STON.fi vs DeDust: Hands-On TON DEX Comparison
Every TON wallet eventually asks the same question: now that you are holding TON, what do you actually do with it. For most people the answer is a swap, and on TON that swap almost always routes through one of two places. STON.fi is the name that shows up first in nearly every TON DeFi guide, the default liquidity venue for TON's biggest pairs. DeDust is the other name, the one long time TON users bring up when the conversation turns to routing and pool design. We connected a funded wallet to both, swapped the same pairs on the same day, and logged what the interface does not tell you upfront: real fees, real routing, and what happens when a trade is not as simple as it looks.
The usual TonTry rules apply here too. We funded a wallet with our own TON, ran the swaps ourselves, and logged what happened rather than what either project's marketing page says happens. One housekeeping note: the native token shows up in-app as GRAM now, not TON, after the Toncoin-to-Gram community rebrand took effect in June 2026; we still call it TON here, matching the network name and the rest of this site, so do not be surprised when a pool reads GRAM/USDT instead of TON/USDT. Nothing in this log is investment advice, no project paid for placement, and DeFi details move faster than wallet details: fee splits, pool types and supported assets on both platforms were checked in mid July 2026 and are worth reconfirming in-app before you route anything you would mind losing.
What a TON DEX actually does, in one minute
Skip this section if you already swap. STON.fi and DeDust are both automated market makers: no order book, no counterparty on the other end of your trade, just a pool of two tokens and a formula that prices one against the other as you swap. Both are non-custodial, meaning the DEX never holds your TON, it only ever requests a signature for the exact swap you approve. Both connect the same way every TON dapp does, through the TON Connect protocol we described in our wallet comparison, so whether you show up with Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet or Telegram Wallet's self custody mode, the connect flow looks identical: scan or tap, approve, done. Both also run as Telegram Mini Apps as well as standalone web apps: the mini app version opened and connected without leaving the chat, the web version asked us to reconnect most sessions.
STON.fi and DeDust at a glance
Same category, different personality. Here is what stood out across a week of swaps on both.
| STON.fi | DeDust | |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol launched | November 2022 | November 2022, with a routing focused v2 in April 2023 |
| Native token | STON, staking pays GEMSTON rewards | DUST, used for governance and pool incentives |
| Runs as | Web app and Telegram Mini App | Web app and Telegram Mini App |
| Default swap fee | 0.3%, around 0.2% to liquidity providers | 0.3%, around 0.25% to liquidity providers |
| Standout feature | Deepest liquidity on major pairs, new wrapped BTC and ETH pools | Multi-pool routing, specialized pool types |
| Best for | Blue-chip pairs and new cross-chain assets | Routing efficiency on thinner or newer pairs |
STON.fi: the volume leader with new borders
STON.fi is where most TON swaps already happen, and after a week of routing trades through it we understand why. It is the default venue built into Tonkeeper's swap tab and several other wallets, the pools are deep on every major pair we tried, TON, USDT and the larger jettons, and slippage on ordinary sized trades stayed tight and predictable. The interface leans simple: pick a pair, check the rate, approve. The bigger news this cycle is not the interface, it is the borders: STON.fi opened its pools to Bitcoin and Ethereum in February 2026, which we cover below. STON.fi's own materials describe its contracts as audited and covered by a bug bounty program; that is the project's claim, not our finding, filed the same way we file every unverified company number: stated, not verified.
DeDust: the routing specialist
DeDust is the DEX that TON's more technical users bring up unprompted, and testing it side by side with STON.fi made clear why. It was the first DEX on TON to route a single trade across multiple pools instead of forcing a direct pair, a feature that shipped with its version two launch at TON's biggest hackathon in April 2023, and on a thinner pair where STON.fi quoted a wider spread, DeDust's router found a path through an intermediate pool and landed a noticeably better rate. Its pool menu goes beyond a standard constant product AMM too, with pool types tuned for pegged and near pegged assets alongside the ordinary kind, the same low slippage idea STON.fi applies to its own stablecoin pools, built differently under the hood. The DUST token sits on top as the governance and incentive layer, earned through selected liquidity pools and used to vote on new pools and parameters. Where STON.fi felt like the wide, obvious front door, DeDust felt like the DEX built by people who wanted to solve a specific routing problem first and worry about the front door after. Neither approach is wrong. They are optimized for different trades.
