$CATSKY / Cardano Guides / Swap on Minswap & DexHunter
Cardano guides · updated September 4, 2026
How to swap tokens on Minswap and DexHunter
To swap on Minswap: connect a Cardano wallet at minswap.org, pick ADA and the token you want by pasting its policy ID, enter the amount, check the minimum you will receive, click Swap and sign in your wallet. The order settles in a second transaction a batcher submits for you, so it shows as pending for a short while. There is no batcher fee any more; you pay the pool's trading fee and the network fee. DexHunter does the same job across many exchanges at once and is worth using for large orders.
Before you start
What do I need before my first swap?
Two things: a self-custody Cardano wallet with a browser extension or mobile app, and some ADA in it. If you do not have a wallet yet, the wallet guide compares Lace, Eternl and Vespr and walks through setup. Buy ADA on any exchange you already use and withdraw it to the wallet's receive address, sending a small test amount first.
Keep a few ADA more than you plan to swap. Every Cardano transaction costs a fraction of an ADA, and a wallet that holds native tokens must keep a small ADA balance locked alongside them, so a wallet emptied to zero ADA cannot move its tokens. In our experience five spare ADA is comfortable for a first swap.
You also need the token's policy ID: the 56-character hexadecimal string that identifies the minting policy. Get it from the project's own site, never from a search result or a message. For $CATSKY it is 9b426921a21f54600711da0be1a12b026703a9bd8eb9848d08c9d921.
Minswap, step by step
How do I swap on Minswap, step by step?
- Open minswap.org and connect your wallet. Type the address yourself or use a bookmark. Click Connect Wallet, choose your wallet, and approve the connection in the wallet pop-up. Connecting only lets the site read your addresses; it cannot move funds.
- Choose the pair. The top field is what you pay (ADA). In the bottom field's token search, paste the policy ID rather than typing the name. Several tokens can share a ticker; only one has the ID you pasted.
- Enter the amount and read the quote. Minswap shows the rate, the price impact of your order on the pool, your slippage tolerance, and the minimum received. If price impact is more than a percent or two, the pool is thin for your size: split the order or try DexHunter.
- Click Swap and sign. Your wallet opens a signing prompt showing the ADA leaving and the order being created. Check the amount, sign, and the transaction is submitted.
- Wait for the batcher. Your order appears under Orders as pending. A batcher settles it against the pool in a second transaction, and the tokens appear in your wallet. You can cancel a pending order from the same screen if it has not settled.
The aggregator
When should I use DexHunter instead?
DexHunter is not an exchange; it is an aggregator that quotes one order across more than fifteen Cardano exchanges (Minswap V1 and V2, SundaeSwap, WingRiders, Splash, VyFinance, MuesliSwap and others, per its own documentation) and can split the order between pools. The flow at app.dexhunter.io looks the same as Minswap's: connect, pick the pair by policy ID, enter the amount, sign.
Use it when the order is large relative to the pool, or when the token trades in more than one place, because the split can beat any single pool's price. Small orders in a deep pool gain little from routing, and DexHunter adds its own service fee on top of the exchange fee. That fee is shown on the swap screen before you sign; the number to compare between the two sites is minimum received, which is what lands in your wallet after every fee.
Fees
What do the fees actually cost?
| Fee | Amount | Source, checked September 4, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Minswap batcher fee | 0 ADA. About 2 ADA per order until May 2025, when Minswap removed batcher fees for users. | docs.minswap.org |
| Minswap trading fee | Around 0.3% of the trade, paid to the pool's liquidity providers. V2 pools can set their own rate, shown in the quote. | docs.minswap.org |
| Cardano network fee | 0.155381 ADA plus 0.000044 ADA per byte of transaction. A plain transfer is about 0.17 ADA; a swap transaction is larger, so somewhat more. | docs.cardano.org · CIP-9 |
| DexHunter service fee | Charged on top of the exchange fee; the amount is not published in its documentation and is shown on the swap screen before you sign. HUNT holders get a reduced rate. | DexHunter docs |
| Order deposit | An order carries a small amount of ADA (the chain's minimum for any output); it comes back with your tokens when the order settles. | Minswap spec |
Holding Minswap's MIN token is not required for anything above; it only earns holders a trading-fee discount.
Pending orders
Why is my swap "pending" for minutes?
Because on Cardano a DEX trade is two transactions, not one. The transaction you sign creates an order, a small piece of chain state holding your ADA and your terms. Separate programs called batchers watch for orders, bundle them, and execute them against the pool in a transaction of their own. Your order is pending between those two events. In our experience it is usually under a few minutes; during a busy period, such as a popular token launch, batchers fall behind and it can be longer. Minswap's documentation does not promise a time.
While pending, your ADA sits in the order under your terms, and you can cancel from the Orders screen. If the price moves past your slippage tolerance before the batcher reaches you, the order fails rather than filling badly, and the ADA returns.
Safety
How do I make sure I bought the real token?
Open the token in your wallet after the swap, view its details, and compare the policy ID with the one from the project's site, character by character. A matching name proves nothing; a matching policy ID is proof. You can also look the ID up on Cardanoscan to see the mint date and holder count. The three best-known meme tokens and their IDs are side by side on the Cardano meme coins page, and the $CATSKY buying guide repeats the whole flow for our token.
Straight answers
Frequently asked
Do I pay a batcher fee on Minswap?
Not any more. Minswap charged roughly 2 ADA per order until May 2025, when it removed batcher fees for users (checked on docs.minswap.org, September 4, 2026). A swap now costs the pool's trading fee, around 0.3% of the trade, plus the ordinary Cardano network fee for the transaction.
Why does my swap say "pending"?
Minswap does not execute your trade inside the transaction you sign. You sign an order; a batcher then picks the order up and settles it against the pool in a later transaction. Until that second transaction lands the order shows as pending. In our experience that is usually under a few minutes; when the chain is busy it can be longer. Your ADA is in the order, not gone.
Is DexHunter cheaper than Minswap?
Sometimes. DexHunter routes an order across more than fifteen Cardano exchanges and can split it between pools, so for a large order or a thinly traded token it can find a better price than any single pool. It charges its own service fee on top of the DEX fee, which it shows on the swap screen before you sign, so compare the "minimum received" figure rather than the headline rate.
How do I know I bought the real token?
Compare policy IDs, not names. Anyone can mint a token called CATSKY or SNEK, but only one has the original policy ID. Paste the policy ID into the exchange's token search instead of typing the name, then open the token in your wallet after the swap and check the ID character by character against the project's own site or its CardanoScan page.
Related: all guides · best wallets for meme coins · Cardano tools directory · buy $CATSKY
Not financial advice. $CATSKY is a meme token; cryptocurrency carries significant risk and you can lose everything. Buybacks are discretionary — not guaranteed, and may change or stop at any time. Do your own research; verify everything on-chain.
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