# Padded quotes vs the block price: why a lower number you actually get beats a higher one you do not

> Canonical: https://blazephoenix.xyz/learn/padded-quotes-vs-block-price
> License: CC BY 4.0 (attribution + link) · © 2026 BlazePhoenix
> Updated: 2026-07-28

Many aggregators show an optimistic quote and hide the shortfall in a 2.5–5% slippage buffer. We quote the exact block price and fill at tight slippage — and disclose where Curve-class pools still beat us.

Two aggregators can show you two different prices for the same swap, and the HIGHER one is often the worse deal. That sounds backwards until you separate the number a screen displays from the number the chain actually gives you. Those are two different quantities, and most of the industry profits from you conflating them.

The gap between them has a name — slippage — and the question that matters is not "what did the app promise" but "how far below that promise is it allowed to fill before the transaction still counts as a success".

## How a padded quote works

A common design shows you an optimistic expected output — the best-case number for a single instant — and then sets a WIDE slippage tolerance behind it, often 2.5% or even 5%. That tolerance is the amount the realised fill is permitted to fall below the displayed figure and still go through. So the screen shows a ceiling, the buffer quietly absorbs the difference, and you discover the real price only after it has settled. Nothing errored; you simply received less than the number that convinced you to click, and there is no line item telling you so.

The wider the buffer, the prettier the headline number can be, because a large slippage tolerance gives the fill room to disappoint. A 5% tolerance on a four-figure swap is tens of dollars the interface is allowed to lose you without breaking its promise — and that is on top of the protocol fee and the price impact of your size.

## The block price, and tight slippage by discipline

BlazePhoenix quotes differently: the number you see is produced by previewPlan, an eth_call on the same contract that will settle the swap, against the live block, clamped to the balances the pools actually hold. Quote equals execution — the figure is not a hopeful ceiling, it is the calculation that runs. Because it is the real number, we do not need a fat buffer to hide a gap; the slippage discipline is tight: on the order of 0.2% for established and stable pairs, and about 0.5% for more exotic ones. You set your own limit, and a compromised frontend can only tighten the floor, never relax it.

A tight, honest quote can look SMALLER on the screen than a padded one, and be worth more in your wallet, because you actually receive it — and if the fill beats the quote, the surplus is returned to you fee-exempt rather than pocketed. The right comparison between venues is never the displayed number alone; it is displayed number minus fee minus the slippage the venue is allowed to take. Measure that, at your real size, and the padded quote usually loses.

## Where we are honestly weaker: Curve-class pools, for now

Honesty runs both ways, and here is the case where our quote can be the WORSE one. For some tokens — especially stablecoins and pegged assets — the deepest liquidity lives in Curve and Curve-crypto style pools, and those venues are not yet in our routed set in production. For a pair whose real depth is concentrated there, our number can come back below the market, not because we padded anything, but because we are missing that liquidity. We would rather show you a lower honest number and tell you why than quietly route you into a shallow pool.

So the rule we ask you to apply to us is the same one we ask you to apply to everyone: for a Curve-heavy stable pair, compare, and use the venue that genuinely holds the depth — which today may not be us. Curve-class routing is on the roadmap; until it ships, this paragraph is the disclosure, not a footnote we hope you miss. A protocol that tells you where it is behind is telling you the truth about where it is ahead.

**Verify it yourself:** run previewPlan and compare the quoted number to the realised fill (they match by construction); then take a Curve-heavy stable pair and compare our quote to a Curve-routing aggregator — the gap we disclose is real and measurable, not hidden

Related: https://blazephoenix.xyz/learn/why-aggregator-quotes-differ · https://blazephoenix.xyz/learn/on-chain-quoting · https://blazephoenix.xyz/learn/price-impact-explained