diff --git a/contracts/swap/src/admin.rs b/contracts/swap/src/admin.rs
index 462644a..1df99d0 100644
--- a/contracts/swap/src/admin.rs
+++ b/contracts/swap/src/admin.rs
@@ -149,6 +149,26 @@ fn verify_route_exists(deps: Deps<InjectiveQueryWrapper>, route: &SwapRoute) ->
         }
     );
 
+    // A multi-hop route is only tradeable if each market in the chain actually shares a denom
+    // with the next one. The checks above only look at the very first and very last market, so a
+    // route with a broken middle hop (e.g. [A/B, C/D] where B != C and B != D) would previously
+    // pass `set_route` and only fail later, at swap time, when the exchange module rejects the
+    // order for a market/denom mismatch. Failing fast here gives the admin an immediate, specific
+    // error instead of a route that looks valid but can never execute.
+    for pair in denoms.windows(2) {
+        let (current, next) = (&pair[0], &pair[1]);
+        let shares_denom = current.quote_denom == next.quote_denom
+            || current.quote_denom == next.base_denom
+            || current.base_denom == next.quote_denom
+            || current.base_denom == next.base_denom;
+        ensure!(
+            shares_denom,
+            CustomError {
+                val: "Route is not continuous: two consecutive markets do not share a denom".to_string()
+            }
+        );
+    }
+
     Ok(())
 }
 
diff --git a/contracts/swap/src/swap.rs b/contracts/swap/src/swap.rs
index 60e40c1..c2a3b76 100644
--- a/contracts/swap/src/swap.rs
+++ b/contracts/swap/src/swap.rs
@@ -257,16 +257,20 @@ pub fn handle_atomic_order_reply(deps: DepsMut<InjectiveQueryWrapper>, env: Env,
     Ok(response)
 }
 
-pub fn parse_market_order_response(msg: Reply) -> StdResult<MsgCreateSpotMarketOrderResponse> {
-    let binding = msg.result.into_result().map_err(ContractError::SubMsgFailure).unwrap();
-
-    let first_message = binding.msg_responses.first();
-    let order_response = MsgCreateSpotMarketOrderResponse::decode(first_message.unwrap().value.as_slice())
-        .map_err(|err| ContractError::ReplyParseFailure {
-            id: msg.id,
+pub fn parse_market_order_response(msg: Reply) -> Result<MsgCreateSpotMarketOrderResponse, ContractError> {
+    let reply_id = msg.id;
+    let binding = msg.result.into_result().map_err(ContractError::SubMsgFailure)?;
+
+    let first_message = binding.msg_responses.first().ok_or_else(|| ContractError::ReplyParseFailure {
+        id: reply_id,
+        err: "sub-message result contained no msg_responses".to_string(),
+    })?;
+
+    let order_response =
+        MsgCreateSpotMarketOrderResponse::decode(first_message.value.as_slice()).map_err(|err| ContractError::ReplyParseFailure {
+            id: reply_id,
             err: err.to_string(),
-        })
-        .unwrap();
+        })?;
 
     Ok(order_response)
 }