Order book
A list of buy and sell orders on an exchange
Order book vs AMM: what is the difference?
An order book matches buyers and sellers directly: traders post bids and asks at chosen prices, and a trade happens when two orders meet. An automated market maker (AMM) has no order book. Traders swap against a pool of tokens and a formula sets the price. Centralised exchanges mostly use order books, while many DeFi exchanges use AMMs. Read our AMM guide for more.