CORAL

CORAL was a major step in Squid’s evolution, introducing intent-based execution through RFQ auctions where market makers competed to fulfill user requests directly, reducing reliance on traditional DEX routing and significantly improving speed, pricing, and gas efficiency.

It marked the transition from simple routing to execution optimization, handling a large share of Squid’s volume and delivering near-instant, low-cost swaps. CORAL remains part of Squid’s architecture, where it uses smart contracts and external messaging layers like Axelar and LayerZero. Yet, with the introduction of Squid Intents, which moves execution offchain into TEEs, CORAL is being phased out and will be deprecated over time, as the protocol shifts fully toward a more efficient, scalable, and unified intent-based settlement layer.