An over-the-counter (OTC) trade is negotiated directly between counterparties instead of discovered through a public swap route or orderbook. The parties agree terms off-book, then settle those terms through a signed order flow.
Use OTC when the counterparty matters as much as the price: treasury rebalancing, partner deals, market-maker inventory moves, or block-style trades that should not be exposed as a public order first.
What problem OTC solves
Public execution is not always the right fit. Sometimes the maker and taker need to agree who participates, negotiate price, size, token pair, expiry, and settlement expectations directly, and keep that negotiation off-book until the trade settles. The final fill still resolves on-chain, so the outcome stays auditable.
OTC does not mean invisible settlement. It means private negotiation with explicit on-chain execution.
Key terms
- Maker: the party that creates and signs the order terms.
- Taker: the intended counterparty that fills the order.
- Counterparty: the known party on the other side of the trade.
- Off-book negotiation: agreeing terms outside a public orderbook or swap route.
- Restricted fill: an order design where only the intended taker or flow should execute.
- Settlement: the on-chain fill that transfers tokens according to the signed terms.
OTC vs Limit Orders vs Swaps
In a swap, the user wants immediate execution against available liquidity. In a limit order, the user wants a target price and may wait for a taker. In OTC, two parties agree terms directly and use a signed order to settle.
A limit order asks, “Will someone fill this price?” OTC asks, “Will this counterparty settle the terms we already agreed?”
Build it
- AugustusRFQ is the settlement surface: signed maker/taker orders filled on-chain.
- The Widget ships an OTC form and fill flow you can embed directly.
- Deployment addresses live in Chains & contracts.
- If the counterparty is not known upfront, compare with Limit orders.
Last modified on June 10, 2026
