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January 12, 2026· 14 min read

Solving Slippage: Engineering a DeFi Liquidity Aggregator

Optimizing trade execution across multiple decentralized exchanges (DEXs) using smart contracts and graph algorithms.

BlockchainSolidityWeb3.jsDeFi

The Fragmented Liquidity Problem

In Decentralized Finance (DeFi), liquidity is split across dozens of protocols (Uniswap, SushiSwap, Curve). A large trade on a single pool causes significant slippage (price impact). An aggregator solves this by splitting the trade across multiple routes.

Smart Contract Architecture

The core of this project is a router contract written in Solidity.

Pathfinding Algorithm

Off-chain, we calculate the optimal split using a variation of the Bellman-Ford algorithm (to detect arbitrage cycles) or Dijkstra (for simple path finding), accounting for gas costs.

  1. Fetch Reserves: Query the state of all relevant pools.
  2. Compute Graph: Model tokens as nodes and pools as edges.
  3. Optimize Flow: Find the max flow / min cost path.

Atomic Execution

The transaction is executed atomically. If any part of the split trade fails (or if the final output amounts to less than the user's minimum acceptable amount), the entire transaction reverts.

function swap(
    SwapDescription memory desc,
    ExecutorData[] memory executors
) external payable returns (uint256 returnAmount) {
    // ... security checks ...
    
    // Execute multiple low-level calls to DEXs
    for (uint256 i = 0; i < executors.length; i++) {
        // ... swap logic
    }
    
    // validatotion
    require(returnAmount >= desc.minReturnAmount, "High slippage");
}

Security Considerations

Aggregators are high-value targets. We implemented distinct security measures:

  • Reentrancy Guards: Preventing recursive calls.
  • Token Whitelisting: Avoiding malicious ERC-20 tokens.
  • Gas Optimization: Using assembly (Yul) for heavy loops.

Conclusion

This project underscored the importance of Gas Golfing—optimizing code to save users money on Ethereum mainnet transactions.