Basic functionality

Let’s start by understanding the platforms, their main functions and usage scenarios.

Storm Trade

DEX welcomes its users with a trading interface that presents charts, pairs, and the main functional block — the Futures menu.

You’re not wrong — the platform is designed for leveraged coin trading. For example, for TON/USDT and SOL/USDT there is a leverage of 75, and for BTC/USDT and ETH/USDT even more — 125. That’s right, although the exchange is built on the TON blockchain, coins from other blockchains are also available on the exchange, since it is not the coins themselves that are traded, but Futures contracts.

The classic modes for CEX Futures are available — long, short at market price or by limit price.

By the way, not only regular cryptocurrency pairs are available on StormTrade, but also real USDT-backed assets. For example: oil and gold.

STON.fi

STON.fi is a classic DEX, and the main function of a classic DEX is to provide swap to the user. The exchange welcomes its users with a cute swap window:

I myself am a regular user of this DEX and can confidently say that everything works perfectly. The exchange has its own special features, for example, for stablecoins there are stableswaps that provide a more stable exchange rate for coins whose price relative to each other is small, and on the main page of swaps you can find Trust Score, which shows how much the coin is trusted, based on decentralized metrics.

Obviously, this indicator is not a call to action, it just tells you which coins are performing well over time.

By the way, this is not the only swap option on STON.fi — now, in open beta test is the Omniston protocol, which selects the best rate among all resolvers and DEXes, generates Request-For-Quote, as if negotiating with liquidity sources about the rate and gives the user the final price of exchange, providing absolutely zero slippage and the best rate among all DEXes.

Omniston protocol beta — https://omniston.ston.fi/

Liquidity provision

But, DEXes have a downside — they require coins to make them work. To ensure their liquidity, platforms pay a portion of exchange commissions to their liquidity providers. And there’s really something to compare. Even though the projects are different, both need liquidity. Platforms offer relatively different systems, and therefore different APRs. Let’s compare them.

STON.fi

On STON.fi, liquidity is delivered on the Pools tab in the price equivalent of both coins of the pair. Liquidity can be supplied by any coins on the $TON blockchain.

Providing liquidity in two coins at once from one side improves stability and reduces risks, as you get a share in the pool, and, accordingly, when the value of one of the coins drops, it becomes more in your share, and the total amount remains unchanged. Except for impermanent losses. Due to the peculiarities of the liquidity pools, when the value of the coins of the pair change, there are losses, but they are not great: if the coin drops by 50%, your losses will be a little more than 5%, more details can be read in the guide.

In addition to the share of commissions on some pairs, there are programs in which additional rewards can be received for LP-tokens staking.

LP-tokens — tokens that confirm ownership of a share in the liquidity pool. They are issued automatically after liquidity delivery.

StormTrade

On StormTrade the liquidity supply is in the Earn tab and is only available on some coins.

Works a little differently than on STON.fi. Your coin will be used by StormTrade to provide liquidity in different pairs, and since you provideonly one coin — you will have no protection against changes in its price, and the limited selection will not allow you to supply liquidity in low-popular coins.

Delivery is available in NOT, TON and USDT.

APR comparison

Let’s start by comparing similar ones:

• NOT on StormTrade — 15%, NOT/TON pair on STON.fi — 42%
• TON on StormTrade — 15%, TON/USDT pair on STON.fi — 26%
• USDT on StormTrade — 20%, stableswap pool AquaUSDT/USDT on STON.fi — 24%

But, don’t forget that all $TON blockchain coins are available for liquidity delivery on STON.fi, and thanks to this you can find much more profitable options, for example:

• MAJOR/TON, APR — 77%
• STON/USDT, APR — 48%
• AIC/USDT, APR — 237%

By the way, on STON.fi there is also a dynamic STORM/TON pairing, the rewards of which depend on the profitability of StormTrade.

Staking

Also, both exchanges offer steaking of their native coins: STORM and STON. At StormTrade staking is classic, even though it gives rating points on the site. It has an APR of 40%.

On STON.fi things are a bit more complicated: for steaking the native token of the platform you get GEMSTON, which can be used in the Gemsquads voting to determine the pair that will participate in further farming programs. On top of that you get ARKENSTON, which are linked to your wallet and give you voting power in DAO STON.fi.