Your first swap, step by step

A swap is trading one token for another directly from your wallet, with no account and no intermediary.

It's the basic operation of DeFi. This page walks through the whole thing, including the screen where people lose money.

Before you start

You need: a wallet, the token you're going to trade, and some gas on that network. And you're going to do your first one with $5, not $500.

The 7 steps

1. Go to the DEX's official site   ← the most dangerous step
2. Connect your wallet
3. Choose the two tokens
4. Enter the amount
5. Review what you'll receive
6. Approve (only the first time with that token)
7. Swap

1. Go to the official site

This is where more money is lost than at any other step

Don't search for the DEX on Google. Paid ads for fake sites are an entire business.

Where	Real URL
Uniswap	app.uniswap.org
Jupiter (Solana)	jup.ag

Type the URL by hand once, save it as a bookmark, and from then on only enter through that bookmark.

2. Connect your wallet

Click Connect Wallet, pick yours, approve.

Connecting doesn't move money

Connecting your wallet only shares your public address with the page, so it can show you your balances. It doesn't authorize anything. The dangerous signature comes later.

3 and 4. Choose tokens and amount

The token you're giving goes on top, the one you receive goes below.

Verify the token, not the name

Anyone can create a token called "USDC." There's no gatekeeper on a DEX. If the token doesn't show up in the official list and you had to paste a contract address, verify that address against the project's site or CoinGecko before continuing.

See fake tokens.

5. Review what you'll receive

Before you sign anything, the screen tells you three things. Look at them:

What it says	What it means
Rate / Price	How much you get per unit
Slippage / Price impact	How much your own trade will move the price
Network fee	The gas you'll pay

If the "price impact" is high, stop

An impact of more than 1-2% on a well-known token means the pool has thin liquidity. On small tokens it can be 20% or more — and you'd be giving away that difference.

A very high impact is also a sign the token could be a trap.

6. Approve: the signature that matters

The first time you use a token on a DEX, it's going to ask for Approve before the swap. You're giving the contract permission to move that token out of your wallet.

   ⚠️   "Approve USDC for this contract"

        Amount:  UNLIMITED    ← change this
        
        [Approve]   [Reject]

Never approve unlimited without thinking

Many apps request unlimited permission for convenience: the contract could move all your USDC, today or two years from now.

If your wallet allows it, change the amount to what you're actually going to use. And review your old permissions from time to time at revoke.cash.

This is the difference between "Sign" and "Approve," explained in Before you sign.

Approve is a transaction: it costs gas and you have to wait for it to confirm.

7. Swap

Now the real thing. Confirm in your wallet, pay the gas, and in seconds the tokens show up.

Your wallet gives you a hash: you can paste it into that network's explorer and see the whole operation, forever.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What happened
"Insufficient funds for gas"	You're missing that network's native coin. See Gas
The transaction fails and you're still charged	Normal: the network did the work. Usually insufficient slippage
You received less than it said	Slippage. The price moved between when you signed and when it executed
You bought it and now can't sell	Could be a honeypot. See fraudulent tokens

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If you came looking for something else:What to check before signing · Binance vs Uniswap · Create your wallet