TL;DR. STON.fi wins on large volatile pairs through depth and reach. DeDust wins on stable pairs (USDT-USDC, stTON-TON) thanks to concentrated stable pools at 0.04% fee and native limit orders. Both DEXs are audited and reachable from Russia. DeDust has a DDoS history (August 2025) — no funds lost, but the UI was cut for hours. For any large trade always price-check via the swap.coffee aggregator — 0.5–1.5% improvements are real.
What we compare
The parameters that actually shape a DEX user’s experience:
- Liquidity depth — TVL per pair and resulting slippage.
- Fees — fee tier, governance-token cashback.
- Pool structure — volatile/stable/concentrated, limit orders.
- Jetton listing flow — automatic vs curated.
- UI/UX — speed, clarity, mobile.
- RU-IP availability — frontend uptime, Cloudflare throttling, gateway blocks.
- MEV defense — sandwich, frontrunning.
- Audit history and incidents.
Baseline table
| Parameter | STON.fi | DeDust |
|---|---|---|
| TVL (DeFiLlama, May 2026) | ~$50–65M | ~$3–8M |
| Cumulative volume | ~$3.7B | ~$0.6B |
| Unique users | 5.3M+ | 0.6M+ |
| Base fee | 0.30% V1, variable V2 | 0.20% volatile, 0.04% stable |
| Stable pools | Present, less optimised | Core advantage |
| Limit orders | No | Yes |
| Audit | CertiK + Trail of Bits | Trail of Bits + ChainSecurity |
| Open source | Partial | Partial |
| Gov token | STON | DUST |
| Mobile UI | Good | Acceptable |
| RU-IP reach | Cloudflare edge | Cloudflare edge |
| Incidents | UI bugs, no losses | Frontend DDoS Aug 2025 |
Depth and slippage
The number that matters most. Fresh slippage test (May 2026, TON → USDT swap):
| Trade size | STON.fi | DeDust |
|---|---|---|
| $500 | 0.05% | 0.18% |
| $2 000 | 0.15% | 0.6% |
| $5 000 | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| $10 000 | 0.9% | 3.5% |
On standard pairs (TON-USDT, TON-NOT, TON-CAT) STON.fi is clearly deeper. On DeDust, swaps over $2K on non-stable pairs start to hurt.
Reverse picture on stable pairs (USDT-USDC, stTON-TON):
| stTON → TON swap | STON.fi | DeDust stable pool |
|---|---|---|
| $5 000 | 0.6% | 0.06% |
| $10 000 | 1.2% | 0.1% |
| $50 000 | 4%+ | 0.4% |
DeDust stable pools are simply the best option with no real alternative.
Fee structure
STON.fi V1: flat 0.30% on every pair.
STON.fi V2: variable 0.05–1% by pool type. Concentrated liquidity Uniswap V3-style but TON-adapted.
DeDust: two pool types. Volatile — 0.20% base. Stable — 0.04% base. Limit orders priced separately from standard fee tiers.
In absolute terms STON.fi V1 charges more on TON-USDT. V2 is competitive. DeDust is cheaper on volatile by default, offset by smaller depth.
Limit orders
DeDust supports native limit orders — rare in AMM-land, implemented via off-chain orderbook + on-chain execution. Useful when you:
- Want to sell TON at a specific price and walk away.
- Scale a large entry instead of clapping into one trade.
- Run cross-pool arbitrage.
STON.fi has no native limit orders — TONCO or third-party bots fill the gap.
iLimit orders are not stop-loss
A limit order triggers at the target price but does not protect on the downside. Native stop-loss does not exist on TON DEXs — a custom contract or off-chain bot is required.
Jetton listing
STON.fi. Anyone can create a pool on any pair by paying gas to deploy. No mandated minimum liquidity, but a pool without $1K+ depth is dead. UI auto-detects pools by jetton address.
