockets of traders. The highest generated surplus by a solver was  **$1.8M**.

![2-1-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_1_solvers_fa3ac6510c.webp)

## Governance

It has been a hectic month in terms of governance! The CoW cannot be stopped by a bear at all 💪.

### Executed Proposals

This month we have had one important and impactful proposal executed:

-   ✅  [CIP-24 — Continued funding for development services — Service Agreement No 2](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xfdbb09f2c4147be81e0873bc10644435dffae9e2ae3da41a70eaa810b46ee5a0)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there have been  **one**  new proposal asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, a final CIP, in their current form.

-   [CIP-24 — Continued funding for development services — Service Agreement No 2](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-24-continued-funding-for-development-services-service-agreement-no-2/1531)

### Technical Discussions

As an “agora” for technical topics on batch auctions or CoW Protocol related topics, very interesting posts surface throughout the month.

Make sure to read them and leave comments as your feedback is much appreciated and will help move forward these important topics. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to follow the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   CoW Swap joined the safe team thematic month about  [account abstraction](https://twitter.com/safe/status/1630947082982027264?s=20), with the intention of having hackers build tools to abstract DAOs from the hassle of trading today.
-   The CoW team took over  [ETH Denver](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1631320669475725313?s=20)  with an amazing booth and the best swag in the conference.
-   Not only did the CoW Team take over Denver, but also  [Anna George](https://twitter.com/EthereumDenver/status/1632170012227117056?s=20), had a great  [talk about DeFi Experience for DAOs today](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkVxMd03XEg&t=29s)
-   Worth highlighting that this month we had the attention of the one and only Vitalik not only by  [using CoW Swap](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1633072069972836354?s=20)  as his trading venue but also  [submitting PRs for UI improvements](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1641834935588737026?s=20).
-   While in Denver, CoW Grants Program continued to deliver! A new ERC1271 Smart contract order type just arrived,  [TWAP (Time Weighted Average Price) orders](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1633489764274806784?s=20)  are now possible through CoW Swap.
-   The most [beautiful CoW since launch](https://twitter.com/koeppelmann/status/1634675936082776069?s=20)  — 6 different traders selling and buying USDT — USDT, perfectly matched.
-   [Great example](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1637457413367382018?s=20)  of why limit orders from CoW Swap are structurally better for traders than limit orders from other DEXs — because they are surplus-capturing!
-   [Nexus mutual partnered with CoW Protocol](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1638530976857899009?s=20)  to have their insurance pools trade directly with CoW!
-   [CoW Swap limit orders just got a facelift!](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1641489384896704526?s=20)  You can now see a new traffic light system in your open orders panel, which shows how close your order is to executing.

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In March, we:

-   Worked on CIP-20 auction based solver rewards
-   Implemented colocation environment for Staging in Goerli Network
-   Fixed several issues related to solver and driver collocation
-   Created new testing harness for making writing E2E tests simpler
-   Added support for Balancer V2 in Gnosis Chain
-   Fixed small bug in mock HTTP server implementations to improve solvers
-   Fixed settlement merging bug for EthFlow orders

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front, as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In March, we:

-   First round of improvements for Token lists automation  finished. Anyone should be capable of add/remove/update tokens and images to CoW Swap’s default token list
-   Added **s**everal more wallets that are coming to the UI
-   Worked on Limit orders re-iteration to show Est. Execution Price → when will my order be executed
-   Focused on the new RPC (mevblocker.io) endpoint landing page
-   Continued with the new wallets integration and refactoring of wallets code
-   Continued with the prices on limit-orders re-iteration
-   Started working on Partials Execution:  Limit Orders will become partially fillable (swaps will be Fill-Or-Kill → AON — All Or None)

## Open Job Positions

CoW Protocol team is currently NOT looking to hire :(


CoW Protocol March 2023 Highlights

## TL;DR

-   During the month of February, CoW Protocol handled a volume of **$1.01B**, with a total of  **$6M**  in generated surplus.
-   In terms of Governance, CowDAO executed 4 CIPS, new Solver rewards, Token Discounts renewals, barter Solver slashing due to exploit, and Solver rewards budget renewal.
-   In exciting news, had the biggest trade made by a DAO ever, with ENS trading  **$16M**  worth of ETH, also CoW DAO turned 1 year old, CoW Protocol had two open calls for feedback, and CoW Swap users can now enable wallet to wallet notifications to stay on top of all CoW-related news, and more :)

## Protocol Stats

Over the course of the month, CoW Protocol settled a total of $  **1.01 billion**

![1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_protocol_stats_2a148b2f33.webp)

This month, the 3 highlight batches are the following:

-   Batch with the highest % of CoW trades ([Transaction details](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xde39a060fea94e02b3ac89ee312e6f6491f1e75c12be90aa38e9f743dff0752c?tab=graph)**)**. The Batch Total volume was **$202,310.39**, and it was created by two traders who were perfectly CoWed for  **97.4%**  of their volume. One trader was buying $**94.5K USDC**, while the other trader was selling $**100K USDC** .

![1-1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_1_protocol_stats_ead906e8c6.webp)

-   Batch with the highest volume ([Transaction details](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xa2ba7939818d920aef9d1b2e1222d4df962ac30610367c0ec67c3a0fb3c5dbbc?tab=graph)**)**: The Batch Total volume was  **$16,336,549.02**  and it was created by two traders who were swapping  **DAI-ETH**  and  **WETH-USDC**.

![1-2-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_2_protocol_stats_52596c39fc.webp)

-   Batch with the highest amount of surplus ([Transaction details](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xa2ba7939818d920aef9d1b2e1222d4df962ac30610367c0ec67c3a0fb3c5dbbc?tab=graph)**)**: The Batch Total volume was  **$16,336,549.02** and it was created by two traders who were swapping  **DAI-ETH**  and  **WETH-USDC**. One trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of $81,542.01, by getting $81K USDC extra, which at the time of trade was roughly  **0.5%**  surplus.

![1-3-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_3_protocol_stats_3509451367.webp)

During the month of February, the top 10 traders traded a total of  **$129M**

![1-4-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_4_protocol_stats_8877bc94be.webp)

In the table below you can see the number of trades that CoW Swap traders have executed, as well as the total volume for all trades. Our most active trader made a whopping 2889 trades with CoW Protocol in February.

