Linkswap Crypto Exchange Review: Why It Failed and What Happened to It

Linkswap was never meant to be the next big crypto exchange. It didn’t have the brand recognition of Uniswap, the backing of a major team, or the liquidity to survive. By 2026, it’s gone - completely. No website. No trading. No users. Just a ghost in the blockchain history books. If you’re reading this because you heard the name and wondered if it’s still live, the answer is simple: Linkswap is defunct. And here’s why.

What Was Linkswap?

Linkswap was a decentralized exchange (DEX), built on the Ethereum blockchain. It launched in early 2021, right in the middle of the DeFi boom. Unlike centralized exchanges like Binance or Kraken, Linkswap didn’t hold your money. You connected your wallet - MetaMask, Trust Wallet, or any Web3 wallet - and traded directly from there. No KYC. No sign-up. Just smart contracts doing the work.

Its main purpose? To let people trade ERC-20 tokens for ETH. That’s it. No Bitcoin. No Solana. No BNB. Only Ethereum-based tokens. That alone limited its appeal. By 2021, other DEXs were already starting to bridge across chains. Linkswap stayed stuck on Ethereum.

It was tied to a project called YF Link, which issued a token called $YFL. Only 50,000 YFL tokens ever existed. That sounds like scarcity, but in crypto, artificial scarcity without real demand just creates a bubble. Linkswap’s whole model relied on this token: 83% of trading fees went to liquidity providers, and 17% was used to reward YFL stakers. But with so few tokens in circulation and no real utility beyond staking, the system never gained traction.

How Did It Work?

Linkswap used the standard AMM (Automated Market Maker) model - the same one Uniswap used. That means prices were set by a math formula (x * y = k), not by order books. When you swapped one token for another, the price shifted slightly based on how much was in the pool. Simple. Predictable. But also dangerous if the pool was shallow.

The fee was always 0.30% - same as Uniswap. No discounts for big traders. No maker-taker split. Just a flat rate. That’s fine if you’re trading small amounts, but if you’re moving large sums, you’d want lower fees. Centralized exchanges like Kraken were already offering $4.99/month plans with zero fees on trades under $10,000. Linkswap offered nothing like that.

To use it, you needed:

• A Web3 wallet (MetaMask recommended)
• Ethereum for gas fees (which could cost $15-$50 per trade in 2021)
• Patience - low liquidity meant slippage could eat into your profits

There was no customer support. No help center. No live chat. If your transaction failed, you were on your own. That’s normal for DEXs, but when users hit problems, they turned to communities - and Linkswap had almost none.

Why Did It Fail?

Linkswap didn’t die because of a hack. It didn’t collapse from regulatory pressure. It died because nobody used it.

In mid-2021, the DEX market was exploding. Uniswap handled over 60% of all decentralized trading. SushiSwap had 18%. Linkswap? It barely registered. There were over 200 DEXs at the time. Most vanished within a year. Linkswap was one of them.

Here’s what went wrong:

• No unique tech - It didn’t offer concentrated liquidity, weighted pools, or cross-chain swaps. It just copied Uniswap.
• Too little liquidity - With only a handful of trading pairs and low user adoption, pools dried up fast. Slippage became a real problem.
• Weak tokenomics - Only 50,000 YFL tokens? That’s not scarcity. That’s a trap. Real governance tokens need millions of holders to be sustainable. YFL had almost none.
• No community - No Reddit threads. No Twitter buzz. No Discord servers with active users. If nobody talks about it, nobody uses it.
• Wrong timing - It launched right as the DeFi hype peaked. When the market cooled in late 2021, projects without strong fundamentals got crushed.

What’s the Status Today?

As of 2026, Linkswap is dead.

CoinCodex - a crypto data site - has a clear warning: "This exchange is no longer operational. We currently don’t have the necessary data to display this exchange's trading pairs and trading volume." Holder.io, a crypto analytics platform, confirms: "На Linkswap торгуется 0 cryptocurrencies" - meaning, "0 cryptocurrencies are traded on Linkswap."

The website is offline. The smart contracts still exist on Ethereum, but they’re abandoned. No one is maintaining them. No one is adding liquidity. No one is trading.

If you still have funds locked in a Linkswap pool, you’re out of luck. There’s no recovery process. No customer service. No official statement. The project just vanished.

How Does It Compare to Today’s Top DEXs?

In 2021, Linkswap was one of hundreds trying to compete. Today, only a few survive.

Linkswap vs. Leading DEXs in 2026

Feature	Linkswap (2021)	Uniswap v3 (2026)	Symbiosis.finance (2026)
Blockchain	Ethereum only	Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum	30+ blockchains
Trading Pairs	Under 10	Over 1,000	Over 2,500
Trading Volume (Daily)	Unknown (likely under $1M)	$1.2B+	$800M+
Fee Structure	0.30% flat	0.01%-1% (concentrated liquidity)	0.05%-0.30%
Current Status	Defunct	Active, dominant	Active, growing

Uniswap didn’t just survive - it evolved. It introduced concentrated liquidity in 2021, letting liquidity providers focus their capital on specific price ranges. That made trading more efficient and fees more profitable. Symbiosis.finance went even further, letting users swap across 30+ blockchains in one click. Linkswap? It stayed static. And in crypto, standing still means falling behind.

What Can You Learn From Linkswap?

Linkswap’s story isn’t unique. It’s a textbook case of a failed crypto project. Here’s what to watch out for:

• Don’t trust scarcity without demand - A token with 50,000 supply sounds rare. But if no one wants to use it, it’s worthless.
• Liquidity is everything - A DEX with no trading volume is just a smart contract with a pretty UI. Real exchanges need deep pools.
• Copycats don’t win - If you’re just cloning Uniswap, you need something better. Better fees. Better UX. Better tokenomics. Or you’ll vanish.
• Community matters - No one talks about Linkswap now because no one cared then. Projects with active users survive. Projects with passive investors die.
• Check if it’s still live - Before you connect your wallet to any DEX, check CoinCodex, DeFiLlama, or Etherscan. If the volume is zero, walk away.

What Should You Use Instead?

If you’re looking for a decentralized exchange in 2026, here are three that actually work:

• Uniswap v3 - Still the #1 DEX. Best for Ethereum and Polygon trades. High liquidity. Low slippage.
• Symbiosis.finance - Best for cross-chain swaps. Swap from Solana to Ethereum without wrapping tokens.
• Curve Finance - Best for stablecoin swaps. Lowest fees and slippage for USDC, DAI, FRAX.

All three have active communities, real trading volume, and regular updates. None of them disappeared after a year.

Final Verdict

Linkswap wasn’t a scam. It wasn’t a rug pull. It was just another project that tried to ride the DeFi wave and didn’t have the tools to stay afloat. It had a decent idea - a simple DEX with token rewards - but executed it poorly. No innovation. No liquidity. No users. No future.

If you’re thinking about using Linkswap today - don’t. The site is gone. The contracts are cold. Your funds are at risk. And there’s no way back.

Linkswap is a reminder: in crypto, popularity isn’t enough. Sustainability is. And without it, even the most well-intentioned projects vanish into history.