Stride Swap: The IBC Eureka DEX, Built for the Cosmos Hub
Apr 29, 2025
· 7 min read
Summary
Stride will become a multichain DEX, purpose-built for IBC Eureka and the Cosmos Hub.
The Interchain Foundation has invested in Stride. Stride is partnering with Interchain Labs to build Stride Swap in alignment to IBC Eureka and other products.
Stride will be the primary venue for routing liquidity across the IBC Eureka bridge. Supports all chains, tokens, and wallets used by IBC Eureka. Offers advanced trading features (including hooks and built-in vaults).
Stride’s current liquid staking protocol will be vertically integrated into Stride Swap.
Fees will be used to buy and burn STRD (80%) and buy and burn ATOM (20%) subject to STRD governance.
Stride will be a key design partner for and launch alongside a new permissionless VM on the Cosmos Hub.
Stride Swap will go live in Summer 2025.
Stride’s Next Chapter
Stride is best known as the Cosmos ecosystem’s largest liquid staking provider. Since 2022, Stride has helped users stake ATOM, TIA, OSMO, and others — with over $35M in liquid staked tokens and 412K registered addresses. But now, Stride is evolving — we’re building a vertically integrated product suite around a single, high-leverage chain — Cosmos Hub.
With the launch of IBC Eureka, Cosmos connects to Ethereum and soon every large blockchain. This expansion of IBC will attract meaningful multichain volume. Think: swaps between Ethereum, Bitcoin, Solana, and Cosmos — all routed through the Hub.
To support this, we’re launching Stride Swap, a purpose-built DEX for the Cosmos Hub and IBC Eureka that will handle bridge swaps for Eureka and serve as the liquidity foundation for Cosmos Hub DeFi.
And we are not doing it alone. Stride is proud to announce the Interchain Foundation's investment in Stride, and its vision for Stride Swap. With the partnership of Interchain Labs in product, Stride will build a platform to support IBC's growth.
This is our opportunity to make the Hub the engine of the interchain, with Stride at its center.
The Vision
Soon the Cosmos Hub will be able to have the widest selection of deep major token trading pools in crypto, all living on Stride.
This makes for a uniquely powerful environment to trade and leverage using spot. Swap from SOL to BNB on one chain in a single block? Only possible on Cosmos Hub. Borrow ATOM against SOL? Only possible on Cosmos Hub. Short BTC against BABY? Only on Cosmos Hub. And so on and so forth. The projected revenues from this activity can be used to improve Stride’s DeFi product lines on the Hub in various ways (e.g. cross-selling, cross-subsidization, rehypothecation).
Here’s how we get there:
Step 1: IBC Eureka becomes the highest volume bridge in crypto.
Step 2: With IBC v2 deployed to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and all other major chains, Cosmos Hub becomes a center of DeFi activity across crypto.
Step 3: With high swap volume on Stride DEX, there will be high fees, which will attract deep liquidity. As a result, Stride DEX will be a unique DEX with deep liquidity for many different major tokens.
The final outcome is that Cosmos Hub has the widest selection of deep major token trading pools in crypto, and it all takes place on Stride, supporting STRD and ATOM.
Stride’s Partnership with Interchain Foundation
Stride and the Interchain Foundation are aligning towards a common goal. The growth of Cosmos, and IBC.
This partnership has one main component, the ICF's investment in Stride and its vision for Stride Swap - a cornerstone for IBC Eureka's expansion.
However, there are more synergies at play that make this a great match:
Aligned product visions: Our collaboration with Interchain Labs is constant, and built on mutual earned trust over years. Both teams are aligned on roadmap, asset support for IBC Eureka, features, and more.
Coordinated business development: Given Stride Swap's DEX and LST products are complementary to IBC Eureka and the Cosmos Hub’s native ecosystem as an offering, both teams will be able to pitch them to chains and new applications as a complete offering. As Interchain Labs recruits new chains to join IBC Eureka, there will be a natural incentive to encourage these chains to deploy liquidity on Stride Swap. Similarly, as new applications consider deploying on the Cosmos Hub, there will be a natural incentive to suggest they integrate with Stride.
Stride's strengthening ATOM's utility: Stride will direct 20% of protocol revenue to buy and burn ATOM. Under the hook, swaps use ATOM as gas (if approved by STRD governance). Every trade that routes to Stride Swap helps support the Cosmos Hub.
The foundation for Cosmos-Hub native DeFi
Tens of billions of dollars are routed through IBC every year. With the addition of high-volume chains like Ethereum, Solana, dYdX, Babylon, etc, Eureka is well-positioned to do the same.
This Eureka volume will all pass through the Cosmos Hub. With IBC's flexibility and extensibility, an ecosystem of DeFi applications living on the Hub will benefit from that volume in ways that no other ecosystem currently does.
In this future, Eureka essentially becomes the only bridge in existence with its own native DeFi ecosystem. Value capture, revenue, and growth become vertically integrated instead of outsourced to external applications, all for the benefit of ATOM and applications deployed on the Hub.