![1-5-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_5_protocol_stats_c1d553b894.webp)

## Solvers

![2-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_solvers_1dc459e5a3.webp)

You can find all of the Solver Statistics in the following table. Looking at this table, we can see that on average, for the month of February, Solvers were able to generate a total of  **$6M**, which was money in the pockets of traders. The highest generated surplus by a Solver was  **$1.5M**.

![2-1-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_1_solvers_f408b09871.webp)

## Governance

It has been a hectic month in terms of governance! The CoW cannot be stopped by any bears 💪

### Executed Proposals

This month there were  **4**  proposals executed:

-   ✅  [CIP-20: Auction model for Solver rewards](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x2d3f9bd1ea72dca84b03e97dda3efc1f4a42a772c54bd2037e8b62e7d09a491f)
-   ❌  [CIP-21: Renewing budget for COW token holders trading fee discount](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xcb454f83ca52f00f4803216f8bf717281de3ade44496c8542708a93a5d8133e8)
-   ✅  [CIP-22: Slashing of the Barter Solver (responsible for a hack causing CoW DAO a loss of 1 week fee accrual)](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x55f13a2bd5387e3df8d35444a377d72ac659d2000f7a7c8b662dc4fa93a54c75)
-   ✅  [CIP-23: Renewing the Solver reward budget](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x864685d094312bc51eeb01af69e83dc7c496108cca54a15b491d79e9ce389889)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there have been  **4** new proposals asking for feedback before moving into the next phase, a final CIP, in their current form:

-   [CIP-20: Auction model for Solver rewards](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-20-auction-model-for-solver-rewards/1405)
-   [CIP-21: Renewing budget for COW token holders trading fee discount](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-21-renewing-budget-for-cow-token-holders-trading-fee-discount/1445)
-   [CIP-22: Slashing of the Barter Solver (responsible for a hack causing CoW DAO a loss of 1 week fee accrual)](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-22-slashing-of-the-barter-solver-responsible-for-a-hack-causing-cow-dao-a-loss-of-1-week-fee-accrual/1440)
-   [CIP-23: Renewing the Solver reward budget](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-23-renewing-the-solver-reward-budget/1444)

### Technical Discussions

Our forum serves as an “agora” for technical topics on batch auctions or CoW Protocol related topics, so check out some of the interesting posts that surfaced throughout the month.

Make sure to read them and leave comments as your feedback is very valuable and will help move forward these important topics. If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to follow the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   February was the month for feedback. CoW Swap had a call for  [DAO research](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1620800961513144321?s=20)  and  [Limit Orders](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1627670468923629568?s=20). Feedback is taken quite seriously at CoW Swap.
-   Unlike some other DEXes, CoW Swap provides only true volume.  [CoW Swap volume is 100% legit](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1621184351189835777?s=20)  and contains 0% volume coming from arbitrageurs.
-   CoW Swap took part in the  [Monday campaign](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1621584310188007424?s=20), alongside many other DeFi projects to voice our support for the DeFi values of the industry.
-   On February 7th 2023, CoW Swap’s settlement contract  [suffered a drain](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1622885833782054913?s=20)  whereby a hacker exploited an external Solver and used it to drain the settlement contract, which held 7 days worth of protocol fees.  [Here](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1623001754731180033?s=20)  you can read more about the full post mortem of the situation, and  [here](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1623061491283816448?s=20)  you can check the return of the stolen funds.
-   An  [@ensdomains](https://twitter.com/ensdomains)  [vote](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1623269956442898434?s=20)  to sell 10K worth of ETH through CoW Swap passed, and the  [$16M trade was executed](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1623680760522612738?s=20)  later that week with a total of $80K in surplus. In case you missed it,  [here is the twitter spaces](https://twitter.com/ENS_DAO/status/1625826547432148994?s=20)  held by CoW Swap and ENS recapping this exciting event.
-   February 11th was a day of celebration for us as  [CoW DAO Turned 1 year old](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1624381484995059712?s=20).
-   Celebrated  [CoW Valentines](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1625480198912196609?s=20)  day with our p2p lovers
-   February was also a month full of important governance decisions with  [four CIPs being voted](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1626570153138716673?s=20)  on.
-   You’ll now be able to receive  [CoW Swap notifications directly to your wallet](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1629121068777590785?s=20). CoW Swap has partnered with [@wherever_im](https://twitter.com/wherever_im)  & [@pushprotocol](https://twitter.com/pushprotocol)  to give you access to on-chain communications! You decide what notifications you receive.
-   The end of February marked the beginning of ETH Denver.  [CoW Swap prepared bounties for the hackathon](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1630617623145902080?s=20).

## Product Updates

**Backend**

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In February, we:

-   Improved the speed for quoting limit orders
-   Improved market order matching
-   Executed several internal changes for colocation with specific e2e tests
-   Ported Solvers to the colocation model
-   Improved the overall e2e testing infrastructure
-   Worked on CIP-20 auction based Solver rewards
-   Improved some bad token error messages to make it easier for people to debug their errors

**Frontend**

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI, as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In February, we:

-   Worked on several design updates for Limit Orders
-   Developed a new Token list and process for adding new external tokens [link](https://www.notion.so/FE-Improve-Token-Lists-88cca26bf32f477eb79eaec34a201d87)
-   Worked on several wallet integrations for allowing users to connect multiple wallets to CoW Swap natively
-   Worked on the Cow SDK refactoring. Created the SDK for order book API with code generated from Swagger
-   Worked on Bundling of Multiple Transactions, we started a prototype, a flow chart, and the documentation / specs

## Open Job Positions

CoW Protocol team is currently NOT looking to hire :(



CoW Protocol February 2023 Highlights

Today, CoW Swap is proud to kick off a new era in stablecoins with the introduction of the world’s very first  **milk-backed stablecoin**.

Are you tired of constant depegs and regulatory scrutiny? Is your grandma always asking how your internet coins are doing? Well look no further than CoW Swap’s brand new stablecoin. We call it Unified Simple Dairy Coin (USDC).

CoW Swap USDC is backed by liters of the world’s oldest commodity — cow milk. That’s right, we’re finally putting the farm on the blockchain as we harness the power of silos brimming with fresh milk to back the reserves of the Unified Simple Dairy Coin.

