Wannaswap was supposed to be the go-to decentralized exchange for the Aurora ecosystem on Near Protocol. Launched in 2021 with big promises of low fees and Ethereum compatibility, it promised to be the bridge between Ethereum’s liquidity and Near’s speed. But today, in January 2026, Wannaswap is not a functioning exchange-it’s a ghost. The platform’s website is frozen in time, its social media silent for over a year, and its trading volume so low it barely registers on any chart.
What Was Wannaswap Supposed to Be?
Wannaswap was built as an automated market maker (AMM) on Aurora EVM, an Ethereum Virtual Machine running on the Near blockchain. Its goal was simple: let users trade crypto without intermediaries, with lower fees than Ethereum-based DEXes like Uniswap. The native token, WANNA, was meant to be used for governance and staking rewards. At its peak in late 2021, WANNA hit $3.28. That was the hype. Now, it trades at $0.00025. A 99.99% drop.The idea wasn’t bad. Aurora was gaining traction as a scalable, low-cost Ethereum sidechain. Projects like Ref Finance and Platypus Finance built real liquidity and user bases there. But Wannaswap never caught on. It didn’t offer anything new. No concentrated liquidity. No yield farming innovations. No cross-chain bridges. Just a basic AMM with no marketing, no team updates, and no roadmap.
Is Wannaswap Still Working in 2026?
No. Not even close.As of October 2025, Wannaswap’s 24-hour trading volume hovered under $500. Compare that to Uniswap, which does over $1.2 billion daily. Wannaswap’s liquidity pools are empty. Most token pairs show zero trades for days. If you try to swap tokens on the platform now, you’ll likely get a failed transaction, a timeout, or a message saying the pool doesn’t exist.
The last code commit on its GitHub page was in November 2022. The official Twitter account @WannaSwapDEX hasn’t posted since April 2023. The Telegram support group hasn’t had a moderator reply since February 2024. The website, archived by the Wayback Machine, still shows tutorials for connecting MetaMask to Aurora-but those instructions are outdated. The Aurora network has moved on. The Wannaswap team hasn’t.
The WANNA Token: A Zombie Asset
Here’s the twist: you can still buy WANNA on a few exchanges like Bybit and Gate.io. But that’s not because the exchange is alive-it’s because speculators are gambling on a dead project. The token trades with almost no volume, no news, and no utility. It’s a classic “zombie token.”There’s also a major discrepancy in supply numbers. CoinMarketCap says only 2.74 million WANNA tokens are circulating. Bybit says 99 million are out. Which one’s right? No one knows. The project never clarified. The total supply is fixed at 100 million, but the distribution is a mystery. Was most of it dumped by early investors? Locked in abandoned wallets? Given to a team that vanished? There’s no transparency.
And here’s the kicker: the token’s value has nothing to do with the exchange anymore. It’s purely speculative. People buy it hoping for a “rebirth” that will never happen. It’s like buying shares in a company that shut down five years ago.
Why Did Wannaswap Fail?
It failed for the same reasons 83% of DEXes launched in 2021-2022 failed: no differentiation, no funding, no community.While Uniswap raised $16.7 million in Series B funding and PancakeSwap brought in $40 million, Wannaswap had zero verifiable venture capital. No Andreessen Horowitz. No Sequoia. No a16z. Just a whitepaper and a Discord server.
It also launched into a saturated market. In Q4 2021 alone, 47 new DEXes hit the market. Most of them died within a year. Wannaswap didn’t even make it to year two. It had no marketing budget. No influencer partnerships. No educational content. No bug bounties. No developer grants. Just a smart contract and a token.
Then came regulatory pressure. In May 2023, the SEC issued a Wells Notice targeting DeFi protocols for unregistered securities offerings. While Wannaswap wasn’t named, the chilling effect was real. Teams started going dark. Funding dried up. Projects with weak foundations collapsed. Wannaswap was one of them.
User Experiences: Broken, Silent, Abandoned
Users who tried Wannaswap after 2022 had one thing in common: frustration.On Reddit, a user named DeFiWatcher2023 wrote in June 2024: “Tried using Wannaswap last month-interface was broken, no liquidity on any pairs, and their Telegram support hasn’t responded in 3 weeks.” That’s not an outlier. CryptoSlate forums from 2023 are full of complaints about failed swaps, disappearing liquidity, and unresponsive admins.
