Price impact, explained.
Why selling into a pool moves the price against you, what it costs, and how to keep it small.
2 min read · Updated Sep 28, 2026What price impact is
A pool prices a token by the ratio of what it holds. Sell into it and you add tokens and take dollars out, so every token you sell gets a slightly worse price than the one before it.
Price impact is how far your own trade moves that price. On a small trade it rounds to zero. On a trade that is large next to the pool, it is usually the biggest cost you pay, well above any fee.
Price impact is not slippage
Apps show them side by side, so they get mixed up.
Price impact is the move your own trade causes, already included in the quote you see. Slippage is the difference between that quote and what you actually get, usually because other trades landed first. Your slippage tolerance limits the second. It doesn't remove the impact already in the quote.
Estimate yours
A quick way to get a feel for the numbers: put in the size of the sale and the liquidity in a simple pool. It's a model, not a quote. For figures measured from a real pool, open a token's sell page, such as PONS or MarsCoin.
Illustrative, not a quote: a full-range pool (x · y = k, like Uniswap v2) with the pool fee kept in the pool. Real pools, especially concentrated ones, can be much deeper or thinner near the price. Your app shows the real quote before you trade.
Selling into demand isn't a market sell into the pool: buyers take your tokens as they lift the price. Unwind charges 0.5% of what sells. The trade-off is time, and a fill isn't guaranteed.
It costs more than it shows
The figure in your wallet is only what you lose on this trade. A large red candle is public: bots see it, holders see it, and some of them sell after you. On thin tokens, the first sale is often not the last one it sets off.
That is why large holders rarely sell in one click.
Four ways to lower it
- 01
Sell less at once. Split the sale into smaller trades over hours or days. If buyers come in between them, the price has time to recover; if they don't, splitting follows the same curve. TWAP tools can place the chunks for you.
- 02
Pick the deepest pool. The same trade costs less where there is more liquidity near the price. Aggregators route through several pools for you.
- 03
Sell OTC. A desk or a buyer takes the whole size in one trade, often at a discount and above a minimum size.
- 04
Let buyers come to you. Place the tokens as liquidity just above the price, so they sell only when someone buys, instead of market-selling into the bids. That is what Unwind does.
Questions
How much price impact is too much?
There's no universal line. Many apps warn from a few percent. A useful test: compare the impact with the fee you're paying. When the impact is several times the fee, it's worth splitting the trade or trying another route.
Why does my wallet say the price impact is too high?
Your trade is large next to the liquidity near the current price. The fixes are the ones above: sell less at once, find deeper liquidity, or place the tokens as a sell order instead of swapping them.
Does selling with Unwind have price impact?
Your sale isn't a market sell into the pool: buyers take your tokens as they move the price up through your range. The trade-off is time. It sells as demand arrives, and a fill or a price isn't guaranteed.
Sell into demand.
Place your tokens above the price and let buyers take them. 0.5% only on what sells.
