How to separate bids and asks, set your own spread, and adjust your liquidity onchain.
If you want to buy a token from $100 down to $90 and sell it from $110 up to $120, can you set that up as one onchain strategy?
On Carbon DeFi, yes. You choose a buy range, a separate sell range, and the budget for each. As orders fill, the proceeds automatically fund the other side.
That sounds straightforward. So why does it need a name like “asymmetric liquidity”?
Because most AMM liquidity doesn’t work that way.
Bancor developed asymmetric liquidity and adjustable bonding curves, introducing them through Carbon DeFi, its onchain orderbook-style decentralized exchange.
Asymmetric liquidity lets you define the buy and sell sides separately. Adjustable bonding curves let you change those prices and ranges within the same position as your plans change.
What is symmetric liquidity?
When you provide liquidity to a traditional automated market maker, or AMM, a formula determines how your assets are exchanged.
With concentrated liquidity, you choose the range in which they’re available. With full range liquidity, you don’t choose a range; your liquidity covers every price from zero to infinity. In both cases, buying and selling happen within that same range.
Suppose your position buys a token as its price falls. If the price reverses, the position can sell those tokens back through the same prices, with fees applied.
You chose where to provide liquidity. You didn’t create a lower range for buying and a separate, higher range for selling.
That’s what “symmetric” means here: buying and selling follow the same curve in opposite directions.
Here’s what changes when makers control the curve.
What if I want to buy lower and sell higher?
Then the two sides need different instructions.
You might want to buy from $100 down to $90, but only sell from $110 to $120. Buying at $95 shouldn’t make those tokens available to sell again around $95 just because the market changes direction.
Asymmetric liquidity lets you make that distinction. Each side has its own curve, so you decide where to buy and where to sell separately.
In the video below, Dr. Mark Richardson, Bancor Project Lead, explains how this compares with the way professional market makers manage their bids, asks, and spread.
The practical difference is what happens after a purchase. You decide where those tokens become available to sell.
How do Carbon DeFi Recurring Orders work?
A Recurring Order puts those capabilities together.
Take the same example. You create a Recurring Order with a buy range of 90–100 and a sell range of 110–120.
As the buy order fills, the tokens you acquire automatically fund the sell order. They become available at your sell prices.
If the market reverses before the buy order fully fills, the tokens already acquired wait for the sell range. You don’t need to withdraw them to prevent them from being sold back through the buy range.
As the sell order fills, the proceeds fund the buy order again. Partial fills count too; one side doesn’t need to finish before it funds the other.
You can start by funding the buy side, the sell side, or both. Each side has its own budget, and those budgets don’t need to be equal.
That’s how the strategy repeats while keeping your buying and selling instructions separate.
See Automated Recurring Orders Explained.
Is the gap between the ranges my spread?
Yes. In this example, the gap between the two ranges, $100-$110, is your spread.
You can make that gap wider or narrower. You can also change the ranges and budgets as your plans change.
A wider spread means waiting for a larger price move between buying and selling. A narrower spread puts those prices closer together. You choose how far apart you want them.
You’re deciding which exchanges you’re willing to make when an execution opportunity exists.
For a closer look, see What Happens When Buy and Sell Ranges Don’t Overlap?.
Do I have to keep buying and selling?
No. A Recurring Order links the two sides because you want that cycle.
If you only want to buy or sell, you can use a one-directional Limit Order or Range Order. A Limit Order specifies one exact price. A Range Order buys or sells progressively across selected prices.
The acquired tokens aren’t automatically offered back to the market. You don’t have to manage a two-sided position when your intention is simply to buy or sell.
Can I still use concentrated liquidity?
Yes. Carbon DeFi also supports Concentrated and Full Range Liquidity strategies.
You can choose a symmetric setup when you want buying and selling within the same range, or separate the two sides when you want different instructions for each.
The question is what you want your liquidity to do. If it buys a token and the market reverses, should it sell back through those prices? Should it wait for a higher range? Or should it keep the tokens?
That’s the control asymmetric liquidity puts in your hands.
In this Bitcoin/Gold backtest, I compared both approaches using the same starting capital and outer price boundaries.
You can compare Concentrated Liquidity and Recurring Order setups against up to 365 days of historical market data in the Carbon DeFi Simulator, including different ranges, budgets, and spreads.
FAQ
What is asymmetric liquidity?
Asymmetric liquidity gives the buy and sell sides separate pricing curves. On Carbon DeFi, makers define prices, ranges, and budgets for each side independently.
How is asymmetric liquidity different from concentrated liquidity?
Traditional concentrated liquidity buys and sells within one selected range. Asymmetric liquidity lets you create different buy and sell ranges, including a custom spread between them.
Do I need both tokens to start a Recurring Order?
No. You can fund only the buy side, only the sell side, or both sides with separate budgets.
For example, you can start with USDC in the buy order and no ETH in the sell order. As the buy order fills, the acquired ETH automatically funds the sell order at your chosen sell prices.
You don’t need to split your starting capital equally between the two tokens.
How is that different from funding concentrated liquidity?
In a traditional concentrated liquidity position, the required token amounts depend on the current price and your selected range. If the price is inside the range, you generally need both tokens in the required ratio. That ratio isn’t necessarily 50/50.
A Carbon Recurring Order lets you choose each side’s starting budget independently, including leaving one side unfunded.
Does a Recurring Order require manual reinvestment?
No. Acquired tokens automatically fund the opposite order as fills occur, including partial fills.
Does the market reaching my range ensure a fill?
No. A taker must execute against the order. Carbon’s built-in solver system searches for profitable opportunities to fill orders using liquidity across integrated DEXs.
Does asymmetric liquidity ensure a profitable strategy?
No. You control the execution terms, but the market may move away from your ranges or leave you holding an asset that has fallen in value. Separate buy and sell prices give you control over how the strategy behaves.
Bancor
Bancor is a pioneer in decentralized finance (DeFi), established in 2016. It invented the core technologies underpinning the majority of today’s automated market makers (AMMs) and continues to develop the foundational infrastructure critical to DeFi’s success — focusing on enhanced liquidity mechanics and robust onchain market operation. All products of Bancor, including Carbon DeFi and the Arb Fast Lane, are governed by the Bancor DAO.
Carbon DeFi — Powered by Bancor’s latest patented technologies: Asymmetric Liquidity and Adjustable Bonding Curves.
Live on Ethereum, Sei, Celo, COTI, and TAC.
The Arb Fast Lane — Carbon DeFi’s built-in solver system and DeFi’s most advanced arbitrage infrastructure, powered by Marginal Price Optimization, a new method of optimal routing.
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