Trustpilot has zero reviews. CoinGecko doesn’t even list Wannaswap as a trusted exchange because its volume is too low. The only positive comment still online is from January 2022: “Low fees compared to Ethereum DEXs.” That’s like praising a horse-drawn carriage because it’s quieter than a Model T.
What Should You Do If You Own WANNA?
If you still hold WANNA tokens, here’s the truth: you’re holding digital dust.There is no recovery plan. No team announcement. No community vote to rebrand or relaunch. The project is dead. The only possible action is to sell-if you can. Even then, you’ll likely get pennies on the dollar. There’s no liquidity to exit cleanly. You’re stuck.
Don’t wait for a “recovery.” Don’t hope for a surprise airdrop. Don’t fall for fake Telegram groups claiming to be “official Wannaswap revival teams.” They’re scams. The real team is gone.
Alternatives That Actually Work
If you’re looking for a DEX on Near Protocol or Aurora, here are three that are alive and growing in 2026:- Ref Finance - The most liquid DEX on Aurora. Over $200 million in TVL. Active development. Real yield farming.
- Platypus Finance - Specializes in stablecoin trading with low slippage. Used by institutional traders.
- Uniswap on Ethereum - Still the gold standard. $1.2 billion daily volume. Trusted by millions.
These platforms have teams, documentation, audits, and active communities. Wannaswap has none of that.
Final Verdict: Don’t Use Wannaswap. Don’t Buy WANNA.
Wannaswap is not a crypto exchange anymore. It’s a cautionary tale. A monument to poor execution in a crowded, competitive space. Its token has no utility. Its platform is broken. Its team is gone. Its community is silent.If you’re looking to trade crypto on a decentralized exchange, choose one with volume, transparency, and active development. Wannaswap doesn’t meet any of those criteria. It’s not a risk worth taking. It’s not even a gamble-it’s a loss waiting to happen.
Walk away. Save your time. Save your money. There are dozens of better options out there. Wannaswap is not one of them.
Is Wannaswap still operational in 2026?
No. Wannaswap is not operational. Its platform has been inactive since 2023. The website is frozen, the team has disappeared, and its liquidity pools are empty. Trading volume is under $500 per day, making it effectively dead as a decentralized exchange.
Can I still trade on Wannaswap?
Technically, you can access the website, but you won’t be able to complete any swaps. Liquidity pools are empty, transactions fail, and the interface is outdated. The DEX functionality no longer works. Any trading you see is of the WANNA token on centralized exchanges like Bybit, not on Wannaswap itself.
Is the WANNA token worth buying?
No. The WANNA token has no utility because the exchange it was meant to power is dead. It trades only because speculators hope for a revival that will never happen. With a market cap under $30,000 and zero development, it’s a high-risk, zero-reward asset. Avoid it.
Why did Wannaswap fail when other Aurora DEXes succeeded?
Wannaswap failed because it offered nothing unique. It had no innovation, no funding, no marketing, and no community support. Meanwhile, Ref Finance and Platypus Finance built real liquidity, added features like stablecoin pools, and maintained active development. Wannaswap was just another copycat in a crowded market.
Are there any legitimate Wannaswap revival efforts?
No. Any group claiming to be reviving Wannaswap is a scam. The original team has vanished. GitHub hasn’t been updated since 2022. Social media channels are dead. Be extremely cautious of Telegram groups, YouTube videos, or Twitter accounts promoting a “new Wannaswap”-they’re designed to steal your crypto.
What should I use instead of Wannaswap?
For Aurora-based trading, use Ref Finance or Platypus Finance. For Ethereum-based trading, Uniswap is the most reliable. Both have high liquidity, active teams, and transparent development. Avoid any DEX with under $1 million in daily volume and no recent updates.
Linda Prehn
January 27, 2026 AT 01:44Wannaswap was never even a real project. Just another team that took money from early buyers and vanished. I saw the same script play out a dozen times in 2021. No roadmap, no transparency, no accountability. They didn’t even bother to lock their liquidity. Pure rug pull energy.
