Any Collateral DEX: What It Is and Why Most Are Dead in 2025

When you hear any collateral DEX, a decentralized exchange that accepts nearly any cryptocurrency as collateral for trading or borrowing. Also known as non-standard collateral DEX, it’s supposed to give you freedom—no need to lock up only ETH or BTC. But in practice, most of these platforms are either ghost projects, low-volume traps, or outright scams. The idea sounds great: trade Bitcoin for a random altcoin using your Shiba Inu tokens as collateral. Sounds like DeFi freedom, right? But freedom without liquidity is just noise.

Real decentralized exchange, a peer-to-peer crypto trading platform that doesn’t hold your funds. Also known as DEX, it needs deep pools of assets to work smoothly. Projects like Kwenta let you trade synthetic stocks and gold using crypto collateral—but they only support a few major tokens. Meanwhile, platforms like SkullSwap, Dark Knight Swap, and RadioShack Swap claimed to be DeFi, a system of financial services built on blockchain without banks. Also known as decentralized finance, it protocols with any-collateral flexibility. In reality? They had $36 in daily volume, no audits, and zero users. You can’t trade what isn’t there.

The problem isn’t the tech—it’s the incentive. Why would anyone add liquidity to a DEX that accepts 500 weird tokens? No one wants to be stuck holding a token no one else will trade. That’s why the only crypto collateral, digital assets used to secure loans or trades on DeFi platforms. Also known as blockchain-backed collateral, it that actually works are Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, and a few other top coins. Everything else? It’s either a meme, a failed airdrop, or a dead project like PWAR or LANA. Even the DEX aggregator, a tool that finds the best swap rates across multiple decentralized exchanges. Also known as multi-chain DEX router, it Firebird Finance fails because its own token, HOPE, has zero trading volume. No one’s using it. No one’s trusting it.

If you’re looking for a real any collateral DEX, you’re not going to find it on a Discord server with 200 members and a fake TVL. You’ll find it in platforms that limit collateral to proven assets—because trust isn’t built on hype, it’s built on liquidity. The posts below show you exactly which DEXs still have users, which ones are just code with no customers, and which ones pretend to offer freedom while quietly draining your wallet. You’ll see why Kwenta still works, why SkullSwap is dead, and why most "any collateral" promises are just marketing fluff. What you’ll learn isn’t theory—it’s what’s actually trading, who’s still active, and where your money is safest.