SushiSwap

SushiSwap is one of those DeFi protocols that refuses to stay in any single lane. Born from one of crypto's most controversial moments - a fork of Uniswap in August 2020 - it has since grown into a sprawling multi-chain DEX ecosystem with trading, yield farming, lending, and an ambitious product roadmap for 2026. We have been testing SushiSwap across multiple chains, and this review covers what the platform does well, where it struggles, and whether it still deserves your attention in a market that has shifted dramatically since its early days.

What is SushiSwap?

SushiSwap launched in August 2020 as a fork of Uniswap V2, created by the pseudonymous developer known as Chef Nomi. The project became immediately famous - and infamous - for pioneering the so-called "vampire attack," a strategy where SushiSwap incentivized Uniswap liquidity providers to migrate their funds by offering SUSHI token rewards. In its first week, the protocol attracted over $1 billion in liquidity.

The early history was turbulent. Chef Nomi controversially sold $13 million worth of SUSHI from the developer fund, causing the token price to crash. He later returned the funds and handed control to Sam Bankman-Fried (then CEO of FTX), who facilitated the migration of liquidity from Uniswap to SushiSwap. The protocol eventually transitioned to community governance, and over the following years operated under different leadership including Head Chef Jared Grey, who stepped into an advisory role in late 2025 when Synthesis invested $3.3 million and a new council-based structure took over management through Sushi Labs.

At its core, SushiSwap operates as an automated market maker (AMM) where users trade against liquidity pools rather than traditional order books. Liquidity providers deposit token pairs into pools and earn a portion of the 0.30% swap fee charged on each trade. The protocol pioneered the concept of sharing protocol revenue directly with token holders through xSUSHI staking, a model that influenced many subsequent DeFi projects.

In 2026, SushiSwap is deployed on 12+ blockchains including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Fantom, Optimism, Base, Gnosis, Moonriver, Celo, and Harmony, with expansion to over 40 chains through its aggregation and swap routing stack. The protocol also expanded to Solana in 2025, powered by Jupiter Exchange's Ultra API. This multi-chain coverage is one of SushiSwap's strongest differentiators.

The SUSHI governance token has a total supply of 250,000,000 with approximately 235,000,000 in circulation. In a controversial governance vote in 2025, the annual emission rate was increased from 1.5% to up to 5% of total supply, adding roughly 14.25 million SUSHI per year to fund liquidity mining and new listings. The vote drew criticism because a single wallet cast approximately 99.9% of the voting power, raising questions about governance centralization.

Features and Functionality

Trading Interface

The SushiSwap interface at sushi.com has evolved considerably since its early days. The current version presents a clean swap panel that will feel familiar to anyone who has used Uniswap or similar AMMs. You select your input and output tokens, enter an amount, and the interface displays the expected output along with price impact, minimum received, and the liquidity source being used.

What sets SushiSwap apart from a pure AMM interface is the integrated aggregation layer. When you execute a swap on sushi.com, the Route Processor (now in version 7) can route your trade not just through SushiSwap's own pools but through other DEXes on the same chain to find the best available rate. In our testing, this aggregation feature frequently delivered quotes within 0.1% of dedicated aggregators like 1inch, which is impressive for a protocol that most people think of as a simple AMM.

The interface also includes limit orders, which are available on supported chains and allow you to set a target price for your swap. Unlike centralized exchange limit orders that sit on an order book, SushiSwap's limit orders use off-chain signatures that are filled when market conditions match your specified price.

Supported Markets

With approximately 1,500 tradable pairs across its direct AMM pools, SushiSwap offers broad token coverage, though it falls short of the 10,000+ pairs accessible through a pure aggregator like 1inch. The strength here is that SushiSwap maintains its own liquidity pools on every chain it supports, giving it direct control over execution quality for its most popular pairs.

