Exchange

An exchange is any venue which offers trading. Exchanges vary widely, nonexhaustively by: supported assets, degree of centralization, order fulfillment and fund custody methodologies, businesses model, and KYC/AML policies.

Centralized exchanges ('CEXs') require users to deposit funds to a centrally-custodied account, with all order-matching completed off-chain by proprietary matching engines. Decentralized exchanges ('DEXs') do not custody user funds and may use on-chain order-fulfillment methods.