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What is an intent in crypto?
An intent is a signed message stating the outcome you want, such as swapping one token for at least a set amount of another, instead of a transaction that spells out every step. Third parties called solvers compete to deliver that outcome and are paid for doing so.
What it means for you
With an intent you sign terms, not a route: the minimum you accept and the deadline are what protect you, so read them before signing. Like any signature request, an order can be disguised by a malicious site, and once a solver fills it on-chain the result cannot be undone.
How it works
In a solver-based exchange, you sign an order with your terms and solvers bid to fill it: some route across on-chain pools, others are professional market makers quoting from their own inventory. The solver with the winning quote executes the trade through a settlement contract. ERC-7683, a cross-chain intents standard, gives orders from different protocols a common form that lists the steps a solver must perform and the payment it receives, so one solver can serve many protocols instead of integrating each separately.
Sources: Execution Welfare Across Solver-based DEXes (arXiv), ERC-7683: Cross Chain Intents · checked 4 October 2026
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