CoW Protocol batches trades and auctions them between public and private liquidity sources. It aims to achieve better prices than other exchanges by matching trades via Coincidences of Wants (CoWs) and protecting from MEV.

CoW Protocol is a meta-DEX aggregation protocol that acts as a batch settlement layer on top of all other AMMs & DEX aggregators. CoW Protocol is a spin off from Gnosis DAO that launched in February 2021.

COW tokenholders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of the total trading fees paid by traders (revenue).

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CoW Protocol

# CoW Protocol Active users (monthly) Methodology

## 1. Overview

Active users (monthly) measures the number of unique addresses that execute revenue-generating trades through CoW Protocol. This metric identifies the distinct participants utilizing the protocol's settlement infrastructure across supported networks over a 30-day rolling window. Unique users are captured by identifying the originators of trade orders that are successfully settled on-chain.

## 2. Data sources

- **Blockchain events**: `Trade` events from `GPv2Settlement` contracts, and `OrderPlacement` events and `createOrder` functions from `CoWSwapEthFlow` contracts, covering Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, and 5 other chains
- **External data**: Asset metadata for identifying and filtering denylisted assets

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Trader identification and mapping

- **Purpose**: Map on-chain trade activity to the original order senders.
- **Logic**: `OrderPlacement` events are joined with `createOrder` function calls from `CoWSwapEthFlow` contracts using transaction hashes. An order identification string is constructed to uniquely identify the intent. The original `sender` address is extracted to ensure that users interacting through specific flow contracts are correctly identified as the active participants.

### Component B: Trade activity extraction

- **Purpose**: Identify successful swap transactions and the associated user addresses.
- **Logic**: `Trade` events from `GPv2Settlement` contracts are parsed to capture trade execution. User addresses are determined by prioritizing the mapped sender address from the flow contracts, with a fallback to the owner address identified directly in the settlement event. Transactions involving specific denylisted assets are filtered out of the dataset to ensure data integrity.

### Component C: Monthly aggregation and filtering

- **Purpose**: Calculate the final count of unique monthly participants.
- **Logic**: The identified user addresses are aggregated per 30-day window and chain. Distinct counts are calculated over 30-day rolling windows aligned with UTC day boundaries. Data is subject to chain availability filters to ensure that only records from approved and non-archived time periods are included in the final metric.

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Unique revenue-generating users over a rolling 30-day window.

CoW ProtocolCOW

Active users (monthly)

Active users (monthly)

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Chain breakdown