> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.useicaria.xyz/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.useicaria.xyz/protocol/overview.md).

# Protocol overview

What happens to a swap between the moment a price is requested and the moment it settles.

One door leads into three mechanisms: vaults anchored to the oracle that handle everyday size, an RFQ lane that handles blocks, and a router that confirms who is trading and then settles wherever the trade comes out better.

## What a swap goes through

1. **Quote.** Somebody asks what 2,000 USDG of tokenized NVDA will cost. The quote service reproduces the router's logic: it pulls the guarded Chainlink mid out of `OracleRouter`, reads the [regime](/protocol/trading-regimes.md), and inspects the [anchor vault](/protocol/anchor-vaults.md) inventory, meanwhile collecting signed [RFQ quotes](/protocol/rfq.md) from makers if the size warrants it. Back comes a single price, split into mid, spread and fee.
2. **Sign.** One signature covers everything: a `SwapRouter` call carrying the swap parameters, a slippage bound, a deadline and a Permit2 pull on the input asset.
3. **Verify.** The chain takes over. The router confirms the `TRADER` attestation, rebuilds the vault quote from oracle and vault state (or checks the maker's EIP-712 signature), and satisfies itself that the result sits inside the trader's own limit and inside the protocol's oracle band.
4. **Settle.** Everything moves together: input out of the trader, output out of the vault or the maker, fee into the `FeeCollector`. A single transaction, a single fill event, on Blockscout moments later.

Nobody maintains a book, and there is nothing to deposit beforehand or withdraw afterwards. Custody exists for the duration of one transaction, inside contracts that cannot be altered.

## Multi-asset swaps

USDG is the quote asset everywhere, so trading one listed asset for another (tokenized AAPL into tokenized SPY, or a Stock Token into tokenized gold once gold is listed) means two legs through USDG inside a single atomic router call. One price reaches the trader; the fill event keeps both legs separate. A leg that cannot clear inside its band takes the whole swap down with it.

## How the work gets split

| Size                        | Venue        | Why                                                                              |
| --------------------------- | ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Within the vault clip       | Anchor vault | No counterparty to wait for, and the spread falls out of a formula               |
| Beyond the clip             | RFQ          | A maker with a hedge on the underlying prices size better than arithmetic does   |
| Any size where a maker wins | RFQ          | Better price settles, always; makers are free to undercut the vault continuously |

Nothing about the clip forces a hard split. Makers may quote well inside it and win retail flow whenever their price is the better one.

## Things left out on purpose

* **No pooled cross-asset exposure.** One asset and USDG per vault. An LP chooses exposure one market at a time.
* **No protocol discretion at fill time.** The vault quote is arithmetic over public state and the RFQ path is a signature check. Nobody at Icaria has a lever that touches an individual fill, for better or worse.
* **No netting or deferred settlement.** Inclusion is finality; there is no later stage.

## Reading order

The pages run from the core outward. [Anchor vaults](/protocol/anchor-vaults.md) explains inventory, [Pricing and spreads](/protocol/pricing-and-spreads.md) the quote arithmetic, [Trading regimes](/protocol/trading-regimes.md) sessions and halts, [RFQ settlement](/protocol/rfq.md) block flow, [Routing](/protocol/routing.md) how it fits together, [Liquidity provision](/protocol/liquidity-provision.md) the LP's side of it, [Corporate actions](/protocol/corporate-actions.md) the events, and [Fees](/protocol/fees.md) what any of it costs.


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