Anyswap Crypto Exchange Review (Now Multichain): What Happened and What You Need to Know

When Anyswap launched in July 2020, it promised something most decentralized exchanges couldn’t do: swap Bitcoin for Ethereum, or Binance Coin for Avalanche, without touching a centralized exchange. No intermediaries. No custodians. Just direct, trustless cross-chain trades. For a while, it looked like the future. But today, Anyswap doesn’t exist as it once did. It’s now called Multichain, and its story is a lesson in innovation, ambition, and the brutal realities of DeFi. If you’re looking at Anyswap right now because you heard it’s still active, you need to know one thing upfront: the original platform shut down. The name changed. The technology evolved. And the risks? They got worse. This isn’t a review of a thriving exchange. It’s a breakdown of what Anyswap was, what it became, and whether anyone should still touch it.

What Anyswap Actually Did

Anyswap wasn’t a typical crypto exchange. You didn’t deposit funds and trade against other users. Instead, it was a cross-chain bridge that used Distributed Control Rights Management (DCRM)-a cryptographic system built on Shamir’s Secret Sharing and private key sharding. This meant when you swapped BTC for ETH, your Bitcoin never left the Bitcoin chain. Your Ethereum never left the Ethereum chain. Instead, Anyswap’s network of validators used encrypted fragments of private keys to authorize the swap across chains. No one held your assets. No one could steal them. That’s the dream. It supported over 15 blockchains, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, and even Bitcoin. Tokens like USDT, LTC, FSN, and XRP could all be swapped directly. The fee structure was simple: 0.30% for makers, 0.40% for takers. No hidden charges. No price slippage from order books. It used automated liquidity pools, like Uniswap, but across chains. And it didn’t raise money. No presale. No VC funding. Just a public launch on July 22, 2020. Within 24 hours, it hit $7.79 million in daily volume. That’s rare. Even rarer? It was one of the first to do this without wrapped assets. Other bridges like Wormhole or stargate locked your asset on Chain A and minted a token on Chain B. Anyswap didn’t do that. It moved value directly.

Why It Gained Early Traction

DeFi Summer 2020 was a gold rush. Liquidity mining was exploding. Users were desperate for yield. Anyswap offered it. By September 2020, it had deployed on Binance Smart Chain and started distributing ANY tokens-its native currency-to liquidity providers. The rewards were insane: 159% APY for FSN-USDT, 367% for FSN-ETH. People flocked in. Liquidity pools grew. Trading volume climbed. Binance noticed. In October 2020, it awarded Anyswap a $350,000 grant from its $100 million Accelerator Fund. That wasn’t just money. It was validation. Anyswap was now on the map. For experienced DeFi users, it was a game-changer. You could swap 2.5 BTC for 50 ETH in one transaction, saving over $100 in fees compared to using centralized exchanges. No KYC. No waiting. No withdrawal limits. But for beginners? It was a minefield.

The Hidden Problems

Behind the flashy numbers were deep flaws. First, transaction failures. During Ethereum network congestion, Anyswap’s DCRM system would often stall. Users reported three failed swaps in a row, losing $45 in gas fees each time. One Reddit user called it “a lottery where you pay to lose.” Second, liquidity. On February 26, 2021, Anyswap’s 24-hour volume was $1 million. Binance? $1.5 billion. Even Uniswap, limited to Ethereum, had 10x more activity. Anyswap’s pools were thin. Slippage was high. Sometimes, a swap would fail because there wasn’t enough liquidity on the destination chain. Third, support. Customer service? Nonexistent. Telegram and Discord channels had average response times of 8-12 hours. Trustpilot reviews from May 2021 showed 68% of negative feedback cited “transaction failures” and 82% complained about “no help when things went wrong.” And then there was the learning curve. First-time users took 45-60 minutes to complete a single swap. Experienced users still needed 15-20 minutes. Documentation was sparse. Critical details about gas limits, chain-specific fees, and slippage settings were buried in GitHub issues. No tutorials. No live chat. Just a website and a Discord server.

The Rebrand: Anyswap Becomes Multichain

On December 16, 2021, Anyswap quietly disappeared. Its website redirected to Multichain a rebranded version of the same protocol. The ANY token remained. The DCRM tech stayed. But the name changed. Why? Because Anyswap was losing ground. CoinMarketCap had already labeled it an “Untracked Listing” in September 2021-meaning it had no reliable volume data. DappRadar’s Q3 2021 report showed Anyswap held less than 0.1% of the DEX market. It was fading. Multichain promised upgrades: faster routing, better security, more chains. But the reality was worse. In July 2022, Multichain’s Router v3 suffered a $120 million exploit. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in the cross-chain message verification system. Millions in assets vanished. The community was furious. The team admitted fault. Compensation? Minimal. Recovery? Slow. Today, Multichain still operates. But it’s not the same platform. The trust is gone. The volume? A fraction of what it once was.

Is ANY Token Still Worth Anything?

The ANY token hit an all-time high of $7.15 in January 2022, right after the Multichain rebrand. Since then, it’s crashed to around $0.85 by late 2022 and has hovered near $1 since. PricePrediction.net forecasts $14.55 by 2025. WalletInvestor says $3.20. Neither is based on current usage. There are no active users. No real liquidity. No major DeFi protocols integrate with it anymore. ANY’s value now rests on speculation-not utility. If you hold ANY, you’re betting that Multichain will fix its security flaws and regain market trust. That’s a big if.

Who Should Use Multichain Today?

Short answer: almost no one. If you’re a beginner: avoid it. The interface is outdated. The risks are high. The support is nonexistent. If you’re an experienced DeFi user with a high risk tolerance: you might still use it for niche swaps-say, swapping a lesser-known token between two obscure chains where no other bridge exists. But even then, you’d be better off with alternatives like Synapse, LayerZero, or Celer. The truth? Cross-chain bridges have moved on. The industry now favors message-passing protocols like LayerZero and Axelar over DCRM. They’re faster, cheaper, and more secure. Multichain’s tech, once groundbreaking, is now outdated.

Alternatives to Consider

If you need to swap across chains, here are better options:

• LayerZero - Used by major DeFi apps like Stargate and Pendle. Proven security, low fees.
• Synapse Protocol - Supports 20+ chains. High liquidity. Better user experience.
• Celer cBridge - Fast, low-cost, and integrated with wallets like MetaMask.
• Wormhole - Backed by Jump Crypto. Used by Solana and Ethereum ecosystems.

Final Verdict

Anyswap was a bold experiment. It proved cross-chain swaps without wrapped assets were possible. It inspired a generation of DeFi builders. But it also showed how fragile these systems can be. Today, Multichain is a ghost of its former self. The technology is outdated. The security record is poor. The community is gone. Don’t use it unless you have a very specific, very niche need-and even then, proceed with extreme caution. The best move? Walk away. Use something that’s actually alive.