And now people are still buying WANNA like it’s some kind of hidden gem. Bro, it’s a ghost token. The only thing rising is the number of scam Telegram groups pretending to be the ‘new Wannaswap team’.
Adam Lewkovitz
January 27, 2026 AT 10:48This is why America needs to stop letting foreigners run DeFi projects. You think some guy in India or Russia coding a smart contract in his basement is gonna build something that lasts? Wannaswap died because it had no real team, no real investors, no real future. Just a bunch of guys thinking they could copy Uniswap and call it innovation.
Meanwhile, Ref Finance? Built by Americans with real funding. That’s the difference.
Taylor Mills
January 29, 2026 AT 07:35lol the wanana token still has a market cap? i thought it was dead. checked bybit yesterday and saw 2000 trades in 24hrs. all from bots. no one actually holds it. its just a zombie coin being pumped by some guy in a discord server with 300 members who all have 0.0001 tokens.
the website still loads? wow. i thought it was down for good. guess the host is still paying for it out of pocket. or its hosted on some free tier aws account that somehow survived 3 years of neglect.
Arielle Hernandez
January 30, 2026 AT 16:24Wannaswap represents a systemic failure in the early DeFi ecosystem: the absence of governance transparency, liquidity sustainability, and long-term commitment. The project’s collapse is not an anomaly but rather a predictable outcome of undercapitalization, lack of regulatory foresight, and an overreliance on speculative hype.
Contrast this with Ref Finance, which implemented on-chain governance, regular audits, and community-driven treasury allocation. These are not mere features-they are foundational elements of sustainable decentralized infrastructure. Wannaswap lacked all three.
Furthermore, the tokenomics of WANNA were fundamentally flawed. A fixed supply of 100 million tokens with no clear distribution mechanism, coupled with zero utility beyond governance (which was never activated), rendered the asset economically inert. Its continued presence on centralized exchanges is a regulatory blind spot, not a market signal.
Investors who still hold WANNA are not speculating-they are mourning. The only ethical course of action is to divest, document the failure, and use it as a case study to prevent future repetition. This is not just about money. It is about integrity in decentralized finance.
HARSHA NAVALKAR
January 31, 2026 AT 03:29i remember when i first tried wannaswap. it was so easy to use back then. i thought it was going to be the next big thing. now i just feel sad. i still have like 5000 wanana tokens in my wallet. i dont even know if theyre worth anything anymore. i just keep them there. like a memory.
maybe one day someone will fix it. maybe not. either way, i dont have the energy to care anymore.
Ryan Depew
February 1, 2026 AT 18:06Wannaswap was always a dumpster fire but people kept throwing money at it because they thought it was ‘undervalued’. Same energy as buying Dogecoin in 2021. No fundamentals. No team. No future. Just vibes.
And now the token’s trading on Bybit? That’s not a market-that’s a graveyard with a price feed. The only people buying now are either bots or people who think they’re gonna be the lucky one who catches the ‘rebirth’ pump.
There’s no rebirth. The devs moved on. The code is frozen. The community’s gone. It’s over. Stop chasing ghosts.
Kevin Pivko
February 2, 2026 AT 10:52Wannaswap didn’t fail because it was bad. It failed because it was too honest.
It told you exactly what it was: a simple AMM with no fluff. No yield farms. No NFTs. No influencer shills. Just code. And the market punished it for that.
Meanwhile, every other DEX in 2021 was throwing $10M at Twitter ads and promising 1000% APY. Wannaswap just... existed.
So yeah, it’s dead. But let’s be real-most of the projects that survived? They’re just better at marketing. Not better at tech.
Maybe the real lesson isn’t that Wannaswap failed.
Maybe it’s that the crypto world doesn’t reward honesty anymore. 😔
Jeffrey Dufoe
February 3, 2026 AT 13:24Yeah I held WANNA for a while. Sold it for $0.0001. Not mad. Just glad I didn’t dump it at $0.001. At least I got out before the last 50% crash.
Ref Finance is the way to go now. Solid, active, real team. No drama.