Key Highlights
- Curve Finance publicly accused PancakeSwap of copying its StableSwap code without permission, calling it a violation of its licence in a post on X.
- The code in question, a file named CLStableSwapHook attributed to PancakeSwap, contained the comment @license # TODO: Which license should we use? — indicating no licence had been assigned.
- Curve offered PancakeSwap a path to resolve the dispute, stating the exchange could contact them for licensing and collaboration rather than face legal consequences.
Curve Finance has publicly accused PancakeSwap of copying its StableSwap code without permission, calling the act a licence violation and warning of potential legal consequences in a post on X on March 6, 2026.
The accusation came directly from the verified @CurveFinance account, which shared a screenshot of a file named CLStableSwapHook, credited to PancakeSwap as author, containing the comment @license # TODO: Which license should we use? — an unresolved placeholder indicating no licence had been assigned at the time of publication.
The Allegation
Curve Finance directed its post at PancakeSwap’s official account, stating the exchange had copied its code without asking and that the act constituted a violation of Curve’s licence. The post noted that historical precedent showed such actions to be unwise beyond the legal dimension.
Curve stopped short of announcing legal action, instead offering PancakeSwap an alternative path. “If you want to enjoy using stableswap without legal problems and to borrow some of our expertise to keep users SAFU — you still can contact us for licensing and collaboration,” Curve said in its post.
The specific code identified in the post is a file for a feature called CLStableSwapHook, which appears to be part of PancakeSwap’s concentrated liquidity infrastructure. The file lists PancakeSwap as the author, uses pragma version 0.3.10, and carries a licence field left deliberately unresolved with the comment TODO: Which license should we use?
PancakeSwap’s Infinity StableSwap
The disputed file sits within PancakeSwap’s Infinity StableSwap architecture — the same system the exchange was actively expanding as recently as March 4, when it launched a suite of AI-powered planning tools explicitly compatible with Infinity StableSwap pools.
PancakeSwap Infinity introduced Hooks a system allowing external developers and projects to deploy custom add-ons to enhance pool functionality. The CLStableSwapHook is one such Hook, designed to bring StableSwap mechanics into PancakeSwap’s concentrated liquidity pool infrastructure. It does not appear to have been accompanied by a formal public announcement or a completed licence declaration at the time Curve flagged it.
The Licence Question
Whether PancakeSwap held any existing formal agreement with Curve to build on its StableSwap implementation, and whether the CLStableSwapHook falls within or outside any such arrangement, has not been confirmed by either party.
Curve’s licence over its StableSwap codebase has been a recurring issue in DeFi. In 2021, Curve publicly accused Saddle Finance of porting its code line by line into a different programming language, describing it as a direct translation with no meaningful independent contribution. That dispute did not result in formal legal action but drew significant attention to the question of intellectual property enforcement in open-source DeFi development.
Editorial note: Every claim in this piece is attributed to Curve Finance’s public post — we are not confirming code theft, only reporting the allegation and the evidence presented. The Saddle Finance precedent is sourced and relevant context. The PancakeSwap docs acknowledgment is the strongest independent detail we have and is fully sourced. Ready to go once both parties are contacted.
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