CoW DAO Monthly Recap: July 2026

For most of its history, CoW Protocol has meant better execution within the EVM world. But this month, that’s all changed. CoW Protocol now settles cross-chain swaps into Bitcoin — taking the protocol's solver competition and MEV protection outside the EVM for the first time. But it wasn't the only thing that happened this month.

Here's everything.

July by the Numbers

• Monthly volume: $2.5B

• Monthly Trades: 691,978

• Active Wallets: 111.5k (86.1k new · 25.4k returning · 77% new-wallet ratio)

• Cumulative All-time Volume: $208.5B

• 14.5% DEX aggregator market share — 3rd across all supported chains

Chain breakdown - top 5 (July):

• Ethereum led at $2.2b

• BNB ($134.3m)

• Base ($84.4m)

• Arbitrum ($79.5m)

• Avalanche ($16.1m)

Cross-Chain Swaps to Bitcoin

CoW Swap now supports cross-chain swaps directly into and out of Bitcoin. The same mechanics that protect every CoW Protocol trade — solver competition, MEV protection, best execution — now extend to BTC.

This matters beyond the feature itself. CoW Protocol was built for EVM chains; Bitcoin isn't one. Getting there means the protocol's execution guarantees are no longer bounded by EVM compatibility — which says as much about where the infrastructure is headed as it does about this specific launch.

Affiliate Program: $170M+ Referred

The Moo & Earn Affiliate Program has now driven over $170 million in total referred volume. The program pays out both the affiliate and the referred trader once volume hits milestones — no gatekeeping, no approval committee, just a link and a reason to share it. Crossing $170M is the clearest signal yet that permissionless referral mechanics can move real volume without compromising the protocol's user-first design.

Product Updates

Safe{Mobile} + WalletConnect

Safe users can now connect directly to CoW Swap via WalletConnect inside Safe{Mobile}. Multisig security doesn't take days off — and now it doesn't need a desktop either.

Lido Fast Swaps return

Integrated Fast Swaps are back in the Lido staking widget. Users can skip the withdrawal queue entirely and unstake into ETH, USDC, WBTC, and other assets for instant liquidity, powered by CoW Protocol. Liquidity shouldn't be a waiting game — this is what that looks like in practice.

CoW Swap on PQ1

CoW Swap is now integrated into PQ1, ethphone's new hardware wallet — built to be the first post-quantum secure hardware wallet on the market. Every CoW Swap trade is clear-signed directly on the device, and PQ1's known-address database now includes CoW Swap's deployments. That means an approval no longer shows up as an opaque hex string. Small detail, real difference for anyone trying to verify what they're actually signing.

Transparency

Token Transparency Filing with Blockworks

CoW Protocol's Token Transparency disclosure report is now live, published with Blockworks. A press release says trust us; a filing says check for yourself. Read the filing here.

Ownership Token Framework

COW has also been added to Aragon's Ownership Token Framework dashboard, which independently maps governance tokens across onchain control, value accrual, verifiability, and token distribution. COW scores 10 of 15 — full marks on verifiability and token distribution, with the framework noting CoW's offchain Snapshot-based governance and Safe-held treasury as the main gap to a fully onchain-bound score. Worth reading in full for anyone doing diligence on COW's governance structure.

Ecosystem & Advocacy

Encrypt the Mempool Coalition

CoW DAO has joined the Encrypt the Mempool Coalition, working alongside other industry leaders to push for an EIP that would encrypt Ethereum's mempool as part of the network's next hardfork. The goal: stop toxic MEV and real-time censorship at the protocol level, in a decentralized and credibly neutral way.

This is a different kind of contribution than a product launch — it's CoW DAO putting weight behind infrastructure-level change that benefits the entire ecosystem, not just its own users. MEV protection has always been core to CoW DAO's pitch; this is that same mission playing out at the base layer instead of the application layer.

Community

CoW DAO co-founder and CTO Felix (@fleupold_) joined NEAR Protocol and The Rollup for Virtual NEAR Day on July 16, discussing the infrastructure behind intent-based execution and where chain abstraction goes from here. Intents aren't a CoW-only conversation anymore — they're becoming the shared vocabulary for how execution infrastructure gets built across ecosystems. Watch here.

Team

We're hiring: Partnerships Manager

If you want to help build the infrastructure protecting DeFi users at scale, apply now.

Treasury

The CoW DAO Treasury — June 2026 Monthly Report was published this month. It covers June rather than July, but the throughline holds: capital preservation, liquidity, and selective stablecoin yield, with additional USDC deployed into the KPK USDC Prime vault and a swap of USDC into GHO.

Grants and Governance

A CIP-Draft proposing to simplify CoW DAO's bonding pool operations continues to move through the forum. Separately, the Bring Your Own Solver (BYOS) grant — which would let a bonded solver source solutions from a permissionless set of external sub-solvers — has a grant application in progress from the bleu team.

The UI translation program has moved from applications to execution: candidates have been selected, and the translation window is officially open. Thank you to everyone who applied — this is community-driven localization, built by the people who'll actually use it.

See You in August

July was the month CoW Swap stopped being bounded by the EVM. Bitcoin cross-chain swaps, $170M+ in referred volume, a seat at the table on mempool encryption, and the infrastructure conversation showing up on stages beyond our own. Not a quiet month at all.

See you in August.

CoW DAO 🐮