![1-milk-stablecoin.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_milk_stablecoin_b1618ff920.webp)

Unified Simple Dairy Coin has several advantages:

-   There’s no fractional reserve banking when it comes to Dairy-Fi (or DaFi, as we call it). Each Unified Simple Dairy Coin is backed by one liter of cow milk
-   The most compliant stablecoin — milk is recognized as a commodity by the CFTC so we’re in clear waters when it comes to regulation from day one
-   Your grandma’s been drinking milk since she was a little girl — she’ll understand USDC instantly!
-   Milk is an asset endorsed by some of the world’s most famous figures, including Tiger Woods, Fernando Alonso, the Nesquik Bunny, and Santa Claus

![2-milk-stablecoin.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_milk_stablecoin_35207e7941.webp)

Do you have beef with algorithmic stablecoins, fractional reserves, and other bull? Have you been waiting for a stablecoin that’s worth its weight in milk? Are you ready to ape into a financial instrument backed by one of the oldest and most stable assets (better than gold!)?

Look no further than Unified Simple Dairy Coin! The grass is greener on this side.**™**

Airdrops are planned for the first 500 people who can send us a video chugging a liter of milk. For each liter you drink, you get airdropped one Unified Simple Dairy Coin!

So open that TikTok camera and get to posting, there’s enough milk to go around. 🥛💰


large_cow-swap-introduces-new-milk-backed-stablecoin cover photo.webp

medium_cow-swap-introduces-new-milk-backed-stablecoin cover photo.webp

small_cow-swap-introduces-new-milk-backed-stablecoin cover photo.webp

thumbnail_cow-swap-introduces-new-milk-backed-stablecoin cover photo.webp

cow-swap-introduces-new-milk-backed-stablecoin cover photo.webp

CoW Swap Introduces New Milk-Backed Stablecoin

## TL;DR

-   For the month of January, CoW Protocol handled a volume of  **$889M,** with the total amount of surplus generated for that month was  **$4.4M**
-   In regard to exciting news, CoW Protocol had a hectic month! We released a tutorial for Smart Orders, participated in Token Terminals podcast and worked along the SAFE team on the take back ownership campaign!
-   We made key hires across biz dev, engineering, and ops — and we’re  **_still_**  hiring even more core team members! Find our latest job openings at  [https://cow.fi/jobs](https://cow.fi/jobs)

## Protocol Stats

In January, CoW Protocol settled a total of **$889M**

![1-Protocol-Stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_Protocol_Stats_4e92a991a0.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches to highlight are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x462d8b407d69c1c41556356bc72af6e7e74621c4c3a958d9108674483e9ce43c?tab=graph)**)**: The Batch Total volume was $183,410.91, and it was created by five traders who were perfectly CoWed for 98.5% of their volume ($180,704.76). First trader was selling  **DAI**  for  **OHM,** the second trader was selling  **DAI**  for  **OHM**, the third trader was selling  **OHM**  for  **DAI**, the fourth trader was selling  **DAI**  for  **OHM**  and the fifth trader was selling  **DAI**  for  **OHM**.

![1-1-Protocol-Stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_1_Protocol_Stats_f4ac7a548a.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest Volume in it (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x4929dac2e3801040b2065a16281a32a751dc5ddf32bb09c3b34c68234269a663?tab=graph)**):**  The Batch Total volume was  **$9,012,276.83M**  and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **USDC**  to  **USDT.**

![1-2-Protocol-Stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_2_Protocol_Stats_590333b0d5.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xe60597a046857a4211075150a7dbde8812d115511c30f6e0014721742250801f?tab=graph)**)**: The Batch Total volume was  **$3,985,033** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping  **ETH**  to  **USDC**. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of January, by getting  **$72,579.483 USDC extra**  (1.84% surplus).

![1-3-Protocol-Stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_3_Protocol_Stats_47208c1f1a.webp)

During the month of January, the top 10 traders have traded a total of  **$107M**

![1-4-Protocol-Stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_4_Protocol_Stats_ae15d6ae2b.webp)

In the table below you can see the # of trades they have executed as well as the total volume for all their trades. Our most active trader made a whopping 2330 (!!!) trades with CoW Protocol in December.

![1-5-Protocol-Stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_5_Protocol_Stats_2a37b929fe.webp)

## Solvers

In January, we saw one external team add a new solver to our production environment. This solver is named Barter and the CoW Protocol team is looking forward to seeing how they perform in the competition.

Looking at the numbers, we can see that on average, for the month of January Solvers were able to generate a total of  **$4.4M**, which all traders got to enjoy in their pockets.

![2-Solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_Solvers_66c9f8125e.webp)

In regards to the Solver Statistics, one can find all sorts of information in the following table like total value settled, number of batches solved, trades and surplus. The highest generated surplus by a solver was  **$1.6M**.

![2-1-Solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_1_Solvers_38a89eefe4.webp)

## Governance

It has been a hectic month in terms of governance! The CoW cannot be stopped 💪.

### Executed Proposals

This month we executed three important and impactful proposals:

-   [CIP-17: Making slippage symmetric  was moved for voting:](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xf9c98a2710dc72c906bbeab9b8fe169c1ed2e9af6a67776cc29b8b4eb44d0fb2)  proposes that the protocol treats slippage incurred by solvers symmetrically; in the case of negative slippage, a solver would be penalized with an amount equal to the negative slippage incurred (as is the case now), while in the case of positive slippage, the protocol would reimburse the solver with an amount equal to the positive slippage generated.
-   [CIP-18: CoW Grants Program Renewal Proposal](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0x1b152ae847d003034e84b796ac153ab3549f69891cef49c5d915ee5930c0b256)  asks to renew the CoW Grants Program set in CIP-8. The goal of the program is to improve the utility of [$COW](https://twitter.com/search?q=%24COW&src=cashtag_click)  tokens & facilitate deeper integration with other DeFi solutions. The Grants Program has processed payments in the total sum of 106,640 xDAI and 190,100 COW. Not only are the funds directed to valuable projects that help grow the CoW ecosystem, but also to (1) a new Volume-based Partner Reward Program aimed for integrations with the goal of having rewards based on actual performance, and (2) paying for he CoW Grants Committee stipend.
-   [CIP-19: Karpatkey DAO Proposal to Create a Core Treasury Team](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xc4e9c0a28f12b28aedfc8c3802522a9ac9dd1c7d5045dca94abf555ca2d8cd31)**:** proposes to have KarpatkeyDAO create, train, support, and audit a Core Treasury Team within CoW DAO that would work jointly with KarpatkeyDAO to develop CoW DAO’s treasury, allowing CowSwap to efficiently provide its own liquidity, fund its operations, development, and evolution while optimizing yield for idle funds

### Draft Proposals

This month, there were two new proposals asking for feedback before they move into the next phase, a final CIP, and one even made it to voting before EOY.

