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By ChefWEN, Founder, Momentum
Once we launched Momentum on March 31, 2025, we set out to reply a easy query: what would occur if we constructed a DEX that prioritized bringing recent capital into the Sui ecosystem slightly than combating over the liquidity that already existed?
Right this moment, six months after launch, we’ve surpassed $22 billion in cumulative buying and selling quantity. That wasn’t our finish aim, it was the proof. And it tells us one thing profound about the place crypto is heading: retail adoption, not institutional gatekeeping, is the way forward for finance.
The Cetus Second Modified Every thing
Six weeks into our launch, the Cetus protocol exploit despatched shockwaves by way of Sui. When $260 million in property have been compromised by a wise contract vulnerability, we watched Sui’s complete worth locked collapse in a single day, from $67 million to $42 million. It was a intestine punch. However right here’s what issues: the ecosystem didn’t surrender, and neither did we.
As a substitute of on the lookout for escape routes, we coordinated with the Sui Basis and Mysten Labs to strengthen safety throughout the board. We initiated extra audits, carried out protocol-level safeguards, and rebuilt belief. Inside 5 days, our TVL recovered. It wasn’t on the spot. Some liquidity by no means got here again. However the ones who stayed fashioned the muse we’re nonetheless constructing on. The message was clear: a disaster can both break a neighborhood or forge it. We selected the latter.
That second taught us that what drives sustainable development isn’t hype or pace, it’s credibility and real partnership. When retail customers noticed that the ecosystem was prepared to defend their pursuits, they got here.
Why ve(3,3) Works for Retail
Our selection of the ve(3,3) tokenomics mannequin, a system the place customers lock tokens to acquire voting energy and earn rewards, was intentional: it straight addresses the inducement conflicts inherent in conventional DEXs. In most fashions, liquidity suppliers looking for excessive charges, merchants wanting tight spreads, and protocols needing quantity are always at odds with each other.
As a substitute of making an attempt to eradicate these inherent tensions of a DEX, our ve(3,3) mannequin aligns them. It creates a system of shared success by routing 100% of buying and selling charges, emissions, and rewards straight to customers. This replaces the normal zero-sum sport with a strong development flywheel, the place the protocol’s success straight interprets to person success.
For a retail-first ecosystem like Sui, this issues enormously. Retail merchants usually are not margin merchants enjoying multi-second video games. They maintain positions. They accumulate. They usually care deeply about sustainable yield and truthful remedy. The ve(3,3) mannequin speaks to that sentiment. It says your participation genuinely issues to the protocol’s well being.
Attracting Capital, Not Stealing It
Early critiques urged Momentum was cannibalizing liquidity from different Sui protocols. In actuality, our technique was the precise reverse: we intentionally constructed instruments to entice new, exterior capital, thereby increasing the complete ecosystem for everybody.
Via multi-sig treasury administration options and deep integrations with ecosystem companions, we helped protocols like Agora Finance, Ondo Finance, and First Digital develop their stablecoin ecosystems on Sui. We minted 100% of the availability for AUSD, FDUSD, and USDY on Sui. We grew to become infrastructure, not only a competing venue.
The outcome? Sui’s complete worth locked grew 1,261% in 13 months. That’s not cannibalization. That’s ecosystem enlargement. The $1 billion in Momentum quantity got here from new merchants coming into Sui for the primary time, slightly than current customers switching to a unique DEX.
The Retail-First Inflection Level
Right here’s what I believe is going on with Sui, and why the timing issues: retail is about to enter crypto at scale, they usually’re going to demand one thing completely different from what existed throughout earlier cycles.
Earlier bull markets have been constructed on hypothesis, leverage, and concern of lacking out. This cycle is being constructed on utility: Bitcoin is coming into monetary establishments through ETFs, stablecoins have gotten the rails for cross-border commerce, and gaming economies are onboarding thousands and thousands. All of this real-world exercise wants deep, liquid, and dependable infrastructure at a low value.
Sui’s structure was designed for precisely this use case. The Transfer language permits safe, composable good contracts. This object-centric mannequin creates wealthy on-chain property that really feel native, not bolted-on. Sub-second finality and parallel execution imply that customers expertise the blockchain as responsive, not congested. When infrastructure meets adoption momentum, compound results emerge.
What We’re Constructing Subsequent
Momentum has developed past being only a DEX to turn into the central liquidity engine for Sui. Our partnerships with Wormhole round cross-chain asset bridging and OKX round wallets and distribution are designed to do one factor: deliver billions in liquidity into Sui by offering one of the best technical and person expertise for getting it there.
We’re constructing xSUI as a liquid staking answer and integrating EVM and Solana-native property onto Sui. This technique permits us to increase past native property, whereas remaining absolutely dedicated to making Sui essentially the most environment friendly entry level for sustainable on-chain liquidity.
May we launch on Base, or Solana, or Arbitrum? Certain. However that’s not the place the chance is. The chance lies in a community designed from first rules for this second, the place a billion individuals can finally personal and commerce digital property with out friction, concern, or intermediaries.
The Actual Take a look at
The $1 billion quantity milestone will not be a measure of success however slightly proof of potential. True success could be measured by how many individuals, who have been by no means concerned in crypto earlier than, now use Sui often, perceive how our liquidity swimming pools work, and truly maintain positions for months or years as an alternative of hours.
That’s the retail-first check, and that’s what we’re constructing towards. And from what I can see in pockets conduct, ecosystem development, and the tenor of our neighborhood, we’re passing it.
The platforms that may outline the subsequent period of crypto usually are not these serving the quickest merchants or the largest whales. The victors would be the ones who constructed for the retail person, earned their belief with important infrastructure, and maintained their imaginative and prescient by way of each market cycle. We intend to maintain constructing that infrastructure. Sui’s ecosystem is prepared, and retail is coming.
About Wendy Fu (ChefWen), Founding father of Momentum
Wendy Fu (ChefWen) is the founding father of Momentum, the central liquidity engine for the Transfer ecosystem. Her management is grounded in deep technical experience, honed by way of senior engineering roles at trade giants like Fb, Libra, and Amazon.
At Momentum, Wendy spearheaded the launch of the primary multi-chain ve(3,3) DEX on Sui, propelling it to turn into the #1 DEX on the community by TVL.
Holding Grasp’s levels in Pc Engineering and Operations Analysis from Georgia Institute of Expertise, and fluent in each Mandarin and English, she bridges elite technical structure with a worldwide market perspective. Her mix of high-level technical acumen, entrepreneurial drive, and cross-cultural perception makes her a compelling voice on the way forward for Web3 and decentralized finance.
About Momentum
Momentum is constructing the monetary working system for the tokenized world, beginning on Sui. Assume Robinhood’s ease of use and scale, however absolutely decentralized and international.
Our market traction has been explosive. In simply six months, we now have:
- Gone from zero to $500M in liquidity.
- Onboarded over 2.1 million customers.
- Reached $1.1B in every day buying and selling quantity, making us the #3 DEX globally in accordance to DeFiLlama, subsequent to Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
Quite than simply one other DEX, it’s a platform the place anybody, retail or institutional, can commerce something, wherever, solely on-chain. Our development is fueled by Sui’s distinctive retail base and a strong ve(3,3) flywheel that pumps worth again into the protocol with each commerce, setting the muse for a $10B+ ecosystem.
Subsequent on our roadmap, we’re launching perpetuals and Momentum X, a common KYC layer designed to bridge DeFi with TradFi and unlock institutional liquidity at scale.
As a substitute of simply following traits, Momentum is rewriting the playbook for international finance.