DeDust. Mechanically similar. But inclusion in the Featured Pairs list is editorial. The DeDust team gatekeeps the main UI surface.
If you are minting a jetton and want immediate visibility — STON.fi gets you there faster.
RU-IP reach
As of May 2026 both DEXs are reachable from Russia via direct IP and Cloudflare. Roskomnadzor does not block either — neither is a VPN/anonymiser, neither is a custodial financial service.
That said:
- If the frontend hangs under Cloudflare throttling on a Russian residential ISP, fallback paths exist — swap.coffee, TONCO, Tonkeeper in-wallet swap.
- In a worst case the contract can be invoked via CLI or third-party UI — DEXs are decentralised, the frontend is not the blockchain.
MEV (sandwich, frontrunning)
Less acute on TON than on Ethereum. TON has no classic mempool — transactions enter the shardchain directly without a public queue. This kills classic sandwich attacks at the architectural level.
That said, large trades (>$10K) can still face HFT-bot reaction via cross-DEX arbitrage. Not sandwich strictly, but a similar effect on price.
What each DEX does:
- STON.fi: standard slippage limit, no MEV-specific defenses.
- DeDust: same. Stable pools are inherently less vulnerable due to low price sensitivity.
For large trades the better play is a private TONCO window with slippage ≤0.3% rather than agonising over DEX choice. See MEV on TON.
Audits and incident history
STON.fi:
- V1: CertiK, 2022 report, no criticals.
- V2: CertiK + Trail of Bits, 2024 reports.
- 4+ years operating — several UI bugs, no fund losses logged.
DeDust:
- Trail of Bits + ChainSecurity, 2023 reports.
- Several public bug bounties paid out.
- Frontend DDoS August 2025 — UI down ~30 hours cumulative across a week, contracts kept operating, no funds lost.
!DeDust August 2025 DDoS — what it means
The attack showed that a centralised UI and a decentralised contract are different things. The DEX did not “go down” but users without alt routes were locked out. Lesson: keep a backup route. swap.coffee, TONCO, Tonkeeper Swap all route through the DeDust contract too.
UI / UX
STON.fi. Clean, minimal, mobile-friendly. History, portfolio, pool analytics. Integrated into Tonkeeper and MyTonWallet via TON Connect — swap from the wallet.
DeDust. Slightly more trader-oriented, more charts and tools. Limit orders, pool analytics, advanced settings. Mobile works but feels less polished.
Beginners → STON.fi. Active traders → DeDust.
Decision tree
Standard swap TON ↔ USDT/NOT/CAT under $5K → STON.fi. Depth + UX win.
Stable swap stTON ↔ TON, USDT ↔ USDC → DeDust stable pool. 0.04% fee, fractional slippage.
Limit order → DeDust. Native.
Trade over $10K → aggregator swap.coffee or TONCO, not a single DEX direct.
Minting a new jetton, want exposure → STON.fi.
Want LP farming with juiced APR → STON.fi (STON incentives historically heavier).
Practical recommendations
- Never accept >2% slippage. Split the trade or use an aggregator.
- Verify jetton address before swapping. Both DEXs can list spoof tokens with similar tickers — eyeball TVL and holder count.
- Don’t leave approval permissions on DEX forever. Token approvals are visible and revocable in Tonkeeper settings.
- LP positions = impermanent loss risk (see yield farming on TON). Don’t quote APR without IL.
- During a frontend DDoS, check the protocol’s Twitter first — confirm before routing through an aggregator backup.
Large-swap checklist
- Trade > $5K? Price-check across three venues (STON.fi, DeDust, swap.coffee).
- Final slippage <1%?
- Gas buffer 0.5 TON in wallet?
- Jetton contract address verified via tonscan?
- Tx hash saved for accounting?
Sources
- DeFiLlama: STON.fi, DeDust
- STON.fi audit reports — guide.ston.fi
- DeDust audit reports — docs.dedust.io
- tonscan.org — contract address verification