-   [CIP-Draft: Auction model for solver rewards](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-draft-auction-model-for-solver-rewards/1405/1)**:** proposal to have an auction based mechanism for rewarding winners of the solver competition.The proposed auction mechanism allows for dynamically finding a reward based on how much value a solver provides to users by settling a batch. This results in a distribution of rewards better aligned with goals of the protocol, solvers, and users.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to check the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   CoW Protocol started the year the entrance of the 2023 year with lots of excitement, this year will be the  [year of the #Mooo](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1609414489513803776?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)
-   Our CTO, Felix, wrote an  [outstanding thread](https://twitter.com/DeFi_Dad/status/1610471643490516992?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)  that helps understand differences between the new 1inch Fusion and CoWSwap.
-   Wonder what it takes to build GAT, TWAP, ARP, LARP, and ZARP orders with CoW Protocol? Check out the  [Smart Orders Tutorial](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1611479394056568832?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)
-   Highlighted the core idea behind CoW Protocol, many token pairs traded in a single settlement transaction (aka, ring trades). Here is a nice  [example batch](https://twitter.com/fleupold_/status/1612884467202330632?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)  that shows why [@CoWSwap](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  emphasizes “multi-dimensional” batch auctions.
-   [@AnnaMSGeorge](https://twitter.com/AnnaMSGeorge)  participated on  [Token Terminal](https://twitter.com/tokenterminal/status/1615297281401528320?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)  and dove into the details behind the CoW Swap charts
-   CoW Swap joined the Safe & others campaign to highlight the relevance of “T[aking back ownership](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1615707162835324928?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)” to amplify the message of, not your keys, not your coins.
-   CoW DAO grants got covered by Otterspace dao:  [Learn how CoW DAO implemented Badges to improve transparency and decision-making in their Grants Program](https://twitter.com/otterspace_xyz/status/1616076229668671488?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)
-   CoW Swap is  [trusted](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1617965594099482624?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)  by the best of the best, If you know you know…
-   Released a  [new and very important feature for Smart Contract Wallets](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1618262359801491459?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw), you can now buy ETH directly from your multisig, with CoW Swap.
-   [Partnered with Chainpatrol](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1618997412005294082?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)  to help our CoW users report phishing websites and scams surrounding the CoW ecosystem!
-   CoW is getting ready for  [ETHDenver2023](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1620427682361098240?s=20&t=_ZMWthclegp6rPzNdxPhRw)!!!

## Product Updates

### Backend

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In January we:

-   Continued working on the Driver Colocation
-   Finished the Solver trampoline contract and sent it for review
-   Improved native price calculation for solvable orders
-   Removed deprecated orderbook routes
-   Worked on the roadmap planning and specification for 2023
-   [Fixed emergency “transfer” alerts in Tenderly](https://github.com/cowprotocol/tenderly-alerts/pull/4)
-   Investigated why native price cache wasn’t performing as expected

### Frontend

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front, as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In January we:

-   Addressed various improvements in the overall design for the Eth Flow
-   Worked on the roadmap planning and specification for 2023
-   Refactored tokens-list to get better performance in the UI
-   Worked on several on bug fixes and tech debt, improving CowSwap app performance, fixing styles, updating dependencies, etc
-   Worked on research for implementing CMS and update landing page, FAQ, and warning
-   Started working on revamped wallet connection functionality to improve UX and add new wallet integrations easily
-   Released CoW Swap version with the logo for the Chinese new Year 🐰
-   Released Explorer v2.17.0, and effectively Kilingl ~3000 lines of old code

## Open Job Positions

The CoW Protocol team is currently looking to hire:

### Marketing

[Copywriter Remote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4108904101)

### Engineering

[Integration Engineer Remote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4119188101)

### Product

[Name Your Role Remote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4095020101)

For more information on our latest job openings, visit:  [https://cow.fi/jobs](https://cow.fi/jobs)

That’s all for January — the February update will be here before you know it. 👋


CoW Protocol January 2023 Highlights

## TL;DR

-   For the month of December, CoW Protocol handled a volume of  **$645M,** with the total amount of surplus generated for that month was  **$2.2M**
-   In regard to exciting news, CoW Protocol had a hectic month with two MAJOR launches 🚀🐮 with Limit Orders, and Native ETH Flow!
-   The exciting news does not end with product updates. Additionally, in December, CoW Protocol added a new partnership by having Shapeshift integrate CoW Protocol
-   We made key hires across biz dev, engineering, and ops — and we’re  **_still_**  hiring even more core team members! Find our latest job openings at  [https://cow.fi/careers](https://cow.fi/careers)

## Protocol Stats

In December, CoW Protocol settled a total of **$645M**

![1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_protocol_stats_15f9d67dbe.webp)

This month, the top 3 batches to highlight are the following:

-   **Batch with the highest % of CoW trades (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x30f08193fe9cc8e169b7df76809fc9224c92ee62570b427eedb850632ac01243?tab=graph)**)**: The Batch Total volume was  **$198,528.73**, and it was created by three traders who were perfectly CoWed for 99.6% of their volume. One trader was selling  **USDC**  for  **DAI**  and another trader was selling  **DAI**  for  **USDC**

![1-1-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_1_protocol_stats_92a5932e72.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest Volume in it (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0x8e303ab4249cf1ca5149c21bb9f6cdea3472f2340f5fdd6629c04c4f8ac26242?tab=graph)**):**  The Batch Total volume was  **$9,773,653.18M**  and it was created by a single trader who was swapping USDC to WBTC

![1-2-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_2_protocol_stats_9de6f33da6.webp)

-   **Batch with the highest amount of surplus (**[**Transaction details**](https://explorer.cow.fi/tx/0xec478cde33bb05cf0e80c5dac0741797f7004601830318611d6d58a0e055ebd6/?tab=graph)**)**: The Batch Total volume was  **$2,376,900** and it was created by a single trader who was swapping APE to ETH. This trader achieved the largest surplus for the month of December, by getting  **$48,721.50 extra**  (2.04% surplus)

![1-3-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_3_protocol_stats_69a8e1c8d5.webp)

During the month of December, the top 10 traders have traded a total of  **$21M**

![1-4-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_4_protocol_stats_98bb548381.webp)

In the table below you can see the # of trades they have executed as well as the total volume for all their trades. Our most active trader made a whopping 668 (!!!) trades with CoW Protocol in December.

