▶ Coinbase Website: Coinbase.com
▶ CEX Website: cex.io
Atomic swaps sound clean in theory. Atomic swaps sound clean in theory: two parties, two assets, no middleman. But the moment preferences diverge, one person wants BTC, the other wants something the first person doesn’t have, the whole thing breaks down.
The grocery store analogy is real: you can’t pay for milk with Apple shares even if they’re worth more than your cart. The merchant wants dollars. The mismatch is the problem, not the technology.
Tokenized deposits and CBDCs don’t fix this either. They digitize existing money, they don’t solve the routing gap between assets that don’t naturally pair.
A neutral bridge asset on a decentralized exchange is what actually fills that gap. It routes value between things that wouldn’t otherwise trade directly, no counterparty dependency, no permission needed.
That’s the structural argument. Whether any specific asset plays that role at scale is a separate conversation.
Do your own research. Talk to a financial advisor.
▶ Coinbase Website: Coinbase.com
▶ CEX Website: cex.io
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