The team behind Curve Finance has accused PancakeSwap of using its code without proper licensing, specifically calling out the “StableSwap” implementation on PancakeSwap Infinity that handles swaps of stablecoins and tightly pegged assets.
Curve posted on X that PancakeSwap could contact them for licensing and collaboration if it wants to use StableSwap “without legal problems” and to borrow Curve’s expertise “to keep users SAFU.” The team emphasized that deep StableSwap expertise is required to integrate swap features safely, citing the 2022 Saddle Finance hack and a $116 million Balancer exploit in 2025 as examples of vulnerabilities in swap-based code.
PancakeSwap said it would reach out to Curve to discuss the matter. Curve replied that collaboration is preferable: “Indeed, better to be friends and build together.” Cointelegraph reached out to both teams but had not received a response by publication.
The dispute highlights legal and cybersecurity risks in DeFi as projects iterate on products and add features, often building on or adapting existing codebases.
PancakeSwap Infinity launched on Arbitrum and BNB Chain in April 2025 after integrating one-click cross-chain swaps that let users move assets between blockchains. The upgrade introduced “hooks,” smart-contract plug-ins that customize liquidity pool parameters—enabling dynamic fees, tailored rebates and on-chain limit orders that execute when preset conditions are met. It also lowered pool-creation fees by up to 99% to support varied liquidity strategies.
In July 2025, PancakeSwap Infinity expanded to Base, an Ethereum layer-2, and promoted up to 50% cheaper trading fees when trading Ether (ETH) against ERC-20 tokens. ERC-20 is the token standard for most assets on Ethereum, including many tokens issued on L2s and other Ethereum-based projects.
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