Key takeaways
- Liquidity tells you how much size a market can absorb, not whether the asset is good.
- Price impact, slippage, and fees are related but different concepts.
- FDV and market cap can mislead if supply, unlocks, and pool depth are ignored.
Pool depth is the starting point
Liquidity is the amount of assets available in a pool or order route. Deep liquidity usually means a trade can happen with less price impact. Thin liquidity means even a modest order can move the price sharply.
For TON users, liquidity may be split across venues such as STON.fi, DeDust, and future aggregators. The best route is not always the venue with the loudest community or the highest displayed volume.
Price impact versus slippage
Price impact is the change your own order is expected to cause because of pool math and available liquidity. Slippage tolerance is the maximum unfavorable execution difference you allow before the transaction fails or reverts.
A high slippage setting can help a transaction execute in volatile markets, but it can also expose the user to worse execution. It should not be used as a shortcut for ignoring liquidity quality.
Market cap, FDV, and unlocked supply
Market cap estimates the value of circulating supply at the current price. Fully diluted valuation applies the price to a broader supply figure. Both can be useful, but both are incomplete without knowing token unlocks, emissions, treasury holdings, and actual pool depth.
A token can have a large FDV and small pool, which means the headline valuation is much easier to display than to realize through trading.
Route quality in a dashboard
A TON dashboard should show the venue, expected receive amount, fees, pool depth, and warnings before the user confirms a trade. It should also preserve a non-custodial boundary: the dashboard can inform and route, but the wallet authorizes.
Gramium's MVP swap module is built around that pattern and keeps execution disabled until a real provider is selected later.
FAQ
Is liquidity the same as volume?
No. Liquidity is available depth. Volume is historical traded amount over a period. A market can show volume but still have poor depth for your specific order.
What is a safe slippage setting?
There is no universal safe value. It depends on volatility, asset quality, pool depth, and your trade size.
Why show FDV next to liquidity?
The contrast helps identify assets with large headline valuations but limited practical exit depth.