About Houdini

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Introduction

Houdini is a non-custodial, cross-chain privacy platform. It aggregates liquidity from vetted, non-custodial exchange partners and routes each swap through the most efficient path, with privacy built in. Houdini does not operate its own exchange and does not hold user funds. It does not maintain balances or act as a counterparty. Every swap is executed by the exchange partners involved in the route. Depending on the route selected, execution can prioritize full privacy or speed and cost.

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What Houdini does

Houdini enables users to swap assets across chains without manually navigating exchanges, bridges, or liquidity pools. It compares available routes across its exchange partners and coordinates execution through the most suitable path at that moment. A single swap may involve multiple partners under the hood. Houdini handles the routing logic and orchestration so the user interacts with one system instead of many. For private routes, Houdini breaks the on-chain link between sender and receiver by routing the swap through two independent exchange partners with an intermediary asset in between. The result is cross-chain execution that is automated, non-custodial, and private by design.

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Houdini is an aggregator

Houdini does not operate its own liquidity pools, order books, or exchange. It connects to non-custodial exchange partners, compares available routes, and selects the most efficient execution path at that moment. Think of it like Kayak or Booking.com for crypto liquidity. Instead of checking each exchange manually, Houdini evaluates multiple providers and coordinates the route for you. Houdini offers two route types:

• Private: our flagship route. The swap runs through two separate exchange partners, so the source and destination wallets are never linked on-chain.
• Standard: a single-hop swap through one exchange partner. Faster and lower cost. Basic privacy but traceable on-chain.

Connect your wallet for the smoothest flow, or skip it and send funds to a one-time deposit address from any wallet or exchange. Privacy is where Houdini stands out. For users who care about keeping balances and activity from being traced, this matters. Most aggregators operate within a single chain. Houdini is built for native cross-chain execution across 120+ chains, without requiring you to manually bridge and swap step by step.

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Built around private routing

The same private routing powers every Houdini product: Houdini is also available as a browser extension, a Telegram bot, and through the Partner API and widget for wallets and apps.

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Who Houdini is for

Houdini is primarily built for users who want cross-chain transactions with stronger privacy guarantees than typical swap and bridge flows. It is designed for legitimate use cases where users want to minimize unnecessary exposure of their on-chain activity.

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Next: how swaps work

Private and Standard routes make different tradeoffs between privacy, speed, and cost. Core Swap Concepts explains how each one works and when to use it.

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Quickstart