exchange
wAMM
what is wAMM?
wAMM (Wick Automated Market Maker) organizes liquidity into discrete price bins. Each bin trades at a fixed price, so swaps within a bin have zero price impact. Capital concentrates where trading actually happens.
For traders, that means predictable execution at each price level. For LPs, it means choosing not just a price range but a liquidity shape: how capital is distributed across bins.
Traditional V2 pairs spread capital across every possible price. DLMM turns the same idea into stacked bins around the active bin, closer to orderbook depth while staying fully on-chain.
The rest of this page covers wAMM on Lighter EVM, how bins work (including bin step tiers), liquidity shapes, active bin, competitive farming, and range orders.
Wick AMM
Wick AMM uses DLMM as the base layer for active markets on Lighter EVM. LPs deploy liquidity into price ranges with preset or custom shapes; traders get deeper execution near the active bin; Wick adds dynamic fees and Wick arbitrage (MEV internalization) on top.
Swap fees compound automatically into your position, unlike Uniswap V3, which has a separate claim step.
Dynamic fees adjust as market conditions change. Volatile markets charge more for trading against LP inventory; calmer markets stay competitive. See dynamic fees for the full model.
Wick also builds product features on the pool design: the orderbook view makes bin liquidity readable at a glance, range orders turn single-sided bins into limit-order-like positions, and Paint lets LPs draw any custom distribution.
orderbook view
Wick presents AMM liquidity in an orderbook view. Instead of reasoning only in bin IDs, the interface shows bid and ask depth across price levels, the way many traders already think about markets.
Each visible level maps to one or more bins. Depth below spot represents liquidity that buys the base token as price falls; depth above spot represents liquidity that sells the base token as price rises. With DLMM's discrete bins, this mapping is especially natural.
Combined with range orders, this bridges AMM liquidity provision and traditional limit-order thinking.
how bins work
Bins are the price grid of a DLMM pool. Each bin is a single fixed price point. Consecutive bins are spaced by the pool's bin step, a percentage gap set at pool creation:
price_n = price_{n-1} × (1 + binStep)
Example: a 1 bp bin step on a USDC/LIT pool at $1.70 gives next bins at $1.7001, $1.70020001, and so on. Smaller steps suit stable or correlated pools; larger steps suit volatile pools with fewer bin crossings per swap.
The active bin is where the market currently trades. Only in-range liquidity earns fees.
bin step tiers
Wick pools are identified by bin step. Values below describe price granularity and typical pool fit; actual swap fees are dynamic.
| Bin Step | Approximate Base Fee | Best Used For |
|---|---|---|
| 1 bp | ~0.01% | Pegged assets, stablecoins, LSTs |
| 5 bp | ~0.025% | Correlated assets, moderate volatility |
| 10 bp | ~0.05% | Standard tier for most trading pools |
| 50 bp | ~0.30% | Higher volatility assets |
| 100 bp | ~1% | Exotic or illiquid pools |
| 200 bp | ~2% | Highly volatile assets |
dynamic fees on top
The base fee column is an approximate starting point. Wick's dynamic fee algorithm adjusts the actual fee in real time based on market conditions and volume.
liquidity shapes
A liquidity shape is how capital is distributed across bins in your price range. Wick supports four deployment modes.
Spot
Uniform liquidity across every bin in the price range, with optional emphasis around the active bin for tighter spot exposure. Versatile and straightforward, and the closest preset to a wide passive position. Good default when you want lower rebalancing frequency.
Curve
Bell-curve distribution centered on the active bin. Maximizes capital efficiency near spot while tapering toward the edges of the price range. Best for stables and pools that stay near peg.
Bid-Ask
Inverse curve: capital weighted toward both ends of the price range. Captures larger volatility swings away from spot. Can deploy single-sided for DCA in or out strategies.
Paint
Paint is a Wick-only feature, not a generic DLMM preset. While Spot, Curve, and Bid-Ask cover common deployment patterns, real strategies often need asymmetric ladders, stepped DCA bands, or custom volatility assumptions that no preset can express.
In Paint mode you draw any free-form line across the bin chart. On release, Wick snaps your stroke into discrete bin heights and deploys liquidity to match the curve. The same price range, fee tier, and autocompounding behavior apply as with presets; only the distribution is custom.
Use Paint when you want fine-grained control: laddered entries above or below spot, a fat tail on one side of the price range, or a hand-tuned mix of spot and bid-ask behavior in a single position. You can redraw before confirming deployment to iterate on the shape without leaving the LP flow.
