Curve Finance accuses PancakeSwap of copying its code

The Curve Finance team told PancakeSwap that it must go through the proper licensing process to collaborate and use code created by Curve.

The team behind the Curve Finance decentralized finance (DeFi) platform accused the PancakeSwap decentralized exchange (DEX) of using its code without the proper licensing.

The code is tied to the “StableSwap” feature used for swapping stablecoins and “tightly-pegged” assets on PancakeSwap Infinity, the latest version of the PancakeSwap DEX.

“If you want to enjoy using stableswap without legal problems and to borrow some of our expertise to keep users SAFU, you still can contact us for licensing and collaboration,” the Curve team said on X.

In a separate post, Curve said “deep stableswap expertise” is needed to safely integrate swap features, and cited the 2022 hack of the Saddle Finance DEX and the $116 million hack of DeFi protocol Balancer in 2025 as examples of swap-based code exploits.

The PancakeSwap team said it would reach out to Curve Finance to discuss the issue. “Indeed, better to be friends and build together,” the Curve team responded.

Cointelegraph reached out to both teams but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The incident highlights the potential cybersecurity and legal issues that arise in decentralized finance as projects and protocols continue to iterate on products and expand features.

Related: Curve founder says DeFi must ditch token emissions for real revenue

PancakeSwap Infinity launched on the Arbitrum network and BNB Chain in April 2025, following the integration of one-click, cross-chain swaps that allow users to move digital assets between blockchain protocols.

The updated DEX introduced “hooks,” smart contract plug-ins that customize parameters for liquidity pools, including dynamic fee structuring, tailored rebates and onchain limit orders that execute when preset conditions are met.

The upgrade also lowered pool creation fees by up to 99% and was built to accommodate different liquidity strategies, according to PancakeSwap.

In July 2025, PancakeSwap Infinity launched on Base, an Ethereum layer-2 (L2) scaling network, and touted up to 50% cheaper trading fees when Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum layer-1 blockchain network, was traded against ERC-20 tokens.

ERC-20 is the token standard for most assets minted on Ethereum, including the gas and governance tokens of Ethereum L2s, memecoins, and other projects issuing tokens on Ethereum.

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Source: CoinTelegraph