![1-5-protocol-stats.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_5_protocol_stats_a21ea24b71.webp)

## Solvers

In December, we saw two new external teams add a new solver to our staging and production environment. These solvers are named Quasilabs and Raven, and the CoW Protocol team is looking forward to seeing how they perform in the competition.

Looking at this table, we can see that on average, for the month of December Solvers were able to generate a total of  **$2.2M**, which all traders got to enjoy in their pockets.

![2-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_solvers_4e607592a8.webp)

In regards to the Solver Statistics, one can find all sorts of information in the following table like total value settled, number of batches solved, trades and surplus. The highest generated surplus by a solver was  **$691K**.

![2-1-solvers.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_1_solvers_166661cb3d.webp)

## Governance

It has been a relaxed month in terms of governance!

### Executed Proposals

This month was all about the holidays and our CoWs were busy wrapping up presents

![3-executed-proposals.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_executed_proposals_2345718c0f.webp)

### Draft Proposals

This month, there were two new proposals asking for feedback before they move into the next phase, a final CIP, and one even made it to voting before EOY.

-   [CIP-17: Making slippage symmetric  was moved for voting:](https://snapshot.org/#/cow.eth/proposal/0xf9c98a2710dc72c906bbeab9b8fe169c1ed2e9af6a67776cc29b8b4eb44d0fb2)  proposes that the protocol treats slippage incurred by solvers symmetrically; in the case of negative slippage, a solver would be penalized with an amount equal to the negative slippage incurred (as is the case now), while in the case of positive slippage, the protocol would reimburse the solver with an amount equal to the positive slippage generated
-   [CIP-Draft: Karpatkey DAO Proposal to Create a Core Treasury Team](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-draft-karpatkey-dao-proposal-to-create-a-core-treasury-team/1279)**:** proposal to have KarpatkeyDAO create, train, support, and audit a Core Treasury Team within CoW DAO that would work jointly with KarpatkeyDAO to develop CoW DAO’s treasury, allowing CowSwap to efficiently provide its own liquidity, fund its operations, development, and evolution while optimizing yield for idle funds

If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the CoW DAO, make sure to check the following  [template](https://forum.cow.fi/t/cip-0-template/28).

## CoWmunity News

-   CoW Protocol allows anyone to  [experiment with automated trades onchain](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1598337820279513088?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ)!! Eg, every time a contract accumulates at least x ETH, trigger a swap for ETH-USDC
-   CoW Protocol was excited to  [announce](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1600181401306832896?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ)  that [@ShapeShift](https://twitter.com/ShapeShift)  integrated with CoW, providing its users with the best prices and protection from MEV in Ethereum

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VFinnj5x40o?si=v0byxkQFaAdAFmQG" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

-   New significant  [updates](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1600884362618105856?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ)  were made to the CoW Swap UI!. It was decided to abandon the hard outlines in our core swap module, in favor of a sleeker new experience

![4-Cowmunity-news.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_Cowmunity_news_0609419d7f.webp)

![4-1-Cowmunity-news.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_1_Cowmunity_news_469e985453.webp)

-   Our friends at Gnosis Chain  [merged](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1601207483854630914?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ)! Congratulations to everyone involved :)
-   CoW said hello to the most  [UN-limited limit orders in DeFi](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1602298525588627458?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ). Limit orders from CoW Protocol are officially live!
-   CoW Protocol and Yearn Finance held one of a heck of a CoWmunity call, where Yearn shared the alpha that all vaults will go through CoW Protocol. If you missed it, listen to the  [recording](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1604605820225961984?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ)
-   CoW Protocol  [launched a new feature](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1604855739918348288?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ)  to allow CoW Swap traders to swap ETH natively without having to wrap it
-   Christmas(Easter)Egg was  [deployed](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1605693617959378944?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ). CoW Swap trades were able to enjoy a new Christmas UI designed specifically for the holidays!
-   2022 was an incredibly successful year for [@CoWSwap](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap), read the  [highlights](https://twitter.com/AnnaMSGeorge/status/1608821825081081858?s=20&t=3cLJvsantlS-H_eZU-UaEQ)  of what the protocol achieved throughout the year

## Product Updates

### Backend

The backend team has been working hard to improve the product infrastructure. In December we:

-   Added support for paying ETH to smart contract wallets. (Ie buying native ETH (not WETH) with Safe.)
-   Restarted solver + driver colocation for development from pre-limit order
-   Made small fixes and improved metrics for limit orders feature in preparation for the launch
-   Launched support for limit orders
-   Launched support for native ETH sell orders

### Frontend

The frontend team has been pushing hard for several improvements in the UI front, as well as the overall UI infrastructure. In December we:

-   Deployed a first version of Limit orders on  [barn.cow.fi](https://barn.swap.fi/)
-   Released the new CoW Swap  [design](https://swap-dev-git-release-125-cowswap.vercel.app/#/1/swap/WETH)
-   Launched support for limit orders with a completely new independ UI
-   Launched support for native ETH sell orders
-   Deployed a new version of the UI with a Christmas-Holiday theme!

## Open Job Positions

The CoW Protocol team is currently looking to hire:

### Marketing

[CopywriterRemote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4108904101)

### Engineering

[Data Engineering Team LeadRemote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4029514101)

[Mechanism Design Research EngineerRemote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4104759101)

[Senior Frontend Engineer (React.js/Web3)Remote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4095855101)

### Product

[Name Your RoleRemote — Lisbon — Berlin](https://boards.eu.greenhouse.io/cowswap/jobs/4095020101)

For more information on our latest job openings, visit:  [https://cow.fi/jobs](https://cow.fi/jobs)
 
**That’s all for December — the January update will be here before you know it. 👋**



CoW Protocol December 2022 Highlights

**NOTICE: This tutorial is outdated. The orders created with this tutorial **will not automatically appear in the api**, unlike mentioned in this article. We changed the event that we listen to when picking up orders from onchain transactions. We’ll release an updated version of this guide shortly.**

CoW Protocol’s native order types are limited to  _partially-fillable limit buy_  and  _limit sell_  orders. While this expression language covers most retail use cases, it misses some more-powerful advanced order types such as:

-   Good after time orders
-   Stop loss orders
-   Automated rebalancing portfolio orders

… to just name a few.

