Clober - Exchange Review

First look

Clober opened on Feb 14, 2023. It boasted an on-chain limit order book powered by its LOBSTER algorithm, full order-matching on Base Layer-2, no centralized servers. On the surface, it’s modern and interesting. But when I hopped in? It feels half frozen. Pages load, UI loads, but depth? Missing. Volume untracked on CoinMarketCap. You log in and wonder - is this even active?

CMC doesn’t show any volume or reserves. The listing is untracked. That’s a red flag. You expect numbers there. Instead, the interface sits practically blank.

What they say

Clober sells itself as a scalable on-chain DEX, full centralized limit order book in smart contracts. Promises trustless trading, no middleman. Decentralized but with order book depth. Seems cool if it’s working. On paper, it’s neat tech.

But all that promise collapsed when a bug hit. In Dec 2024, a reentrancy exploit drained 133.7 ETH (around 500K USD) from its Liquidity Vault. Audits had been done, but changes afterward introduced the vulnerability. Clober offered a 20 percent bug bounty, tried to recover, but nothing public ever seems fixed.

What I saw

I clicked around. The swap UI loads, order book skeleton is there, but you scroll and it’s all zeros or empty. You try placing a bid - nothing. No liquidity, no response. No volume listed. UI behaves like a demo. Stuck.

They still show tabs: spot, perpetual futures, margin. Maybe. But none of it moves. The staking, the trades, everything seems frozen. Even if you try tiny orders, nothing fills - because there’s nobody on the other side.

After the hack, the protocol went silent. No fresh code updates, no road map, no tweets. All channels paused. Reviews say the same - developers vanished when the bug hit. Bug bounty posted, but exploiters didn’t respond. Users are left guessing.

Looking around

Checked their socials - last posts old. No announcements. No roadmap updates. The project page looks abandoned. Web3 watchers flagged the hack quickly, but nothing changed since. Protocol claims audit but then deployed unaudited code. Classic mistake.

Reddit threads? Few comments, most asking for recovery. No proof of reserves, no recent audit, no fresh life. The whole vibe: ghost protocol still pretending to run.

What still works

• The UI loads.
• You can open tabs.
• Order entry fields are clickable.
• The site does not crash.

That’s basically it.

Why it’s weird and empty

Dex with no trades. A coded engine sitting idle. There’s no liquidity, no users, no movement. Features don’t matter when nobody trades. The exploit scared off participants. After that no follow-through, no fixes. So Clober drifts.

Who it might serve

Maybe someone testing the concept of an on-chain limit order book. But real trading? No. Technology curious only. Big bets? Impossible. No market, no depth, no point.

Status in 2025

Clober remains technically live. But there is no volume on CMC, no reserves recorded, no audit updates, no corrections. Still advertises full CLOB matching on-chain - but practically, it is dormant. A protocol in stasis.

Should you try

Only if you’re testing. Zero funds. Don’t trust stability. The past breach shows the risks. If you stake or lock funds, you may never see them again. No support, no community, no backup.

Final thoughts

Clober had ambition: a decentralized order-book DEX on Base. That idea still intrigues. But the hack and silence afterward killed confidence. Now, it’s just a shell that loads - code still running, no users trading, markets untracked.

Feels like a shell of a project. Cool in concept. Broken in life. Think of it as a car that still turns on, but the engine will not drive you anywhere.