The multi-chain presence is genuinely extensive. During our testing, we found active and usable deployments on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and several other chains. Pool depth varies significantly by chain, though. On Ethereum and Arbitrum, the major pools are deep enough for five-figure swaps with minimal slippage. On smaller chains like Moonriver or Harmony, liquidity is thinner and price impact can be noticeable on trades above a few thousand dollars.

The 2025 Solana expansion adds an important new ecosystem. Through integration with Jupiter's Ultra API, SushiSwap users can now swap Solana-native tokens directly from the Sushi interface, though this functionality is powered by Jupiter's routing rather than SushiSwap's own AMM pools.

Liquidity and Pool Depth

SushiSwap currently holds approximately $350 million in total value locked across all chains, with daily trading volume around $80 million. To put these numbers in context, Uniswap's TVL is roughly $5 billion - about 14 times larger. This gap is the single biggest challenge SushiSwap faces. Lower liquidity means higher slippage on large trades, especially for less popular token pairs.

That said, $350 million in TVL is still substantial, and for standard trading sizes (under $10,000), we found execution quality to be perfectly acceptable on major pairs. The aggregation layer helps significantly here: when SushiSwap's own pools cannot fill an order efficiently, the Route Processor routes through external liquidity sources to minimize price impact.

SushiSwap's aggregator component hit $20 billion in cumulative volume by November 2025, demonstrating that the routing technology is actively used. The Katana deployment achieved $100 million in TVL and $300 million in volume, showing the team's ability to grow liquidity on newer chains.

The governance vote to increase SUSHI emissions to 5% annually is specifically aimed at addressing the liquidity challenge. The additional 14.25 million SUSHI per year funds liquidity mining programs that incentivize deeper pools. Whether this inflationary approach is sustainable long-term is an open question that the community continues to debate.

Advanced Features

Kashi Lending is one of SushiSwap's most distinctive features. Built on top of the BentoBox vault system, Kashi creates isolated lending markets where each token pair operates independently. If one market experiences bad debt or an oracle failure, the damage is contained to that specific market rather than cascading across the entire lending platform. This is a meaningful architectural advantage over protocols like Aave or Compound where all markets share risk.

The BentoBox vault itself is worth understanding. It serves as a central repository for deposited assets that can be used across multiple SushiSwap applications simultaneously. Tokens sitting in BentoBox can be deployed to Kashi lending markets while still being counted as available liquidity. This capital efficiency is clever engineering, though it does add complexity.

xSUSHI staking through the SushiBar allows SUSHI holders to stake tokens and receive xSUSHI in return. The xSUSHI token automatically accrues value from 0.05% of every swap fee across the protocol. Over time, the xSUSHI-to-SUSHI ratio increases, meaning each xSUSHI becomes redeemable for progressively more SUSHI. This is a passive income mechanism that requires no active management.

Cross-chain swaps are available through SushiSwap's integration with bridging protocols, allowing users to move assets between supported chains. The experience is not as polished as dedicated bridge products, but having the functionality integrated directly into the DEX interface is convenient.

The 2025 product roadmap introduced several ambitious new features. Blade is a new AMM specifically designed to combat MEV for blue-chip assets, allowing liquidity providers to earn yield without exposure to impermanent loss. Kubo is a perpetuals primitive focused on delta-neutral strategies. Susa is an on-chain order book perpetual DEX being built on the N1 network. These products are at various stages of development in 2026.

Fees and Pricing

Fee Structure

SushiSwap uses a simple fee structure. Every swap incurs a 0.30% fee, which is split between liquidity providers (0.25%) and xSUSHI stakers (0.05%). This is identical to the original Uniswap V2 fee structure, which is not surprising given that SushiSwap forked that codebase.

The 0.25% LP fee is competitive but not the lowest available. Uniswap V3 introduced variable fee tiers (0.01%, 0.05%, 0.30%, and 1.00%), and many major pairs on Uniswap trade through the 0.05% tier, making Uniswap significantly cheaper for those specific pairs. Curve offers even lower fees for stablecoin and like-asset swaps, typically around 0.04%.

