I've used thorswap dot finance in the past and found the dex to be much much cheaper than exodus swap.. but they don't appear to have that ROOT coin. Looking at this-- [https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-root-network](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-root-network) MEXC and Gate are the only places that have any volume, and it's already super super low. Good luck-- next time, stay away from shit coins and stick to the big names (btc, etc, doge, etc)-- you need trading volume to move in and out.

The short answer is: you can get about 80% there today. For crypto self-custody, a hardware wallet (Ledger, Trezor, or Keystone) gives you full control without any intermediary. For exchanging crypto without a centralized exchange, use DEXs like Uniswap, Curve, or ThorChain. They run on smart contracts, no KYC, no account needed. For fiat, that's the hard part. The closest options are stablecoins (USDC, DAI) on a hardware wallet; you "hold" dollars without a bank. Converting to actual cash still requires a ramp (exchange, P2P merchant, or crypto ATM). The self-hosted exchange concept doesn't exist yet in a clean form, but THORSwap and atomic swaps come closest.

https://preview.redd.it/pf4u1v0e2wyg1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=a22a54e408263d301601e025fae980b36300e4dc 🗺️ **ECOSYSTEM RECAP** Here's what happened this week ⤵️ **Headline News** THORChain v3.17 is live. ADR 023 burned 64.4M $RUNE from the Protocol Reserve, bringing circulating supply just above 360M. The Reserve was non-circulating so no price impact, but the supply picture is now much cleaner for anyone looking at $RUNE for the first time. **Bitcoin Vegas** The THORChain side event at F1 Arcade pulled 40 to 50 people. More importantly, cakewallet and EdgeWallet confirmed they'll both be ready to support $XMR from day one. Chad called this the strongest wallet readiness for any chain launch since Terra. Two wallets covering an estimated 90% of $XMR holdings.  **Launches** ThorWallet launched a non-custodial Mastercard with unblockpayments. Swiss-regulated, stablecoin-powered, available in 175+ countries. Hold your keys. Spend anywhere. unstoppablebyhs launched the Unstoppable Swap bot for Telegram. Swap $XMR, $BTC, and $ZEC directly in chat. Cross-chain, no wallet connection, no logs. THORSwap added $XAU₮ (Tether Gold). Native gold exposure, cross-chain. RujiraNetwork raised the bRUNE cap to 3 million after the previous 2 million cap filled within 48 hours. Demand is real. SwapKitPowered integrated nufiwallet, giving NUFI users access to THORChain liquidity directly from their wallet. $BTC, $ETH, $SOL, and more, fully decentralised. That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads. *If your project was missed, drop a DM and we'll include it in the next recap*

Here is what happened this week ⤵️ **Milestones** vultisig crossed $100M in swap volume. The next milestone is already being debated. symbiosis\_fi crossed $8B in cumulative cross-chain volume, with THORChain as one of its routing layers. **Launches** THORSwap turns 5 this week and is launching [Metro.exchange](http://Metro.exchange), a next-gen DeFi app built for both OGs and newcomers. Native unified wallet, simplified UI, and user-first features. Open beta is live. RujiraNetwork hit $200k in total borrowed on the RUJI Money Market. Borrow against native $BTC, $ETH, $DOGE, $XRP, and more with no KYC. The team also launched Custom Concentrated Liquidity on RUJI Trade, letting anyone step into the role of a market maker with full control over their liquidity strategy. SwapKitPowered integrated BalletCrypto. US users can now swap across chains, fully decentralised, straight from Ballet. leodexio launched a Rapid Swaps volume tracker at thorvolume.com/rapid. Good data, easier to follow what's moving through the protocol. THORStackAPI released THORStack Elding as a standalone binary. Live THORChain event stream in your terminal. Swaps, pools, mempool, real-time. *That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads.* *If your project was missed, drop a DM and we'll include it in the next recap.*

https://preview.redd.it/3lsprov277wg1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbbd73d623e46bf1d765db7416a1e756203dfb3a Here's what happened this week ⤵️ **Headline News** * ZenGo is joining forces with eToro. As crypto and traditional finance converge, custody standards matter more than ever. **Launches** * THORSwap enabled Rapid Swaps. Large trades settle faster without sacrificing price. Auto-enabled when possible, no action required from users. * asgardex shipped two major updates this week. v1.43.1 brought vultisig MPC wallet integration, interactive price charts, and THORChain Rapid Swap mode. v1.43.2 is a critical migration update. Users should upgrade immediately to ensure all chains function correctly. * unstoppablebyhs added Zano\_project to its swap interface. Confidential by default, not optional. Live on iOS, Android coming next. * thordex\_ipfs launched a unified asset selector. Instead of drowning in multiple versions of $USDC across chains, users now get a clean two-step picker. Cross-chain UX, simplified. * TokenPocket\_TP hit 35M+ users and 50M+ downloads, 8 years of building for users. That wraps up this week's THORChain ecosystem update. See you next week, Chads. If your project was missed, drop a DM and we'll include it in the next recap.

So I often used to convert my BTC to Solana to either use in Kamino or Marinade finance just to generate a couple extra 3-4% (earlier, I didn't know any BTC staking protocol), and never bothered to check about custodial-ness and cost of bridges and aggregators. After some time, I realised that I lost too much money while converting my Bitcoin. It evolved my workflow. Here's what I do now 1. Compare and find the best sources. I used to go to Jumper or Thorswap to do the swap, but soon I realised that if you go to the protocol they're routing through directly, it works out cheaper 2. Do the swap on the protocol. On the aggregator, you will see the best way to swap that particular pair. Suppose Garden Finance or Relay comes up as the best route, I would directly go to their bridge and do the swap. Aggregators add a markup on bridge fees, and when wallets, onramps, or DeFi apps integrate these aggregators, they add their own commission on top, 3rd party protocol fees, aggregator fees, and platform fees, so users often end up paying triple fees for a single swap. I have saved almost $100 on average per swap, when I have done more than a $5,000 swap, by following this process during the last year. What's your process to convert BTC and use it in Defi?

keepkey is another old hardware wallet like ledger and trezor With keepkey there's infinate retries with a timer the doubles each time you get it wrong and you can't do anything till the timer reaches 0. I've herd stories of people pushing the timer back months. Slightly less bad then factory reset after 3 wrong tries. Keepkey also has an open for no pin at all. It's just ready to go the moment you plug it in. I don't think that's a good idea unless your using it for as an airgapped thorswap device. [https://app.thorswap.finance/wallet](https://app.thorswap.finance/wallet)