Curve Finance accuses PancakeSwap of copying StableSwap code

Pancakeswap (CAKE) dropped 4% on Friday as Curve Finance (CRV) publicly accused the decentralized exchange (DEX) of copying its code without permission, citing license violation.

Curve Finance accuses Pancakeswap of copying code

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Curve Finance has accused PancakeSwap of copying portions of its codebase without permission, alleging a potential breach of licensing terms.

In an X post on Friday, Curve claimed PancakeSwap had replicated parts of the proprietary implementation of its swap algorithm, which underpins low-slippage trading for stablecoins and other pegged assets.

"Looks like you copied our code without asking. It is [a] violation of its license. Not only [is it] illegal: historically it showed to be unwise for those who did it this way in other regards," Curve Finance wrote.

The post included a screenshot from PancakeSwap's platform. The image showed a file labeled "CLStableSwapHook," attributed to PancakeSwap, with a comment, "TODO: Which license should we use?"

The accusation follows PancakeSwap's launch of the StableSwap feature on its Infinity platform on Monday. The new feature was introduced as a tool for swapping stablecoins and other tightly pegged assets with lower slippage and dynamic fee adjustments.

Curve introduced the stablecoin swap algorithm in 2020 to optimize trading between assets with similar prices, such as stablecoins. The model uses specialized bonding curves to reduce slippage and improve pricing efficiency.

PancakeSwap publicly responded to the accusation, stating that it had contacted the Curve team directly to discuss the matter.

CAKE and CRV are down 4% over the past 24 hours as of writing on Friday.