What is PancakeSwap?
PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange built on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and is used to trade coins built on that network, similar to how Uniswap is built on Ethereum and is used to trade coins built on the Ethereum network.
Additionally, they offer several other services, such as Liquidity Pools, staking, yield farming, as well as offering both gaming and NFT marketplaces.
If you find a crypto that interests you and you notice on CoinGecko that it is built on the BSC network, use the below guide to swap for that crypto. In our example, we will show you how to easily swap to Pancake Swap’s own token, CAKE.
Step-by-step swap guide
Here we will show you a swap of 1 BNB for PancakeSwap’s own token, CAKE.
We want to begin by saying that unless you are directly trading BNB for another coin, you will need enough BNB in your wallet to pay the transaction (gas) fees. For example, if you are wanting to trade BUSD (the Binance stable coin) on the Binance Smart Chain, you will still need to have enough BNB to pay the fees as you won’t be able to complete the transaction without it. This holds true with the other exchanges built on and for Solana, Avalanche, Ethereum, etc. So before you start this process, be sure you have enough BNB to cover the transaction fees or else you won’t be able to complete the swap. If you reach the final step to Confirm Swap and the button is greyed out, it is because you don’t have enough BNB to cover the fee.
You will need to first acquire BNB (Binance Coin) on the BSC Smart Chain (NOT BNB on Binance’s Beacon Chain). If you don’t have direct access to BNB on your centralized exchange (those of you in NY), not a big deal. Both of these can be acquired through THORChain by swapping any of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Avalanche, USDC, Dogecoin, or every other supported asset on THORChain. See our guide to using THORChain here.
After you have your BNB in your wallet, here are the steps:
- Go to PancakeSwap.
- Click on Trade.
- Connect your wallet:
- If your wallet isn’t listed, select WalletConnect. This will produce a QR code that you’ll need to scan from inside your wallet. If you would rather copy and paste the link that generates the QR code, click the double box in the top right of the QR code popup and this will copy the link.
- If you are using your phone to swap and thus can’t scan the QR code, open your wallet app, click the scan QR code button that may look like
and simply click Enter URL instead of using the camera, then paste the link you copied from the QR code.
- If you are using your phone to swap and thus can’t scan the QR code, open your wallet app, click the scan QR code button that may look like
- Once you scan the QR code, your wallet app will ask you to Confirm the connection.
- If your wallet isn’t listed, select WalletConnect. This will produce a QR code that you’ll need to scan from inside your wallet. If you would rather copy and paste the link that generates the QR code, click the double box in the top right of the QR code popup and this will copy the link.
- Once your wallet is connected, change the crypto you are wanting to swap if you are swapping something other than the default BNB. Remember, you will still need BNB to cover transaction fees.
- Then change the dropdown for the crypto that you want to receive back.
- Edit the Slippage Tolerance if you want to change from the default .5%.
- Click Swap, which opens another popup for you to review before completing the swap.
- Step 7 likely sent a notification to your wallet to finalize the swap, which you have to click Confirm once more.
- You are done on your end! You can sit back and watch the transaction occur, which should be pretty quick as BNB is cheap and efficient. Within a few minutes your new crypto should be in your wallet.