The 0.05% protocol fee that flows to xSUSHI stakers is a meaningful differentiator. Unlike Uniswap, which until recently did not share any protocol revenue with UNI token holders, SushiSwap has distributed swap fee revenue to stakers since its launch. This creates a direct financial incentive to hold and stake SUSHI.

Gas costs vary by network. On Ethereum mainnet, expect to pay $3-15 for a standard swap, though complex multi-hop routes can push costs higher. On L2 chains like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon, gas costs drop to under $0.50, making SushiSwap much more accessible for smaller traders.

How SushiSwap Fees Compare

For major pairs where Uniswap V3 offers 0.05% fee pools, SushiSwap's flat 0.30% fee is six times more expensive on the swap fee alone. However, when factoring in the Route Processor's aggregation capability, SushiSwap may actually route your trade through those cheaper Uniswap pools anyway, delivering a competitive net price even though SushiSwap's own pool fees are higher.

Real-World Cost Examples

We ran several test trades to measure actual costs in practice:

Example 1: $1,000 ETH to USDC on Ethereum Mainnet Swap fee: approximately $3 (0.30%). Gas cost: approximately $7. Total cost: roughly $10, or about 1% of trade value. On Uniswap V3 (0.05% pool), the total with gas would be about $7.50.

Example 2: $1,000 ETH to USDC on Arbitrum Swap fee: approximately $3 (0.30%). Gas cost: approximately $0.15. Total cost: roughly $3.15, or about 0.3%. The low gas makes the fee structure much more tolerable on L2 chains.

Example 3: $5,000 WBTC to ETH on Ethereum Mainnet Swap fee: approximately $15 (0.30%). Gas cost: approximately $9 (routed through Route Processor). Total cost: roughly $24, or about 0.5%. Price impact was minimal due to deep liquidity in this pair.

Example 4: $500 swap of a mid-cap token on Polygon Swap fee: approximately $1.50 (0.30%). Gas cost: approximately $0.03. Total cost: roughly $1.53, or about 0.3%. SushiSwap feels very affordable on Polygon for these smaller trades.

Security and Safety

Smart Contract Audits

SushiSwap has been audited by three reputable security firms:

1. PeckShield audited the Core AMM contracts in September 2020, covering the foundational swap and liquidity pool logic.
2. Quantstamp audited Kashi lending in March 2021, examining the isolated market and BentoBox vault architecture.
3. Trail of Bits audited the Trident AMM in January 2022, reviewing the next-generation pool framework.

These are credible auditing firms, and the audit coverage spans the protocol's core components. However, the most recent audit is from January 2022, and SushiSwap has shipped significant new code since then, including Route Processor upgrades through version 7, cross-chain integrations, and new product primitives. We would strongly prefer to see more recent audit coverage, particularly for the Route Processor contracts that handle swap routing logic.

Security Track Record

This is an area where SushiSwap's history is mixed. In April 2023, the RouterProcessor2 smart contract was exploited through an approval-related vulnerability, resulting in approximately $3.3 million in stolen funds. The vulnerability existed in a routing contract that had been launched just four days before the attack. The attacker exploited a reentrancy bug in the swap3callback function combined with flash loans from Aave and dYdX.

The fallout was significant. The exploit affected users across 14 chains including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, and others. White-hat hackers managed to recover approximately 885 ETH ($1.76 million at the time), and another 795 ETH was secured in a rewards vault. The largest single victim was a user known as 0xSifu who lost 1,800 ETH.

To SushiSwap's credit, the team responded quickly, urging users to revoke approvals across all chains. The incident did expose a concerning pattern: the exploit targeted a newly deployed contract that may not have received adequate testing before launch. For a protocol managing hundreds of millions in user funds, this was a serious lapse.