Draw any free-form line across the chart · release to snap into bins
capital efficiency
Capital efficiency is why concentrated liquidity designs exist. A tighter price range provides the same effective depth with less capital because liquidity sits where trades are expected.
the efficiency multiplier
The numbers below are rough illustrations, not expected returns.
| Price range width | Approximate Efficiency vs V2 |
|---|---|
| Full range (0 to infinity) | 1x (equivalent to V2) |
| +/-50% around current price | ~3x |
| +/-10% around current price | ~20x |
| +/-1% around current price | ~200x |
| Single bin | Extremely high, but specialized |
tradeoff
Narrower price ranges raise productivity when active, but raise out-of-range risk and concentrate impermanent loss.
Alice and Bob
Alice spreads capital across a full-range V2-style curve. Bob places a smaller amount into bins where he expects most trading.
Bob's tighter price range produces much more depth near the market while price stays in range. If price leaves the range, the position stops earning fees and becomes one-sided.
active bin
A concentrated liquidity position provides active liquidity only when the current pool price is within the position's price range. Understanding this lifecycle is critical for effective LP management.
position lifecycle
Price in range: The position is active. It holds both tokens and earns a share of swap fees proportional to its liquidity relative to all other active positions at that price.
Price exits above range: The position converts entirely to the lower-value token (e.g., all USDC in a LIT/USDC position). It stops earning fees and sits idle until price returns.
Price exits below range: The position converts entirely to the higher-value token (e.g., all LIT). It stops earning fees.
competitive farming
Competitive farming rewards the most productive and competitive liquidity with the highest returns. In concentrated liquidity, users choose their price ranges, opening the possibility for optimized capital deployment across bins.
LP A
Wide
15%APR
$500,000
~1x
LP B
Focused
95%APR
$100,000
~10x
LP C
Tight
340%APR
$25,000
~170x
Fee Distribution
The more optimized a user's price range, the higher their rewards. This naturally aligns LP interests with Wick's growth. Tighter, actively managed positions provide better execution for traders, which drives more volume through the pool.
As volume grows, pools generate more swap fees. LP incentives can be layered on top of swap fees to further reward productive liquidity, making well-managed Wick pools preferred routing destinations for aggregators.
range orders
In orderbooks, anyone can set a limit order to buy or sell at a predetermined price, with the order filled at some future time. With concentrated liquidity, you can approximate a limit order by providing a single asset as liquidity within a specific price range. Like traditional limit orders, range orders execute when the spot price crosses the full price range of the order.
fee earnings while waiting
Unlike traditional limit orders that may incur fees, range order makers earn swap fees while the order is being filled. This is because the range order is technically a form of liquidity provisioning rather than a swap.
| take-profit order | buy limit order |
|---|---|
selling LIT for USDC The current price of the LIT / USDC pool is $1.70. You want to sell your LIT when the price reaches $1.80. The price space above the spot price is denominated in the higher valued asset, LIT. You provide LIT at $1.80–$1.81 and the order fills when the spot price crosses your position. | selling USDC for LIT The current price of the LIT / USDC pool is $1.70. You expect LIT to rebound if it drops to $1.55. So you provide USDC at $1.55–$1.56 and the order fills if the spot price falls through your position. |
Drag the LP range, then press Play
reversal risk
Unlike traditional limit orders, range orders can become unfilled if the spot price crosses the price range and then reverses before you withdraw the target asset. While you earn LP fees during this time, a tight price range is essential if the goal is to exit fully in the destination asset. Hooks below solve this.
hooks
hooks are optional contracts linked to a pool that run extra logic when swaps or liquidity updates happen. Wick uses them for auto-withdrawing limit orders and options built directly on wAMM pools.
limit orders
Wick is developing auto-withdrawing range orders that solve the reversal risk problem. When a swapper's trade pushes your position fully out of range, hooks withdraw the filled order for you on that same swap, with no manual step and no reversal window. For example, place a single-sided buy at $1.60 on LIT/USDC; when a swap crosses that level and fills your order, the hook pulls the position out automatically.
options
Wick also uses hooks for options with a strike. You pick a strike on the pool and deploy liquidity in bins shaped around it: a downside wing below, an upside wing above, and concentration at the strike. As spot price moves through those bins, the position converts token-by-token and the hook enforces the programmed payoff. Familiar call- or put-like exposure, but entirely inside wAMM markets alongside ordinary liquidity and range orders.
Spot trades through strike bins; programmed payoff engages.
in development
Limit orders and options with a strike are still under development using Wick hooks.