In this guide
What this covers
A quarter-million-dollar swap behaves nothing like a five-hundred-dollar one. Send it to a single pool and you pay for the privilege in price impact. This guide walks the workflow Maren uses to keep that cost down, and the two numbers worth checking before you approve.
Before you start
- Funded balance on the source network.
- A slippage figure you are comfortable with. If you have no strong view, 0.3% is a reasonable default for major pairs and 1% for thinner ones.
1. State the size and the ceiling in one sentence
Say the constraint out loud in the prompt rather than fixing it afterwards:
Swap 250,000 USDC into ETH on Base with no more than 0.3% slippage.Maren treats the ceiling as policy, not preference. If no route can fill inside it, you get a rejection and an explanation instead of a bad fill.
2. Read the route split
The confirmation names each venue and its share. A split across two or three pools is normal and usually cheaper than any single one:
| Venue | Share | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Uniswap v4 | 62% | Deepest USDC/ETH tick range on Base |
| Aerodrome | 38% | Absorbs the remainder without crossing a gap |
If a single venue takes the whole order, that is fine too. It means nothing else improved the price after fees.
3. Check price impact against slippage
These are different numbers and people conflate them constantly.
- Price impact is what your own order does to the pool. It is a prediction.
- Slippage cap is how much worse than the quote you will tolerate before the transaction reverts. It is a limit.
Impact well under your cap is the healthy case. Impact pressed up against it means you are about to pay near the maximum you authorised.
Impact at or above 1% on a major pair is a signal to split the order over time rather than force it through. See Ladder into a position with TWAP.
4. Approve
Approving signs the exact amount quoted. Maren re-prices in the same instant and aborts if the market has moved beyond your cap, so an approval cannot be replayed against a worse book.
Tips
- Name the network in the prompt. It removes an entire clarification round trip.
- Ask "why that route?" and Maren returns the losing quotes it discarded.
- For repeat swaps, describe the rule once and let it stand rather than retyping it.
Troubleshooting
"No route inside your slippage cap." Depth moved. Either raise the cap deliberately or reduce the size.
Quote expired before approval. Volatile pairs re-price in seconds. Re-ask; do not raise the cap to work around it.
The controls behind this workflow
- Order is rejected outright if the quoted price impact exceeds your cap.
- Quotes are re-priced immediately before signing; a stale quote aborts.
- Approvals are scoped to the exact amount, never unlimited.
Guides describe how to operate Maren. They are not financial advice, and figures shown are illustrative. You approve every transaction before it is signed.