Adding new native order types to CoW Protocol would involve changing and redeploying the smart contract logic of the core protocol, and is therefore something we want to avoid for the time being.

While the above-mentioned order semantics could be communicated to the protocol/solvers without a smart contract change (e.g. by using additional fields in the  **app_data**), they couldn’t be enforced by the settlement logic and would therefore be subject to “off-chain consensus” (misbehavior would result in slashing by the DAO). This limits the amount of value that can be exchanged using these order types and puts more risk and trust on the solvers.

Smart orders are a clever way of achieving the above-mentioned semantics in a completely trust-less way without requiring a protocol change. Smart orders are based on  [ERC1271](https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-1271)’s contract signature scheme and allow smart contracts to decide  **at settlement time**  if an order that is placed in their name is satisfying their trade preference or not.

While regular orders are signed by their owner ahead of time and statically verified using  [**ecrecover**](https://soliditydeveloper.com/ecrecover), smart contract orders implement interactive signature verification by asking the author at settlement time if they are okay with the proposed trade. This verification allows the author to decide just-in-time if they are happy with the proposed trade, so that their approval can be conditioned on any on-chain information (e.g. block time, oracle prices, current balance, etc.).

**In essence, this allows developers to create smart autonomous agents that trade according to predefined rules and strategies, entirely on-chain.**

For example, an automated rebalancing portfolio order (a smart contract that aims to have equal $ value of all its tokens) could perform the following check:

    def checkSignature(order): 
	    buyBalanceAfterTrade = order.buyToken.balanceOf(self) + order.buyAmount
	    sellBalanceAfterTrade = order.sellToken.balanceOf(self) + order.sellAmount
		
		buyBalanceValue = oracle.value(order.buyToken, buyBalanceAfterTrade)
		sellBalanceValue = self.oracle.value(order.sellToken, sellBalanceAfterTrade)

		# Check we only trade portfolio tokens
		assert(order.sellToken in portfolio and order.buyToken in portfolio)
		# Check we don't over-balance
		assert(sellBalanceValue >= buyBalanceValue)
		return  True

Note that the concrete CoW Protocol order that is verified by the smart order contract conforms to the native CoW Protocol order type (i.e. it is a partially-fillable limit order).

However, by incorporating additional information into the interactive verification step (e.g. check the oracle price and only accept if ETH trades below X), the smart order can add additional conditions to the trade.

In fact, the “tricky” part is finding the correct native CoW Protocol order parameter for which the smart contract’s signature verification passes. For this, order placement can happen either:

-   By solvers that are aware of smart orders in the form of just-in-time liquidity (orders that are not part of the official auction set and therefore don’t contribute to the object value)
-   Permissionlessly via the public CoW Protocol API (since ERC1271 doesn’t require a private key signature, anyone can place orders on behalf of a smart contract)

The former option is better suited for very complex order types where the correct order parameters may depend on the outcome of the optimization problem itself. Solvers are incentivised to include these orders since they might allow them to generate more surplus for public user orders.

However, aside from reaching out to solvers directly, there isn’t a great way to inform solvers about this type of custom liquidity today. Therefore, for the purpose of this tutorial, we will focus on the simpler type of order placement: smart orders that are included via CoW Protocol’s public API and available to all solvers by default.

## How do you build a smart order?

We developed an experimental framework for creating smart orders, which proposes a standard interface for conditional smart orders. Orders that implement this interface can be automatically picked up by our supporting infrastructure to place orders without the need for individual operational maintenance:  [https://github.com/cowprotocol/conditional-smart-orders](https://github.com/cowprotocol/conditional-smart-orders)

The core idea is that the smart order contract not only verifies if it is happy to trade a given order. It also proposes (via a separate view method) a concrete CoW Protocol order that it would be willing to accept.

Upon instantiation, the smart order triggers an event. This event is indexed and adds this contract to a registry that an external  _watchtower_  is constantly monitoring by querying the implemented view method. Upon seeing an order candidate, the  _watchtower_  places this order into the CoW Protocol API.

From a developer perspective, all you need to do is implement a single method (**getTradableOrder**), which provides logic for what order parameters your contract would accept given the current state of the chain. The default implementation of the signature verification logic would be as simple as checking that the given order is indeed the one returned by  **getTradableOrder**  (less strict checks are of course also possible in case it’s hard to reliably reproduce the exact order params in between calls).

As soon as  **getTradableOrder**  returns an order, our  _watchtower_  will forward it to the CoW Protocol API, a solver will pick it up and, via the settlement logic, ask your contract to verify it as part of the settlement transaction.

We implemented the registry indexing and  _watchtower_  logic using two [Tenderly Web3 Actions](https://docs.tenderly.co/web3-actions/intro-to-web3-actions):

1.  One to index order creation events and add contracts to the watch registry
2.  Another one to periodically check contracts in the registry if they are willing to trade at the current block

There are other ways to run this off-chain infrastructure, but we found Tenderly’s framework the most convenient without the need for our own cloud setup.

The repository also comes with a few suggested order types (use at your own risk). We would highly appreciate contributions to this repository (you can also apply for  [Grants](https://grants.cow.fi/)  for specific order types).

## How do you deploy a smart order with your Safe?

While the conditional-order framework makes it quite easy to implement custom verification logic, there is usually some amount of custody overhead logic involved that needs to be implemented in such a contract (e.g. how do I get my funds back when I want to exit the strategy). This logic can be complex, expensive to audit and prone to errors. Thankfully, there is a proven smart account abstraction standard out there ([Safe](https://safe.global/)) that allows for a very flexible custody solution and that is already securing many billions of dollars in funds.

In this tutorial we will therefore use a Safe as our main “smart agent” contract and delegate to the conditional smart order logic only for signature verification.

