Collateral Swap: DashsWallet vs the Official Aave Dapp
Same wallet, same Aave v3 position, same USDC to cbBTC collateral swap, run in both interfaces at the same 0.50% slippage. The official dapp quoted a slightly worse price, charged a 25 bps fee against 10 bps and cost 2.6x more to execute. Every number below is read off the two screenshots.
First: what does "swapping collateral" mean?What a collateral swap isswapCollateral: the mechanism
Imagine you left a stack of cash at a pawn shop as a guarantee for a loan. One day you decide you would rather leave a gold bar there instead, because you expect gold to hold its value better.You have USDC supplied as collateral on Aave with an open loan against it. You want BTC exposure without closing the loan, which means replacing the collateral with cbBTC while the debt stays open.The operation takes a flashLoanSimple in the destination asset, swaps the source collateral through an adapter, calls supply() of the destination on behalf of the user, withdraws the permit-authorised source collateral and settles the flash loan plus premium.
To do that, someone has to buy the gold bar, take your cash and leave the bar in its place, without ever leaving the pawn uncovered. If it goes uncovered, the shop owner keeps everything.Doing it by hand would mean withdrawing the USDC first, which drops your Health Factor and can get you liquidated, then buying cbBTC on a DEX and re-depositing. A collateral swap does all three steps in a single transaction, using a flash loan so the position is never uncovered.It is atomic: any failing leg reverts the whole transaction, so the position is never under-collateralised mid-flight. This is why the swap leg has to be priced and bounded up front rather than executed opportunistically.
In DeFi it works the same way. The cash is your USDC deposited on Aave, the gold bar is cbBTC, and the shop owner is the protocol, which liquidates your position if it ever goes uncovered. All of it happens in one automatic operation. Which leaves exactly one question: who buys your gold bar better, and who charges you less to do it?The protocol is the same on both sides: Aave v3. What changes is who executes the purchase of the cbBTC and what they charge for it, and that is precisely where value leaks.The official dapp shows a single quote and a single fee line. DashsWallet quotes several aggregators in parallel, compares amountOut net of cost, shows the winning provider and its margin over the runner-up, and only then builds the calldata. Same adapter surface, different routing and fee. The execution and fee deltas scale with notional; the network-cost delta is fixed per transaction.
Where your money leaks outThe three leak pointsDecomposing the delta
Every swap has three holes money can disappear through. Here is each one, on both sides.Execution price, platform fee and network cost. Only the last two show up on screen as a cost.Three independent components. The first two are proportional to notional; the network cost is fixed per transaction.
The price your asset is bought forExecution priceExecution price (bps)
Nobody charges you anything here. They simply sell you the Bitcoin for a little more than it could have gone for. You never notice, because you have nothing to compare it against.It never appears as a fee. It is the gap between the quote the dapp gives you by default and the best route available at that same instant. Here you are buying cbBTC, so a lower price is better.Implicit cost, invisible on the receipt. The official dapp shows one quote with no competing quote, so there is no baseline to measure the spread against. USDC per cbBTC: lower is better for the buyer.
- Official Aave dapp
- 81,297.72
- DashsWallet
- 81,265.46
Minus 3.97 bps (32.26 USDC per cbBTC). The router compared the integrated aggregators and settled on Velora Delta, $0.99 ahead of the second best. Scales linearly with notional.
The commissionPlatform feeFee (bps of output)
This is the commission taken on every swap, and it is written on screen. On a $1,000 swap, one side takes $2.49 and the other takes $1.00.Both interfaces itemise it. The official dapp charges 25 bps, 0.0000308 cbBTC ($2.49) on this swap. DashsWallet charges 10 bps, 0.0000123 cbBTC ($1.00).0.0000308 cbBTC over a 0.01230048 cbBTC output is 25 bps; 0.0000123 cbBTC is 10 bps. Proportional to notional, so it is the largest line item at any meaningful size.
- Official Aave dapp
- 25 bps ($2.49)
- DashsWallet
- 10 bps ($1.00)
Minus 15 bps, $1.49 on this swap. Proportional: the saving grows with the size of the operation.