Since the April 2023 incident, there have been no reported major exploits on SushiSwap through early 2026. The team has implemented more rigorous deployment procedures for new contracts.

User Protection Features

SushiSwap employs a 24-hour timelock delay on contract upgrades, which is notably shorter than the 7-day timelock used by protocols like 1inch. A multisig wallet controls administrative functions, requiring multiple signers to approve changes.

The $250,000 bug bounty program, hosted on Immunefi, incentivizes responsible vulnerability disclosure. At $250K, this is on the lower end compared to competitors - 1inch offers $500K, Balancer offers $1 million, and Uniswap's program reaches $15.5 million. Given the protocol's history of a significant exploit, a larger bug bounty would provide greater confidence.

All smart contract code is open source and available on GitHub, allowing independent review. The transition to the Sushi Labs council structure in late 2025 introduces new governance dynamics that the community is still evaluating.

Getting Started with SushiSwap

Connecting Your Wallet

Visit sushi.com and click "Connect Wallet" in the top right corner. SushiSwap supports all major wallet options including MetaMask, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet-wallet), and hardware wallets through WalletConnect integration. Select your wallet, approve the connection request, and you are ready to trade.

Before your first swap, check the chain selector to confirm you are on the correct network. If you want to trade on Arbitrum, make sure both your wallet and the SushiSwap interface are set to Arbitrum. The fiat on-ramp option is also available for users who want to purchase crypto directly.

Making Your First Swap

The swap interface is intuitive. Select your input token in the "You pay" field and your output token in the "You receive" field. Enter the amount you want to swap. SushiSwap will display the expected output, price impact, minimum received (accounting for slippage), and the routing path.

Review the details, then click "Swap." Your wallet will prompt you to confirm the transaction. If this is your first time swapping a particular token, you will first need to approve SushiSwap's smart contract to access that token - this is a standard ERC-20 approval step. Once approved, confirm the swap transaction, wait for on-chain confirmation, and your output tokens will arrive in your wallet.

We recommend starting with a small trade to familiarize yourself with the interface. On L2 chains like Arbitrum or Polygon, the gas costs are negligible, so there is minimal cost to experimenting.

Providing Liquidity

To become a liquidity provider, navigate to the "Pool" section at sushi.com. Click "Add Liquidity" and select the token pair you want to provide. You will need equal dollar value of both tokens.

Deposit your tokens into the pool, and you will receive SLP (SushiSwap Liquidity Provider) tokens representing your share. These tokens earn the 0.25% LP fee from every swap in that pool, proportional to your share of the total pool.

To boost your returns, you can stake your SLP tokens in the Onsen yield farming program, which distributes additional SUSHI rewards on top of the swap fee income. The combined APY varies by pool and market conditions, but popular pairs on incentivized chains can offer meaningful yields.

Be aware of impermanent loss, which occurs when the price ratio between your deposited tokens changes. This is a fundamental risk of providing liquidity to any AMM, and SushiSwap's standard pools carry the same impermanent loss risk as Uniswap V2-style pools. The upcoming Blade AMM product specifically aims to address this issue for blue-chip assets.

User Experience

Desktop Platform

The sushi.com web application has improved significantly over the past two years. The current design is clean and responsive, with quick page loads and smooth transitions between sections. The swap interface is comparable to Uniswap in simplicity, which is the benchmark for DEX usability.

We particularly liked the portfolio view, which shows your positions across different chains in one dashboard. The pool explorer makes it easy to find active pools, sort by APY, and identify opportunities. Token search is responsive, showing token logos, contract addresses, and your wallet balances as you type.

The settings panel allows you to adjust slippage tolerance, transaction deadline, and gas preferences. One minor complaint: the cross-chain swap interface, while functional, could use clearer step-by-step guidance for users unfamiliar with bridging. The Route Processor indicators are also less transparent than 1inch's route visualization.