All of this lives natively on the Cosmos Hub.
And you can’t build DeFi without a DEX.
Lending markets, structured products, perps — they all need a base layer of liquidity to function. The Cosmos Hub has been missing that foundation until now.
Stride Swap prioritizes composability, so any application deploying on the Hub can easily connect.
Deep liquidity and reliable oracles support liquidations from lending protocols and perps.
Vault products plug into Stride natively, integrated within the frontend.
Hooks allow applications to flexibly tap DEX liquidity (e.g. out of range liquidity can be automatically supplied on lending markets to earn extra yield) and build multi-step flows (e.g. transfer -> swap -> collateralize)
We’re already talking to every application who plans to launch on the Hub.
Roadmap
Q2: Stride Swap launch
The DEX launches on the Cosmos Hub — ready to power the next wave of multichain DeFi.
Eureka integration: Swaps routed via Cosmos:go will automatically use Stride liquidity.
Multichain UX: One-click deposits and withdrawals across chains. No bridging headaches.
Vaults at launch: Built-in vaults make LPing simple and powerful.
Pay in any token: Swap fees? Covered in whatever token you have on hand.
Cross-chain LPing: Provide liquidity from any chain, sign once, done.
Launch is expected in Summer 2025. In the meantime, we’ll be rolling out beta access, sharing early partners, and working with ATOM-aligned protocols to integrate directly into the DEX.
Q3: Advanced trading features
We’re rolling out simple-to-use but advanced tools for serious traders.
Auto dollar-cost averaging: Enter or exit positions over time — no manual effort needed.
Limit orders: Set a buy or sell price and let the system fill your trade when the time’s right.
Programmatic fees: Stride Swap is aligned with external apps and chains, giving important blockchains and apps kickbacks and revenue share. Dynamic fees allow us to lower fees when markets are calm, and raise them when volatile. Everyone wins.
Q3: Integrate Liquid Staking & Lending
We will integrate the DEX with our liquid staking products (e.g. stATOM) and an external Hub-based lending market. For users, this means smarter routing, better yields, and seamless composability.
Extra yield for idle LPs: If your LP position goes out of range, your tokens can be temporarily lent out or staked — so you’ll still earn.
DEX ↔ LST fee sharing: When we launch a new pool, we’ll use LST fees to attract LPs. If the DEX prints, stATOM holders benefit.
Smart routing for LSTs: Buying stATOM at a premium? We’ll auto-mint at 1:1 instead. More yield, less friction. Selling stATOM at a discount? We can tap into recent yet-to-be-staked stATOM inflows to instantly unbond your LST at 1:1 instead.
Built-in arbitrage: If stATOM ever de-pegs, our system can mint + swap to restore the peg and secure the arbitrage profit as protocol revenue.
Q4: Add Solana Support
IBC Eureka will connect to Solana, onboarding SOL and making Cosmos ↔ Solana routing effortless.
SOL ↔ Cosmos bridging: Trade between ecosystems in a single click. No bridges, no delays.
Phantom & Backpack support: All the major Solana wallets, fully integrated from day one.
Full token listings: We’ll support SOL, BONK, WIF, and the rest of your favorite SPL-20 tokens.
2026: More Chains, More Possibilities
IBC v2 connect to 10+ new blockchains. As they come online, Stride Swap will be ready to support them with liquidity, trading, and staking from day one. Wherever IBC goes next, Stride goes with it.
Stride’s intimate history with the Cosmos Hub
Stride’s launch brought a number of firsts to the Cosmos ecosystem. Stride was the first fully functional app-specific liquid staking blockchain, the first consumer application to utilize interchain accounts at scale and, most importantly, the first live, redeemable LST for ATOM: stATOM.
stATOM quickly became a DeFi cornerstone, fueling liquidity and collateral across 16 protocols on 15 chains. As adoption grew, Stride surpassed $200M in TVL, with stATOM representing over 25% of all Stride’s staked assets.
In 2023, Stride became the second chain to adopt Interchain Security (ICS), securing the network with ATOM-backed validators and sharing over $200K in protocol revenue with the Hub. ICS boosted Stride’s economic security from $25M to over $2B, accelerating stATOM’s growth. Stride has also contributed core infrastructure to the Cosmos Hub—IBC rate limiting, ICA callbacks, ICS tooling, and tools to snapshot stATOM holders to ensure airdrop inclusion.
Culturally, Stride has been embedded in the Cosmos community from the start, bringing in key investors like Multicoin and Pantera and proudly repping and buying Bad Kids.
We wrote more about Stride’s intertwined history with the Cosmos Hub here.
Final thoughts
Stride is doubling down on the Cosmos Hub and IBC.
The Cosmos Hub has always been our home. IBC Eureka is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for.
Stride Swap is how we make it real.
Disclaimer: Certain information set forth is “forward-looking information”, representing current plans; however, future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements depending on business conditions and technological concerns.
