Orca Review
Detailed fee tiers under a revocable licence
of 10
Orca publishes nine fee tiers from 0.01% to 2.00% along with the exact split — 87% to liquidity providers, 12% to the DAO treasury, 1% to a climate fund. In February 2025 it moved off Apache 2.0 to a revocable, non-commercial licence.
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Fee tiers
0.01% to 2.00% across nine tick-spacing tiers
Fee split
87% LPs, 12% DAO treasury, 1% Climate Fund
Licence
Orca License since 27 Feb 2025; previously Apache 2.0
Licence terms
Limited, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-transferable, revocable
Audits
Not stated
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (10.0 + 2.0 + 4.0 + 4.0 + 3.0) ÷ 5 = 4.6.
Pros
- Nine fee tiers published, from 0.01% to 2.00%
- Fee split published precisely: 87% LPs, 12% DAO treasury, 1% Climate Fund
- Tier parameters documented alongside tick spacing
Cons
- Relicensed on 27 February 2025 from Apache 2.0 to the bespoke Orca License
- The new licence is revocable and limited to authorised non-commercial uses
- It explicitly excludes any use benefiting a competitor, including other DEXs and AMMs
- No audits named; upgradeability not stated
Best-in-category fee disclosure
Nine tiers spanning 0.01% to 2.00%, published with their tick spacings, and a split stated to the percentage point: 87% to liquidity providers, 12% to the DAO treasury and 1% to a climate fund. Nobody else here publishes the destination of the fee that precisely.
And the strictest licence
The repository states that code was available under Apache 2.0 until 26 February 2025, and that from 27 February 2025 it is licensed under the Orca License — a limited, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-transferable and revocable grant for authorised non-commercial uses, explicitly excluding any use that benefits a competitor including other decentralised exchanges and automated market makers.
A revocable licence is a materially weaker position than BUSL, which at least converts to an open licence on a fixed date. That is why the score here is the lowest of any protocol in this comparison despite the excellent fee disclosure.
How it compares
Jupiter
Zero protocol fees, unpublished core code
1inch
MIT-licensed aggregator with unpublished fees
Curve
Four named auditors, but the code grants no rights
Aerodrome
Honest about which parts stay upgradeable
Raydium
Exact fee tiers under a clean Apache licence
SushiSwap
Widest chain deployment, thinnest current disclosure
PancakeSwap
Ten named auditors and a GPL licence
Balancer
GPL-3.0 licensed and immutable by design
Uniswap
Published tiers and genuinely immutable core
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Orca — whirlpool parameters and fee tiers — checked
- 2.Orca whirlpools — LICENSE — checked
Frequently asked questions
What are Orca's fees?
Orca publishes nine tiers from 0.01% to 2.00%, split 87% to liquidity providers, 12% to the DAO treasury and 1% to the Climate Fund.
Is Orca open source?
Not since 27 February 2025. The code was Apache 2.0 until 26 February 2025 and is now under the Orca License, a revocable non-commercial licence that excludes competitors.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.