Headline: ChangeNOW Crushes Non-Custodial Speed Benchmarks — Median Settlements Now Under 1 Minute
ChangeNOW has widened its lead in the non-custodial swap market, posting median settlement times of under one minute — a dramatic contrast to the industry median of about 45 minutes, according to Swapzone’s latest testing.
Background and data
- In mid-2025 Swapzone’s benchmark already put ChangeNOW ahead, with a median swap time of roughly 1.8 minutes, topping an eight-platform field. Its nearest rival then, Changelly, recorded around two minutes.
- Swapzone’s 2026 follow-up, Speed Benchmarks: Non-Custodial Swaps Comparison 2026, analyzed 150,000 completed transactions and found the market median for a USDT-to-ETH swap to be roughly 45 minutes. ChangeNOW’s median for that same pair is under 60 seconds — roughly a 45x speed advantage.
Why speed matters
Crypto prices move rapidly; every minute a swap sits in processing increases the chance that the final amount received will differ from the quoted rate. Long settlement windows open traders to price drift and higher slippage, meaning the market they think they’re entering may no longer exist by the time funds land in their wallet. Near-instant settlements effectively eliminate much of that risk, making quoted rates far more reliable in practice.
How ChangeNOW did it
ChangeNOW attributes the improvement to infrastructure-level changes, chiefly optimized liquidity routing designed to compress the execution window. By prioritizing routing and execution on high-liquidity corridors, the platform consistently clears swaps on busy pairs like SOL/USDT and ETH/USDT before many competitors have even confirmed the incoming deposit.
“At ChangeNOW, we consider speed to be a fundamental pillar of user trust,” said Pauline Shangett, the company’s Chief Strategy Officer. “Our goal is to eliminate latency as a barrier between traders and their funds to establish near-instant settlement as the new standard for the non-custodial industry.”
Implications
If other non-custodial services can’t match these times, ChangeNOW’s lead could reshape user expectations around swap execution. For traders and apps that rely on quick, predictable settlement — especially in volatile markets — sub-minute swaps are not just a convenience but a competitive advantage.
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