What is Orca?

## What Is Orca? Orca touts itself as the "easiest, fastest, and most user-friendly cryptocurrency exchange on the Solana blockchain." Being one of the first automated [market makers](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-are-automated-market-makers) (AMM) launched on [Solana](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/solana), the decentralized exchange (DEX) maintains its own [liquidity pools](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/liquidity-pool). It allows users to swap assets, participate in yield farming, and provide liquidity. The platform leverages Solana’s quick transactions and low fees. On one hand, users can perform low-fee token trades. On the other, they can provide [concentrated liquidity](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/concentrated-liquidity) to the platform to earn a share of trading fees. ### Who Are the Founders of Orca? Orca was co-founded by Grace Kwan and Yutaro Mori. Kwan, aka "Ori," is the UX designer. She graduated from Stanford with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science before working as a software engineer at Coursera and a designer at IDEO. Yutaro is the brain behind Orca's core AMM. He has been active in the crypto space since 2017 at the Ethereum Foundation. He worked on the Eth2 Go client and Layer 2 solutions before making a foray into Solana. ### When Was Orca Launched? The project launched in February 2021 without external funding. In September 2021, the [total value locked](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/total-value-locked-tvl) (TVL) on the protocol had exceeded $300 million, while its trade volume exceeded $700 million. ### Where Is Orca Located? The company is located in New York, United States. ### Orca Restricted Countries Although Orca’s "Terms of Use Agreement" did not explicitly name any country as restricted, the company advised users in areas prohibited by the applicable law to desist from using its platform. ### What Coins Are Supported on Orca? The DEX supports over 200 markets, with the most popular trading pairs being SOL/USDC, SOL/STSOL, and SOL/MSOL. ### How Much Are Orca Fees? Trading fees vary depending on the route the AMM uses. The fee structure on the platform is as follows: stable whirlpool – 0.01%, whirlpool – 0.2%, stable pool – 0.07%, and pool – 0.3%. A "double-hop trade" such as SOL to USDT to ETH would pay 0.3% to trade SOL to USDT and another 0.3% to trade USDT to ETH. ### Is it Possible To Use Leverage or Margin Trading on Orca? The decentralized trading platform does not support margin trading.

Orca uses liquidity pools and an automated market maker (AMM) algorithm to facilitate trades. Liquidity providers deposit token pairs into pools and earn a share of trading fees. Prices are determined algorithmically based on the ratio of assets in each pool.

Orca is a non-custodial decentralized exchange, meaning users retain control of their private keys and funds at all times. Smart contract risk is inherent in all DeFi protocols — always review audits and use appropriate position sizes.

Orca operates on Solana. Multi-chain support allows users to trade assets native to each supported chain without bridging.

Orca was launched in 2021. Since then it has grown to offer 871 trading markets with $132.49M in 24-hour trading volume.