Safe supports ERC1271 signatures out of the box, but also allows the owner to set a custom ERC1271 implementation (e.g. the one your smart order implements). Safes implement ERC1271 via a so-called “fallback handler”, a component that is called whenever the Safe is invoked on a method it doesn’t implement directly (e.g.  **isValidSignature**). Therefore, by setting our smart order implementation as the Safe’s custom fallback handler we replace the default ERC1271 implementation with our own and make our agent trade according to our custom rules. Note that a Safe with such a fallback handler will only be able to ERC1271 sign off on CoW Protocol orders (no other 3rd party dApp related signatures will be valid). Normal Safe transactions with owner signatures will continue to work as usual.

So let’s get started! Most smart orders in our conditional smart order framework come with a  [factory](https://soliditydeveloper.com/clonefactory)  that allows instantiating new instances directly from the Safe UI. The plan of attack is therefore to:

1.  Create a new Safe
2.  Approve the tokens in the CoW Swap app
3.  Create a new smart order instance (targeted at this Safe specifically)
4.  Set the smart order’s address from the previous step as the Safe’s fallback handler
5.  Fund it with the token(s) to be traded. Wait and see the Safe trade automatically

## Step-by-step guide

### 1. Create a new Safe

Head over to [https://app.safe.global/welcome](https://app.safe.global/welcome)  and follow the prompts for “Create new Safe”. Feel free to leave the owner structure simple, e.g. 1/1 signer.

![1-create-new-safe.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/1_create_new_safe_11947cfc37.webp)

### 2. Approve the tokens in the CoW Swap App

Inside your Safe, head over to Apps →  [CoW Swap](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/swap/WETH?utm_source=docs.cow.fi&utm_medium=web&utm_content=header-nav-link). At the top-left of the app, click on Account → Tokens and select the token that needs to be enabled.  [Swap](https://swap.cow.fi/#/1/swap/WETH?utm_source=docs.cow.fi&utm_medium=web&utm_content=header-nav-link)  for any other token and approve the token(s) you intend to trade with this contract.

In this example we are going to trade Wrapped XDAI:

![2-approve-tokens-in-cow-swap-app.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/2_approve_tokens_in_cow_swap_app_5364f18433.webp)

### 3. Create a new smart order instance

For this example we will deploy a TradeAboveThreshold order, which will automatically sell whenever the holds more than X of some token.

The factory for this contract on Gnosis Chain is located at [0xd20a99e3c6c103108d74e241908e00ef4db447fb](https://gnosisscan.io/address/0xd20a99e3c6c103108d74e241908e00ef4db447fb)  (if you can’t find the factory, you can deploy a new factory using foundry). To create a new instance, head to your Safe and create a  _New Transaction_  →  _Contract Interaction_  and load the contract ABI from the factory address.

We want to call create. Fill out the required parameters (with the target being your current Safe). In this example we are selling wxDAI for USDC whenever the contract holds $1 or more:

![3-create-a-new-smart-order-instance.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_create_a_new_smart_order_instance_a65941db91.webp)

Add transaction, create batch, and execute. After the transaction has been executed, open the transaction hash in a block explorer to find the address of the smart order instance that the factory has created (e.g. from looking at the internal txs).

![3-1-create-a-new-smart-order-instance.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/3_1_create_a_new_smart_order_instance_214ed8ac83.webp)

Here we created [https://gnosisscan.io/address/0xdf724fdbaef2419f1af895f494bd8969ec433d01](https://gnosisscan.io/address/0xdf724fdbaef2419f1af895f494bd8969ec433d01).

### 4. Set Custom Fallback handler

Head back to the Safe to create a  _New Transaction_  →  _Contract Interaction_, this time on the Safe itself (enter the address of the Safe).

When prompted choose  _Use Implementation ABI_.

![4-set-custom-fallback-handler.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_set_custom_fallback_handler_ae00dddb6b.webp)

The contract method selector we want to invoke is setFallbackHandler and the address should be the contract that has been created in the previous step:

![4-1-set-custom-fallback-handler.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/4_1_set_custom_fallback_handler_12a2a422f0.webp)

After adding and executing this transaction, you will have set the smart order as your Safe’s ERC1271 implementation.

### 5. Fund the Safe

Now, when the Safe receives 1 wxDAI, it should automatically place an order to sell it for USDC. Let’s try:

![5-fund-the-safe.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_fund_the_safe_998c182c18.webp)

Shortly after the transfer is mined, if we check [https://explorer.cow.fi/](https://explorer.cow.fi/)  for our Safe address, we should see a pending order trying to sell the wxDAI for USDC

![5-1-fund-the-safe.webp](https://celebrated-gift-f83e5c9419.media.strapiapp.com/5_1_fund_the_safe_141edf754d.webp)

And, after a short amount of time the order should be filled.

You can repeat this process as often as you want by just sending some more funds to this Safe. In order to withdraw the proceeds you can use the standard Safe functionality.

## Conclusion

In this tutorial we described and hinted at the power that smart orders can have in the context of smart contracts becoming autonomous trading agents, talked about how a simple “conditional order” type can be created with a few lines of solidity and walked through a step-by-step example of how we can deploy a smart order using Safe as a custody solution.

We hope this article inspired you to try out smart orders, or even build your own on top of CoW Protocol. Please get in touch with suggestions and ideas. We are looking forward to seeing what type of orders can be built with this paradigm.

Give ERC1271 orders a try today and let us know what you think by reaching out on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol)!



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[OUTDATED] This tutorial provides an introduction and a step-by-step description of how to create “smart orders” on CoW Protocol. The order that we create will facilitate custom trading logic and use Safe (formerly known as Gnosis Safe) as a backbone.

Tutorial: Creating Smart Orders with CoW Protocol

On July 21st, 2023, After a successful  [governance vote](https://app.nexusmutual.io/governance/view?proposalId=197)  from Nexus Mutual, CoW Swap processed a  [large trade for the insurance protocol](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap/status/1682450015237857280?s=20)  using the exchange’s signature intent-based trading design and MEV protection.

## Trade Details

Nexus Mutual swapped 14,390 ETH from its capital pool for an equivalent amount in rETH. They did so in two separate orders, the first order swapped  [250 ETH for 231.8 rETH](https://explorer.cow.fi/orders/0x29a83c4990db493b7fbf47ed821288340b4e9394524b1da151251d274d64e150cafea5c050e74a21c11af78c927e17853153097d64baae44?tab=overview)  and the second order swapped  [14,140 ETH for 13,117.148 rETH](https://explorer.cow.fi/orders/0x5e84d3e19341b77c362f37e706b153e460deb929d850bec7d9697a631fe4596fcafea5c050e74a21c11af78c927e17853153097d64bab666?tab=overview).

