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By ChefWEN, Founder, Momentum
When we launched Momentum on March 31, 2025, we set out to answer a simple question: what would happen if we built a DEX that prioritized bringing fresh capital into the Sui ecosystem rather than fighting over the liquidity that already existed?
Today, six months after launch, we’ve surpassed $22 billion in cumulative trading volume. That wasn’t our end goal, it was the proof. And it tells us something profound about where crypto is heading: retail adoption, not institutional gatekeeping, is the future of finance.
The Cetus Moment Changed Everything
Six weeks into our launch, the Cetus protocol exploit sent shockwaves through Sui. When $260 million in assets were compromised by a smart contract vulnerability, we watched Sui’s total value locked collapse overnight, from $67 million to $42 million. It was a gut punch. But here’s what matters: the ecosystem didn’t give up, and neither did we.
Instead of looking for escape routes, we coordinated with the Sui Foundation and Mysten Labs to strengthen security across the board. We initiated additional audits, implemented protocol-level safeguards, and rebuilt trust. Within five days, our TVL recovered. It wasn’t instant. Some liquidity never came back. But the ones who stayed formed the foundation we’re still building on. The message was clear: a crisis can either break a community or forge it. We chose the latter.
That moment taught us that what drives sustainable growth isn’t hype or speed, it’s credibility and genuine partnership. When retail users saw that the ecosystem was willing to defend their interests, they came.
Why ve(3,3) Works for Retail
Our choice of the ve(3,3) tokenomics model, a system where users lock tokens to gain voting power and earn rewards, was intentional: it directly addresses the incentive conflicts inherent in traditional DEXs. In most models, liquidity providers seeking high fees, traders wanting tight spreads, and protocols desiring volume are constantly at odds with one another.
Instead of trying to eliminate these inherent tensions of a DEX, our ve(3,3) model aligns them. It creates a system of shared success by routing 100% of trading fees, emissions, and rewards directly to users. This replaces the traditional zero-sum game with a powerful growth flywheel, where the protocol’s success directly translates to user success.
For a retail-first ecosystem like Sui, this matters enormously. Retail traders are not margin traders playing multi-second games. They hold positions. They accumulate. And they care deeply about sustainable yield and fair treatment. The ve(3,3) model speaks to that sentiment. It says your participation genuinely matters to the protocol’s health.
Attracting Capital, Not Stealing It
Early critiques suggested Momentum was cannibalizing liquidity from other Sui protocols. In reality, our strategy was the exact opposite: we deliberately built tools to attract new, external capital, thereby expanding the entire ecosystem for everyone.
Through multi-sig treasury management solutions and deep integrations with ecosystem partners, we helped protocols like Agora Finance, Ondo Finance, and First Digital grow their stablecoin ecosystems on Sui. We minted 100% of the supply for AUSD, FDUSD, and USDY on Sui. We became infrastructure, not just a competing venue.
The result? Sui’s total value locked grew 1,261% in 13 months. That’s not cannibalization. That’s ecosystem expansion. The $1 billion in Momentum volume came from new traders entering Sui for the first time, rather than existing users switching to a different DEX.
The Retail-First Inflection Point
Here’s what I think is happening with Sui, and why the timing matters: retail is about to enter crypto at scale, and they’re going to demand something different from what existed during previous cycles.
Previous bull markets were built on speculation, leverage, and fear of missing out. This cycle is being built on utility: Bitcoin is entering financial institutions via ETFs, stablecoins are becoming the rails for cross-border commerce, and gaming economies are onboarding millions. All of this real-world activity needs deep, liquid, and reliable infrastructure at a low cost.
Sui’s architecture was designed for exactly this use case. The Move language enables secure, composable smart contracts. This object-centric model creates rich on-chain assets that feel native, not bolted-on. Sub-second finality and parallel execution mean that users experience the blockchain as responsive, not congested. When infrastructure meets adoption momentum, compound effects emerge.
What We’re Building Next
Momentum has evolved beyond being just a DEX to become the central liquidity engine for Sui. Our partnerships with Wormhole around cross-chain asset bridging and OKX around wallets and distribution are designed to do one thing: bring billions in liquidity into Sui by providing the best technical and user experience for getting it there.
We’re building xSUI as a liquid staking solution and integrating EVM and Solana-native assets onto Sui. This strategy enables us to expand beyond native assets, while remaining fully committed to making Sui the most efficient entry point for sustainable on-chain liquidity.
Could we launch on Base, or Solana, or Arbitrum? Sure. But that’s not where the opportunity is. The opportunity lies in a network designed from first principles for this moment, where a billion people can eventually own and trade digital assets without friction, fear, or intermediaries.
The Real Test
The $1 billion volume milestone is not a measure of success but rather evidence of potential. True success would be measured by how many people, who were never involved in crypto before, now use Sui regularly, understand how our liquidity pools work, and actually hold positions for months or years instead of hours.
That’s the retail-first test, and that’s what we’re building toward. And from what I can see in wallet behavior, ecosystem growth, and the tenor of our community, we’re passing it.
The platforms that will define the next era of crypto are not those serving the fastest traders or the biggest whales. The victors will be the ones who built for the retail user, earned their trust with essential infrastructure, and maintained their vision through every market cycle. We intend to keep building that infrastructure. Sui’s ecosystem is ready, and retail is coming.
About Wendy Fu (ChefWen), Founder of Momentum
Wendy Fu (ChefWen) is the founder of Momentum, the central liquidity engine for the Move ecosystem. Her leadership is grounded in deep technical expertise, honed through senior engineering roles at industry giants like Facebook, Libra, and Amazon.
At Momentum, Wendy spearheaded the launch of the first multi-chain ve(3,3) DEX on Sui, propelling it to become the #1 DEX on the network by TVL.
Holding Master’s degrees in Computer Engineering and Operations Research from Georgia Institute of Technology, and fluent in both Mandarin and English, she bridges elite technical architecture with a global market perspective. Her blend of high-level technical acumen, entrepreneurial drive, and cross-cultural insight makes her a compelling voice on the future of Web3 and decentralized finance.
About Momentum
Momentum is building the financial operating system for the tokenized world, starting on Sui. Think Robinhood’s ease of use and scale, but fully decentralized and global.
Our market traction has been explosive. In just six months, we have:
- Gone from zero to $500M in liquidity.
- Onboarded over 2.1 million users.
- Reached $1.1B in daily trading volume, making us the #3 DEX globally according to DeFiLlama, next to Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
Rather than just another DEX, it’s a platform where anyone, retail or institutional, can trade anything, anywhere, entirely on-chain. Our growth is fueled by Sui’s unique retail base and a powerful ve(3,3) flywheel that pumps value back into the protocol with every trade, setting the foundation for a $10B+ ecosystem.
Next on our roadmap, we are launching perpetuals and Momentum X, a universal KYC layer designed to bridge DeFi with TradFi and unlock institutional liquidity at scale.
Instead of just following trends, Momentum is rewriting the playbook for global finance.