The cost to executeNetwork costFixed cost per transaction
The toll for making the operation happen on the blockchain. It is small on both sides, but it is about 25 times larger on the Aave side.The dapp reports $0.08 of network costs. DashsWallet reports $0.0032, plus a flash loan premium itemised at $0.00.0.0828420 USDC ($0.08) against $0.0032 at 0.010 gwei, plus $0.00 of Aave flash loan premium.
- Official Aave dapp
- $0.0828
- DashsWallet
- $0.0032
Minus $0.0796 per transaction. Fixed cost: visible on small operations, negligible on large ones.
The two screens, side by sideSide-by-side evidenceCapture of both interfaces
These are the actual screenshots of both screens, on the same position. Compare them yourself.Same position, same pair, same size and the same 0.50% slippage. The card figures are read straight off the screenshots.Unedited captures. Every value below is read literally from each application UI.
Official Aave Dapp
Native interface, single quote
- cbBTC price
- 81,297.722 USDC
- Who picks the route
- Not shown
- Slippage tolerance
- 0.50%
- Network cost
- $0.08
- Fee
- 25 bps ($2.49)
$2.57
$0.08 of network plus $2.49 of fee on a 1,000.001 USDC swap.
DashsWallet
Multi-aggregator router
- cbBTC price
- 81,265.46 USDC
- Who picks the route
- Best of N (Velora Delta)
- Slippage tolerance
- 0.50%
- Network cost
- $0.0032
- Fee
- 10 bps ($1.00)
$1.0032
$0.0032 of network, $1.00 of fee and $0.00 of flash loan premium: $1.5668 less, on a better price.
What this is worth to youProjection for your position sizeParametric projection of the delta
The test swap was $1,000. Drag the slider to see what the difference is worth at the size you actually trade.Two proportional components (execution price and fee) and one fixed (network cost). Drag to see the weight of each.Gain equals notional times 0.001897 (3.97 bps price plus 15 bps fee) plus $0.0796 fixed. The fixed term dominates below roughly $42 of notional; above that, the proportional terms do.
$4,900
Linear projection from the delta measured on 8 October 2026, with slippage held equal at 0.50% on both sides. Real results vary with liquidity, pair and network.
Raw numbers and methodology
Everything above comes from here, including the limits of the test.
| Metric | Aave dapp | DashsWallet | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input (USDC) | 1,000.001 | 1,000.001 | — |
| Input value shown (USD) | $995.67 | $999.76 | different price sources |
| Execution price (USDC per cbBTC, lower is better) | 81,297.722 | 81,265.46 | −32.26 (−3.97 bps) |
| Slippage tolerance | 0.50% | 0.50% | — |
| cbBTC shown | 0.01230048 (quote) | 0.01224094 (minimum deposit) | not comparable |
| Network cost | 0.0828420 USDC ($0.08) | $0.0032 (0.010 gwei) | −$0.0796 |
| Platform fee | 25 bps (0.0000308 cbBTC, $2.49) | 10 bps (0.0000123 cbBTC, $1.00) | −15 bps (−$1.49) |
| Flash loan premium | not shown | $0.00 | — |
| Costs and fees, summed | $2.57 | $1.0032 | −$1.5668 |
| Best provider | not shown | Velora Delta (+$0.99 vs 2nd) | — |
| Health Factor | 1.81 → 1.81 | not shown | — |
| Post-swap USDC balance shown | 26.32K ($26.32K) | 26.32K ($26.31K) | same position |
The two screens show different dollar values for the same 1,000.001 USDC, $995.67 against $999.76, because each interface uses its own price source. They also show different cbBTC figures, a quote on one side and the minimum deposit after slippage on the other. For that reason we compare token amounts, quoted prices and itemised costs, not the dollar labels or the cbBTC amount. The post-swap USDC balance is 26.32K on both, which confirms the starting positions match.
How it was run
Same Aave v3 position on Base, same pair and same input size of 1,000.001 USDC, with slippage set to 0.50% on both screens. The collateral shown is the same on both, 27.32K against 27,318.150811 USDC, and the post-swap USDC balance is 26.32K on both. The execution layer is the only variable deliberately changed.