The overall order stats:

-   **USD value of the trade**: $27.3 million
-   **Minimum asset amount**: 13,362 rETH
-   **Maximum asset amount**: 13,400 rETH
-   **Amount the DAO received**: 13,409.04 rETH

## Why CoW Swap?

CoW Swap’s solver competition ensured that Nexus Mutual received the best possible execution price, even after announcing the trade details publicly in a governance proposal ahead of time.

CoW Swap provided several benefits for this trade:

1.  Protection from attack vectors caused by the delayed execution
2.  A limit order that guarantees some minimum amount for the assets
3.  Minting rETH through CoW Swap directly, instead of swapping for the liquidity on the market

For this swap, Nexus Mutual chose the Chainlink oracle as their price checker, guaranteeing that they would receive no less than the minimum specified in the governance proposal.

## CoW Swap: The leader in DAO trading

The largest DAO trades take place on CoW Swap, and the exchange is single-handedly responsible for more than 30% of all DAO trades. Check out  [CoW Swap for DAOs](/learn/cow-swap-for-daos)  to learn why DAOs such as  [Aave](/learn/aave-trade-breakdown),  [ENS](/learn/ens-trade-breakdown), and more trust CoW Swap with their large trades.

If you’re a DAO looking to make a large trade on CoW Swap, get in touch with us on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or through our  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol). You can check out CoW Swap for yourself  [here](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=NexusM-article).





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The smartest DAOs trust CoW Swap with their most-important trades


Nexus Mutual Trade Breakdown

On July 10th, 2023, After a successful  [governance vote](https://app.aave.com/governance/proposal/?proposalId=267)  from Aave DAO, CoW Swap processed a large LP position trade for Aave using the exchange’s signature intent-based trading design and Milkman contract.

Since then, Aave completed another trade totaling $1,948,000 with the goal of  [treasury diversification](https://app.aave.com/governance/proposal/282/).

## 1st Trade Details

Aave DAO acquired a direct position in the B-80BAL-20WETH Balancer pool by swapping their entire aBAL & aWETH balances. The trade occurred over two transactions ([Transaction 1](https://explorer.cow.fi/orders/0xb8534a7890442f38394224acea0b894e734175f9dbb17130d444ffcf3c096f438a2e3cef438049b4176186468d3a095d9e24973b64ac2280?tab=overview)) ([Transaction 2](https://explorer.cow.fi/orders/0x825de9ff6963afd5a6e1ab63712f60a749b8750a023e2e49089003d9fee9128b176f00c370f77bdc6c3079296ff89391ccb26bca64ac625e?tab=overview)).

-   **USD value of the trade**: $2,026,573.69
-   **Amount the DAO received**:  [157,169.86 B-80BAL-20WETH](https://governance.aave.com/t/analysis-of-b-80bal-20weth-acquisition/14005), with an average BPT price of $12.89
-   **Slippage tolerance:** 1.5%
-   **Actual slippage**: 1%
-   **Positive difference compared to direct deposit**: 1,918.72 units of B-80BAL-20WETH
-   **Positive difference due to slippage**: 556 units of B-80BAL-20WETH

## 2nd Trade Details

Aave DAO swapped DAI to USDC for treasury diversification purposes. This trade also occurred over two transactions ([Transaction 1](https://explorer.cow.fi/orders/0x03a16efc858c41dd476b8270ed7cdeac00718dd72902493e13c4ec4931a8543d944ea54ae648ceebbdc3e643e8a993a0c4e8dae564ca6b2a?tab=overview)) ([Transaction 2](https://explorer.cow.fi/orders/0xffa61ae864eeaa228ca19195887303d278bbd40f75a9c70493737eb3dbcd0280264fe3292fc2a05500d638093d88adbca487e36864ca6b31?tab=overview)).

-   **USD value of the trade**: $1,937,476
-   **Amount the DAO received**: 1,937,476 USDC
-   **Price Surplus**: $9,699.15

## Why CoW Swap?

CoW Swap’s solver competition ensured that Aave received the best possible execution price, even after announcing trade details publicly in a governance proposal ahead of time.

Compared to a direct deposit, CoW Swap provided several benefits for this trade:

1.  Protection from attack vectors caused by the delayed execution
2.  The minimum amount in a direct deposit proposal would have been uncertain, requiring a high slippage tolerance to successfully execute the trade, which in turn would expose the trade to MEV bots
3.  Use of the Milkman bot for protection against MEV, slippage, and re-entrancy risk

## Milkman

The CoW Grants Program-funded, and Yearn.fi-developed  [Milkman bot](https://github.com/cowprotocol/milkman-bot)  was critical to the Aave trade.

The Milkman bot ensures that trades execute for the real-time price or better by utilizing a price checker, such as a Uniswap v3 pool, Chainlink oracles, or a custom price checker. Instead of setting a slippage tolerance, DAOs can utilize Milkman to determine a maximum percentage deviation from the price checker, guaranteeing that their trade will finalize at a fair market price. Milkman also simplifies governance for trades as DAOs don’t have to define a fixed price re-vote if the market moves significantly.

For this swap, Aave DAO chose the Chainlink oracle as their price checker, guaranteeing that they would receive no less than the minimum specified in the governance proposal.

## CoW Swap: The leader in DAO trading

The largest DAO trades take place on CoW Swap, and the exchange is single-handedly responsible for more than 30% of all DAO trades. Check out  [CoW Swap for DAOs](/learn/cow-swap-for-daos)  to learn why DAOs such as  [ENS](/learn/ens-trade-breakdown),  [Nexus Mutual](learn/nexus-mutual-trade-breakdown), and more trust CoW Swap with their large trades.

If you’re a DAO looking to make a large trade on CoW Swap, get in touch with us on  [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CoWSwap)  or through our  [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/cowprotocol). You can check out CoW Swap for yourself  [here](https://swap.cow.fi/#/swap?utm_source=medium&utm_campaign=aave-trade).

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Aave Trade Breakdown

CoW DAO develops the most user-protective products in Ethereum - so you can do more with less worry.

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