Trading Bitcoin and Ethereum without leaving TON
This is the one feature DeDust does not have an answer for yet. In February 2026, STON.fi announced non-custodial access to Bitcoin and Ethereum directly inside its TON pools: Ethereum arrives as WETH, Bitcoin arrives as cbBTC, a Bitcoin backed token issued by Coinbase, and both are represented on TON as tokens backed one to one with the underlying asset and managed through smart contracts rather than a custodian. Swaps and liquidity provision on the WETH and cbBTC pools route through Omniston, STON.fi's liquidity aggregation layer, which can also source a swap into either asset from any TON native token rather than just from TON itself. We tested a small TON into WETH swap and the transaction looked and felt exactly like swapping into a jetton: one signature, one confirmation, no separate bridge step on our end. That is the actual pitch: holding Bitcoin and Ethereum exposure inside a TON wallet without a second app, a second seed phrase, or a centralized exchange account. We would still want to see the wrapped asset's contracts and backing verified by more than one source before moving a serious amount, and we will revisit this pool once it has a longer track record.
What the fee receipts said
On paper the headline fee is identical: 0.3% per swap on both, the figure most AMMs settle on. The split underneath is where they diverge. STON.fi's own fee documentation puts roughly 0.2% of that 0.3% toward liquidity providers on standard pools, with the remainder toward the protocol; DeDust's default split runs closer to 0.25% to liquidity providers and 0.05% to the protocol. That gap matters more to liquidity providers than to swappers, since the 0.3% you pay as a trader is the same either way. What actually moved the number we paid was routing, not the label. On a major pair, TON to USDT, quotes on both were close enough to call a tie. On a smaller jetton pair, the spread and price impact varied more between the two platforms than the base fee ever could, which matches the general DeFi rule we keep relearning here: the posted fee is a starting point, the executed price is the number that counts.
The swap order we would use
- Connect the same wallet you already trust, Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet or Telegram Wallet's self custody mode, through TON Connect on either platform; the approval flow is identical either way.
- Start on STON.fi for TON, USDT and other blue-chip pairs, where liquidity is deepest and quotes were consistently competitive in our tests.
- Check DeDust before a thinner or newer jetton trade; its multi-pool routing beat a single direct pool more than once in our log.
- Route Bitcoin or Ethereum exposure through STON.fi's wrapped cbBTC and WETH pools if you want that exposure without leaving TON, and verify the backing and contract details yourself before sizing up.
- Compare the quoted rate against a reference price before confirming, on either platform, every time. That habit outperforms fee arguments in practice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main difference between STON.fi and DeDust?
Liquidity depth against routing design. STON.fi carries the deepest pools on TON's major pairs and is the default swap venue built into several wallets. DeDust routes a single trade across multiple pools when that finds a better price, an edge that shows up most on thinner or newer pairs rather than on TON to USDT.
Are STON.fi and DeDust safe to connect a wallet to?
Both are non-custodial: connecting only lets the app request transaction signatures, it never hands over your keys or your TON. STON.fi states its contracts are audited and covered by a bug bounty; that is the project's claim, and as with any DeFi contract, connecting a wallet still means trusting code you did not personally review.
Can I trade Bitcoin or Ethereum on a TON DEX?
Yes, as of STON.fi's February 2026 rollout. Bitcoin and Ethereum trade on STON.fi as TON native wrapped tokens, cbBTC and WETH, each backed one to one with the underlying asset and routed through STON.fi's Omniston aggregator, so you are trading a wrapped representation rather than moving native BTC or ETH on their own chains.
Which wallets work with STON.fi and DeDust?
Any TON wallet that supports TON Connect, which by mid 2026 is effectively all of them, including Tonkeeper, MyTonWallet and Telegram Wallet's self custody mode, the three wallets we put through their own test log. The connect flow is the same scan and approve pattern on both DEXs.
Both DEXs pass the same basic test we run on everything here: real trades, real fees, no dead ends that cost us money we did not expect to spend. Which one earns the tab depends on the trade, not on loyalty. Blue-chip pairs and the new wrapped assets lean STON.fi, thinner or multi-hop routes lean DeDust, and most active TON users will end up with both bookmarked. We will keep re-running these swaps as pools and fees shift, and it goes out the same way everything here does, in the Test Log Digest: honest, timestamped, and short.