Mobile Experience

SushiSwap does not have a dedicated mobile app, but the web interface is fully responsive and works well in mobile browsers. We tested the platform through MetaMask Mobile's built-in browser and found the experience to be smooth, with the swap interface adapting well to smaller screens.

The lack of a standalone app is a disadvantage compared to competitors like 1inch, which offers a dedicated wallet and trading app. However, the mobile web experience is functional enough for regular use, and it means you can use whichever wallet app you prefer rather than being locked into a specific wallet.

The fiat on-ramp is accessible from mobile, which is convenient for users who want to buy crypto and swap in a single session.

Customer Support

SushiSwap's support channels are typical of decentralized protocols - community-driven rather than formally staffed.

1. Discord: The SushiSwap Discord is active, with community members and occasionally team members answering questions. We posted a question about Route Processor routing and received a helpful response within a few hours.
2. Documentation: The docs at docs.sushi.com cover basic usage, pool mechanics, and developer integration. The documentation is adequate but could be more comprehensive, particularly regarding newer features.
3. Twitter/X: The @SushiSwap account posts updates and engages with user questions.

The leadership transition to Sushi Labs has introduced some uncertainty about long-term support commitment. The new council structure is still establishing its communication patterns with the community. For a protocol managing $350 million in TVL, more structured support would be welcome.

SushiSwap vs Competitors

SushiSwap vs Uniswap: This is the defining comparison for SushiSwap, given its origins. In 2026, Uniswap has pulled significantly ahead in TVL, volume, and market dominance. Uniswap V3's concentrated liquidity and variable fee tiers offer better capital efficiency and lower fees on popular pairs. SushiSwap's advantages are its fee sharing with SUSHI holders, the Kashi lending platform, and broader multi-chain deployment. For traders, Uniswap generally offers better execution on major pairs, but SushiSwap's aggregation layer can close the gap.

SushiSwap vs PancakeSwap: PancakeSwap dominates on BNB Chain with significantly higher TVL and volume. On EVM chains beyond BSC, SushiSwap has a broader presence. Both protocols share revenue with token holders and offer farming programs. PancakeSwap has a more polished mobile experience with a dedicated app.

SushiSwap vs 1inch: These fill different roles. 1inch is a pure aggregator that routes through SushiSwap's pools alongside hundreds of other sources. SushiSwap's own aggregation layer brings it closer to 1inch's value proposition, but 1inch's Pathfinder algorithm and Fusion mode gasless swaps give it a clear edge for swap execution. SushiSwap offers more DeFi features including lending and direct liquidity provision.

Who Should Use SushiSwap?

SushiSwap works best for several specific user profiles:

Multi-chain DeFi users who want a single platform that works across 12+ blockchains with a consistent interface will appreciate SushiSwap's broad deployment. If you trade across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Avalanche, having SushiSwap available on all of them is convenient.

Yield farmers looking for liquidity mining rewards will find opportunities through the Onsen program and SUSHI farming incentives. The increased emission rate means more rewards are available, though this comes with the dilution trade-off.

SUSHI token holders who believe in the protocol's long-term prospects can stake in the SushiBar to earn passive income from the 0.05% fee share. The xSUSHI mechanism is simple and effective.

Users interested in isolated lending through Kashi benefit from the unique risk-contained architecture that does not exist on most other DEXes.

SushiSwap is not ideal for:

1. Traders seeking the absolute lowest fees. Uniswap V3's 0.05% pools and Curve's stablecoin pools are cheaper for many common trades.
2. Users who prioritize maximum liquidity depth. Uniswap's pool depth far exceeds SushiSwap's on most chains.
3. Risk-averse users concerned about governance stability. The leadership changes and controversial emission votes may give pause.
4. Users looking for the best possible swap routing. A dedicated aggregator like 1inch will typically find better rates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is xSUSHI and how do I earn with it?

xSUSHI is the staked version of the SUSHI token. When you deposit SUSHI into the SushiBar on sushi.com, you receive xSUSHI tokens that automatically accumulate value from 0.05% of all swap fees across the protocol. The xSUSHI-to-SUSHI ratio increases over time, so when you unstake, you receive more SUSHI than you deposited. There is no lock-up period - you can unstake at any time.

