Merchant Moe v2.2 (Mantle) Crypto Exchange Review: Zero Fees, High Speed, But Is It Right for You?

Most crypto exchanges charge you every time you trade. Even the big ones. 0.1%. 0.25%. 0.5%. It adds up fast, especially if you’re swapping tokens often. But what if you could trade for free? Not just low fees-zero fees? That’s the promise of Merchant Moe v2.2 is a decentralized exchange built on the Mantle Network that eliminates all trading fees for both makers and takers. Also known as Merchant Moe DEX, it launched its major v2.2 update in March 2024 alongside Mantle’s Tectonic Upgrade, turning it into the dominant DEX on the network with 71.1% of all trading volume.

How Merchant Moe v2.2 Works (Without Charging You)

Merchant Moe v2.2 doesn’t make money by taking a cut of your trades. Instead, it runs on Mantle Network is a Layer 2 blockchain built on the Optimism Bedrock stack that processes 500 transactions per second with 10-millisecond block times, making it 20x faster than Ethereum mainnet. Also known as Mantle L2, it uses ZK proofs via OP Succinct and EigenDA for data availability, slashing gas costs by 80-90% compared to Ethereum. This means your swap costs around 0.001 Gwei in MNT tokens-barely noticeable. The platform uses a liquidity book model, similar to TraderJoe, but with discretized pools that allow tighter price slippage and better capital efficiency. Unlike Uniswap V3, where liquidity is concentrated in narrow ranges, Merchant Moe’s model spreads it out in a way that reduces impermanent loss and improves execution for high-frequency traders.

There are no maker or taker fees. Zero. Not even a hidden one. That’s rare in DeFi. Most DEXs still charge gas, even if they don’t charge protocol fees. Merchant Moe removes both. You pay only for the gas on Mantle, which is already ultra-cheap. For someone trading $5,000 a week, that’s $15-$50 saved every month compared to Uniswap or PancakeSwap.

What You Can Trade

Merchant Moe v2.2 supports 13 tokens across 23 trading pairs. The most active pair is CMETH is Mantle Restaked Ether, a yield-bearing version of ETH native to the Mantle Network that earns rewards from restaking on EigenLayer. Also known as Restaked ETH on Mantle, it’s the backbone of Merchant Moe’s liquidity paired with WETH. In the 24 hours ending October 23, 2025, this pair alone handled over $3.7 million in volume. Other popular pairs include CMETH/METH, WETH/MNT, and USDC/CMETH.

You won’t find Bitcoin or Solana here. Merchant Moe is focused on the Mantle ecosystem. If you’re trading native Mantle tokens or Ethereum-based assets wrapped on Mantle, it’s ideal. But if you want to swap BTC for DOGE or trade tokens from Solana or Avalanche, you’ll need another platform. This isn’t a cross-chain DEX. It’s a deep, optimized one.

Speed, Cost, and Performance

Swaps on Merchant Moe v2.2 complete in about 1.2 seconds on average. That’s faster than most centralized exchanges. The network’s 500 TPS throughput means even during spikes, you won’t get stuck in a mempool. On Ethereum, a simple swap can take 20-60 seconds and cost $5-$15. On Merchant Moe, it’s under a second and under $0.02.

Here’s how it stacks up:

The numbers speak for themselves. If you’re active on Mantle, Merchant Moe is the clear winner. If you’re not, it’s irrelevant.

Who Is This For?

Merchant Moe v2.2 isn’t for everyone. It’s built for a specific kind of user:

• High-frequency traders who swap tokens multiple times a day and want to avoid fee erosion.
• Mantle ecosystem users who hold CMETH, MNT, or other native tokens and want the fastest, cheapest way to trade them.
• DeFi veterans who understand liquidity pools, gas mechanics, and wallet management.

It’s not for beginners. The interface is clean but dense. It assumes you know what a liquidity pool is, how to approve tokens, and why you need to connect your wallet before swapping. One Trustpilot reviewer said it took them three days to get comfortable-even with prior DEX experience. There’s no live chat. No phone support. Help comes from Discord and Telegram, where responses can take 45 minutes during peak hours.

Also, if you care about regulation, this isn’t the place. Merchant Moe operates without any government oversight. No KYC. No licenses. No compliance team. That’s great for privacy. Terrible if you’re an institutional investor or someone who needs audited, regulated platforms.

The Downsides

Zero fees sound too good to be true. And sometimes, they are.

First, liquidity isn’t always stable. Users on Reddit have reported liquidity pool mismatches-where the price you see isn’t the price you get. This happens during high-volume periods when the discretized pools can’t adjust fast enough. It’s not a hack. It’s a design trade-off. Tighter pools mean less slippage normally, but more risk during volatility.

Second, adoption is still small. The entire Mantle DEX ecosystem does about $12.2 million in daily volume. Merchant Moe handles most of it, but that’s still tiny compared to Uniswap’s $1.2 billion. Merchant Moe’s website gets only 4,774 monthly visits. That’s less than a small Shopify store. Low traffic means lower liquidity for some pairs, which can lead to slippage or failed trades.

Third, learning the system takes time. The discretized liquidity model isn’t intuitive. You can’t just drag a slider like on Uniswap. You need to understand how the pools are structured, how fees are distributed, and how CMETH earns yield. There are 27 written guides and 15 video tutorials-but no hand-holding. You’re on your own.

Is It Safe?

Merchant Moe’s smart contracts have been audited by reputable firms, including CertiK and PeckShield. There haven’t been any exploits. The code is open-source. You can verify it yourself on GitHub. That’s good. But safety isn’t just about code. It’s about ecosystem risk.

Mantle Network is backed by Bybit and has a $2 billion treasury. That gives it stability. But it’s still a young chain. If Mantle suffers a major bug, Merchant Moe goes down with it. There’s no fallback. No multi-chain redundancy. You’re betting on one Layer 2. That’s a risk.

Also, if you’re storing large amounts of crypto, keep it cold. Don’t leave funds in your wallet on the platform. Use it for trading, not holding.

The Verdict

Merchant Moe v2.2 is the best DEX on Mantle Network. Hands down. It’s faster, cheaper, and more efficient than anything else on the chain. If you’re already using Mantle-whether you’re staking CMETH, farming MNT, or building on the network-this is your exchange. The zero-fee model is revolutionary for active traders.

But if you’re new to crypto, or you trade across multiple chains, or you need regulatory assurance, look elsewhere. This isn’t a beginner-friendly app. It’s a power tool for a niche crowd.

Right now, it’s a hidden gem. Not because it’s perfect, but because it’s perfectly tuned for its environment. If Mantle grows, Merchant Moe will grow with it. If Mantle fades, so will this exchange. That’s the trade-off.

Getting Started

Here’s how to use Merchant Moe v2.2:

1. Get a wallet that supports Ethereum and Layer 2s (MetaMask, Rabby, or WalletConnect).
2. Add the Mantle Network to your wallet using these settings: Network Name: Mantle, RPC URL: https://rpc.mantle.xyz, Chain ID: 5000, Symbol: MNT, Block Explorer: https://explorer.mantle.xyz.
3. Fund your wallet with MNT for gas and ETH or USDC to swap.
4. Go to merchantmoe.com and connect your wallet.
5. Choose your pair (CMETH/WETH is the most liquid), enter the amount, and confirm the swap.
6. Wait 1-2 seconds. Done.

Start with a small trade-$10 or $20-to test the flow. Watch the price before and after. Check if the final amount matches what the interface showed. If it does, you’re good to go.