What is actually being compared
The fair comparison is the price each interface quotes for cbBTC, 81,297.722 against 81,265.46 USDC, plus the costs each one itemises. We do not compare the cbBTC amount shown: the Aave dapp shows a quote, 0.01230048 cbBTC, while DashsWallet shows the minimum deposit after slippage, 0.01224094 cbBTC.
Decomposing the gain on this operation
At $1,000 of notional: the fee contributes $1.49, the network cost $0.0796 and the better price about $0.40, for roughly $1.97 in total, about 0.2% of the operation. Fee and price scale with size, the network cost does not. That is why the calculator splits the terms instead of advertising a single headline percentage.
Slippage is held equal, not counted
Both interfaces were set to 0.50%, so slippage tolerance is a controlled variable here and no advantage is claimed from it. Your own default may differ between interfaces, which is worth checking before you sign.
Limits of this test
One operation, one pair, one network, one capture per interface. Execution price depends on liquidity and pair depth at the time, and we cannot confirm both quotes were taken in the same second. The two interfaces also value the same USDC differently, $995.67 against $999.76, so a price gap of a few bps can partly be market movement. The winning provider varies per operation; here it was Velora Delta, $0.99 ahead of the second. We read price and fee as separate line items, as each interface presents them. None of these figures is a guarantee of future results.
Why it happens
It shops around for the best priceMulti-aggregator routingMulti-aggregator routing
Instead of always using the same shop, it asks several at once and buys where the price is lowest. Here that meant 81,265 instead of 81,298 USDC per Bitcoin.Quotes the integrated aggregators in parallel and settles on the best net result. In this test: Velora Delta, $0.99 ahead of the second best.Competing quotes selected by amountOut net of cost, with the winner and its margin shown on screen. The official dapp shows a single quote with no baseline.
A smaller commission10 bps vs 25 bps10 bps fee vs 25 bps
The commission is $1.00 instead of $2.49 on the same $1,000 swap. The gap grows with the size of your operation.A 10 bps fee against 25 bps: $1.49 less on a $1,000 swap, and proportionally more as the amount grows.0.0000123 cbBTC against 0.0000308 cbBTC on the same input; a 15 bps reduction proportional to notional.
It costs about 25x less to runLean on-chain costCost per transaction
$0.0032 against $0.08. That is the same cost regardless of how large your operation is.$0.0032 of network against $0.08 reported: a fixed cost, decisive on small and frequent operations.$0.0032 at 0.010 gwei on Base against 0.0828420 USDC; an absolute saving of about $0.0796 per transaction, with $0.00 of flash loan premium.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1.Is DashsWallet always cheaper than the official Aave dapp?
No, and this page does not claim that. It documents one collateral swap run on the same position on 8 October 2026 on Base. Execution price depends on the liquidity of the pair at that moment and the winning aggregator varies per operation. The structural differences, competing quotes and a lower platform fee, apply to every swap; the exact size of the gain does not.
Q2.Why not compare the cbBTC amount or the dollar values on both screens?
Because the two screens are not showing the same thing. The Aave dapp shows a quote of 0.01230048 cbBTC, DashsWallet shows the minimum deposit after slippage, 0.01224094 cbBTC, and each interface values the same 1,000.001 USDC differently, $995.67 against $999.76. The honest comparison is the quoted price, 81,297.722 against 81,265.46 USDC per cbBTC, plus the itemised costs.
Q3.What does slippage tolerance actually change for me?
It sets the floor you authorise. A 0.50% tolerance lets the transaction settle up to 0.50% below the quoted price, and that slack is what a sandwich bot can capture. Both interfaces were set to 0.50% in this test, so no advantage is claimed from it. Check what each interface defaults to before you sign.
Q4.Does the gain scale with the size of my position?
Mostly. The execution-price advantage of 3.97 bps and the fee advantage of 15 bps are proportional and scale with notional. The network-cost advantage of about $0.0796 is fixed per transaction, so it only matters on small operations. The calculator on this page keeps the terms separate for that reason.
Q5.Can I reproduce this test myself?
Yes. Open the same collateral swap in both interfaces on your own position, at the same moment and with the same slippage, and compare three things before signing anything: the price, the fee and the total cost. You do not need to trust the figures on this page.
Run the same test on your own position
You do not need to take our word for it. Open both screens with your position, compare price, fee and total cost at the same slippage, and only then sign.