Is SushiSwap safe to use in 2026?

SushiSwap has been audited by PeckShield, Quantstamp, and Trail of Bits. However, it experienced a $3.3 million exploit in April 2023 due to a vulnerability in the RouterProcessor2 contract. Since that incident, there have been no major exploits. The protocol uses a multisig and 24-hour timelock for governance. A $250,000 bug bounty is active on Immunefi. As always, only trade with funds you can afford to lose and verify you are on the official site at sushi.com.

How is SushiSwap different from Uniswap?

Key differences include: SushiSwap shares swap fees with SUSHI stakers (0.05% to xSUSHI holders), while Uniswap has only recently begun limited fee sharing. SushiSwap offers integrated lending through Kashi, which Uniswap lacks. SushiSwap is deployed on more chains. However, Uniswap has significantly more liquidity, volume, and lower fees on major pairs through its variable fee tier system.

What happened with SushiSwap's leadership change?

In December 2025, former Head Chef Jared Grey transitioned to an advisory role as Synthesis invested $3.3 million for operational control. SushiSwap is now managed by Sushi Labs under a council structure similar to Synthetix. The transition is ongoing, and the community is still evaluating the new leadership's direction.

How much does it cost to trade on SushiSwap?

SushiSwap charges a flat 0.30% swap fee, split between liquidity providers (0.25%) and xSUSHI stakers (0.05%). Gas fees vary by network: $3-15 on Ethereum mainnet, under $0.50 on Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, and other L2 chains. Total trading cost on L2 networks is approximately 0.3% of your trade value.

What are Blade, Kubo, and Susa?

These are new products in SushiSwap's 2025-2026 roadmap. Blade is an AMM designed to eliminate impermanent loss for blue-chip assets. Kubo is a perpetuals primitive for delta-neutral strategies. Susa is an on-chain order book perpetual DEX being built on the N1 network. These products are at various stages of development.

Does SushiSwap have a mobile app?

SushiSwap does not have a dedicated mobile application. However, the sushi.com web interface is fully responsive and works well in mobile browsers like MetaMask Mobile's built-in browser. You can perform swaps, manage liquidity positions, and stake SUSHI from your mobile device through the web interface.

What chains does SushiSwap support?

SushiSwap's AMM pools are deployed on 12+ chains including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Fantom, Optimism, Base, Gnosis, Moonriver, Celo, and Harmony. Through its aggregation and routing stack, SushiSwap reaches 40+ networks. Solana support was added in 2025 through integration with Jupiter Exchange.

Final Verdict

SushiSwap earns its 8.2 out of 10 overall rating. It is a solid multi-chain DEX with genuine differentiators - xSUSHI fee sharing, Kashi isolated lending, and one of the broadest chain deployments in DeFi. The integrated aggregation layer through Route Processor 7 brings it closer to dedicated aggregators, and the ambitious product roadmap with Blade, Kubo, and Susa shows a team that is not content to rest.

But we have to be honest about the challenges. The TVL gap with Uniswap is significant and growing. The 2023 exploit, while addressed, dented confidence. The governance controversy around emission rate increases and concentrated voting power raises legitimate concerns. And the leadership transition to Sushi Labs introduces uncertainty about the protocol's strategic direction.

For multi-chain DeFi users who value the combination of swapping, yield farming, and lending in one protocol, SushiSwap remains a strong choice. For traders who care primarily about getting the best possible swap price, a dedicated aggregator like 1inch or direct trading on Uniswap will usually serve you better. SushiSwap occupies a meaningful niche as a community-driven DeFi platform with broad reach, but it is no longer the primary challenger to Uniswap's throne.