> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vane.xyz/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Solver auctions

> Independent solvers bid to fill every order. Competition sets the rate, and escrow releases only after delivery.

Solvers are independent market makers that fill Vane orders with their own capital, competing for every order in a real-time auction.

That competition is the pricing mechanism. No desk sets a spread; the rate you're quoted is whatever the auction produces for your pair and size at that moment, and a solver's margin is whatever spread still wins. There's currently no protocol fee on top ([Fees](/features/fees)).

A funded order settles in four moves:

1. Your deposit confirms at the order's deposit address and stays there, in escrow.
2. The order goes out to the solver network, each solver bids, and the best price wins.
3. The winner delivers your settle tokens to `receivingAddress` straight from its own inventory.
4. Vane verifies the delivery, then releases the escrowed deposit to the solver.

The ordering is the safety mechanism. You're paid first and the solver second, so a solver that never delivers never collects. If a funded swap can't complete, the solver isn't paid and your deposit comes back, net of network fees.

For an integrator, fills surface as order fields: `exchangeWithdrawTx` and `exchangeWithdrawTxLink` record the delivery transaction, and `settleAmount` becomes final at `COMPLETED` ([Order lifecycle](/api-reference/order-lifecycle) maps the states). You never talk to a solver directly, and the API is identical whichever one wins. One caution: the `exchange` and `tradePath` fields on quotes and orders describe how the price was computed across order-book legs, not the route funds travel, so don't render them as the swap's path.