Risks
What can go wrong when trading coins on Pair, and what limits each risk.
Trading new coins carries real risk. Read this before you buy.
| Risk | What it means | What limits it |
|---|---|---|
| Price | New coins can lose most of their value quickly | Size your trades for that |
| Pair coin | On a cross-chain pair, your coin's SOL price moves with the pair coin's price on its home chain | Pick a pair coin you understand |
| Price feed | A cross-chain trade depends on a signed price from an oracle network | Age checks, source comparison and pauses, see Prices and freshness |
| Reserve coverage | A large rise of the pair coin lowers a coin's reserve coverage | Buys pause below the coverage limit and sells keep working, see The coin reserve |
| Smart contract | The Pair program can contain bugs | Reserves are separate per coin, so an issue in one coin's reserve stays with that coin |
| Display data | Lists and prices on the site come from CoinGecko and can be up to 10 minutes old | Trades on cross-chain pairs settle at the signed price, never the display price |
Before you pair
- Check the pair coin's contract on its chain's explorer, linked from every entry on Pairs.
- Use coins with deep markets on their home chain. Their prices are harder to move and their feeds are steadier.