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Onchain trading on NEAR can mean two different things: swapping tokens directly through a NEAR-based automated market maker (AMM), such as Ref Finance, or using NEAR Intents, where you specify the outcome you want and independent solvers determine how to fulfill it. The difference matters: an AMM swap uses liquidity in token pools, while an intent can involve a solver’s own liquidity, other chains, and additional settlement steps.

The two ways to trade on NEAR

Trading method What you specify How execution is determined What to check
NEAR-native AMM swap The tokens and amount to swap, along with the transaction conditions shown by the interface. A smart-contract pool or router exchanges tokens using available pool liquidity. A route may pass through multiple pools in one transaction. Route liquidity, price impact, slippage tolerance, fees, and the exact output shown before signing.
NEAR Intents swap The desired result, such as exchanging one asset for another, plus the account and applicable deadline or execution conditions. Independent solvers assess the request, quote possible routes, and attempt to fulfill the selected quote. The route may use liquidity and infrastructure beyond NEAR. Net output, quote validity, solver conditions, destination network and address, and whether the route depends on bridging or another chain.

Neither method is the same as placing a conventional order on an order book with resting bids and asks. An AMM trade is priced against pool liquidity; an intent delegates route selection to a solver after you state the outcome you want.

How a NEAR-native AMM swap works

Pool pricing and routing

An AMM contract holds token liquidity in pools. When you trade, the contract calculates an exchange using the relevant pool or pools. A router can connect multiple pools and execute a multi-pool route in one transaction, so the token you receive does not necessarily come from a single direct pair.

The quoted output depends on the route, its available liquidity, trade size, pool pricing, and applicable fees. A larger trade relative to pool liquidity can have greater price impact: the execution price may be worse than the displayed starting price. Slippage is the change between the quoted and executed result; the tolerance you approve determines how much movement the transaction permits before it fails.

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What Ref Finance documentation establishes

Ref Finance documentation describes permissionless pools for NEAR fungible tokens and multi-pool routing. Its repository labels the project as in a testing phase, so that documentation should not be treated as confirmation that every described feature is currently available. The same repository describes its limit-order-book feature as “Coming v3”; do not assume that feature is live. Check the current Ref Finance application for available assets and functions before trading.

The reviewed material does not establish a universal current Ref Finance trading fee or an average trade outcome. Fees and execution depend on the route and the interface’s current terms; inspect the transaction details rather than assuming a fixed cost.

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How a NEAR Intents swap works

You state the outcome, not every execution step

NEAR Intents defines an intent as a declarative instruction describing the desired outcome without prescribing the execution method. For a swap, that means specifying what you want to give and receive rather than choosing every pool, liquidity source, or transaction in the route. Independent solvers evaluate whether they can fulfill the request and may use their own liquidity sources and routes.

Quote, sign, and settlement

  1. Request a quote. The interface or integration asks for offers matching the input asset and desired output.
  2. Review the offers. Compare the amount you will receive, route details when shown, applicable fees, and any expiry or fulfillment conditions. A displayed quote is not a general promise that every route will complete.
  3. Sign the intent. The documented integration flow builds a message containing the account, deadline, and desired token balance changes, then asks the user to sign it. The example registers a public key with the intents.near contract before the first signed message; consumer interfaces may handle these implementation details for you.
  4. Publish the intent with the selected quote reference. In the documented market-maker flow, the selected quote is matched to the intent and submitted to a verifier contract for onchain settlement.

The official market-maker flow uses a WebSocket message bus: connected solvers return signed quotes, an application presents competing offers, and the selected quote proceeds to verification and settlement. The message bus is one quote-discovery option, not a required part of every possible integration; the documentation also describes operation through other quote mechanisms or direct chain indexing.

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What the interface does—and does not—guarantee

Solvers are independent third parties that determine execution, source liquidity, compose actions, and submit transactions for settlement. The near.com terms say users retain control of connected wallets, but the interface operator does not control third-party solvers and does not guarantee their price, speed, reliability, availability, or completion of a transaction. An intent can provide a different way to seek execution; it is not a guarantee of the best market price or a risk-free trade.

What changes when a trade crosses chains

A cross-chain swap is not necessarily executed entirely on NEAR. NEAR documentation describes users depositing assets into Intents accounts and says the deposit procedure differs depending on whether the source chain is NEAR or another network. The documented API identifies assets through asset identifiers and supports querying balances on the intents.near contract. These are general mechanics, not evidence that every supported asset follows the same deposit or withdrawal procedure.

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For a cross-chain route, the source-chain deposit, solver’s execution, and destination-chain settlement can involve separate steps and infrastructure. Confirm that the exact asset and network are supported, and check how the interface instructs you to withdraw or receive the destination asset. Official NEAR Intents examples include ETH on Ethereum to BTC and USDC on Arbitrum to SOL on Solana; these illustrate possible routes, not independently measured service guarantees. Its listed integrations include Trust Wallet, Ledger Live, LI.FI, SwapKit, and Gem Wallet.

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Fees, speed, and headline figures

  • Fees: NEAR Intents’ integration-facing cross-chain swaps page describes 20–100 basis points as a typical configurable per-swap fee range. This is not a universal fee schedule for every user, asset, route, or interface; check the quote and fee breakdown for your specific trade.
  • Completion time: The same product page gives about 30 seconds as an example for an ETH-to-BTC user story. That is a route-specific illustration, not a general estimate or completion guarantee.
  • Volume and chain count: The NEAR Intents homepage, accessed in 2026, claims more than $33 billion in all-time volume across 35 chains. The retrieved homepage material does not date that figure, and it is a product claim rather than an independently verified measure.

Checks to make before you approve a trade

  1. Verify the assets and networks. Check the exact input token, destination token, network for each, and token identifier where the interface provides one. Similar token names do not by themselves establish that two assets are interchangeable.
  2. Compare net output. Use the amount you expect to receive after displayed fees and route costs, not just a headline exchange rate. If you are comparing quotes, make sure they refer to the same destination asset and conditions.
  3. For an AMM, inspect route risk. Review pool or route liquidity, price impact, and slippage tolerance. A permissive tolerance can allow a worse execution; a tight tolerance can make a transaction fail if the price moves before execution.
  4. For an intent, inspect quote conditions. Check the quote’s validity or deadline, solver fulfillment conditions, and whether the route crosses a bridge or another chain. Confirm what happens if the quote expires or cannot be fulfilled.
  5. Confirm the destination. Check the receiving wallet address and destination chain, especially for cross-chain trades where the destination may differ from the source network.
  6. Read the signing request and current terms. Make sure the wallet request matches the action you intend to authorize. The near.com terms state that users are responsible for their recovery phrases and passkeys; Intents Technology does not provide wallet software.
  7. Consider failure and delay. Do not approve a route if you cannot tolerate it being delayed, unavailable, or unsuccessful under the conditions presented by the interface.

Choosing between an AMM and an intent

An AMM is the more direct model when you want to trade against NEAR-based pools and can evaluate the route, pool liquidity, and slippage shown by the application. An intent is useful when you prefer to specify a desired result and let independent solvers propose execution, particularly where a route may span assets or chains. In either case, compare the specific transaction in front of you: route, net output, costs, conditions, and destination matter more than the label attached to the trading method.

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