Sui Network Perp DEX Overview: What are the differences among the four major protocols?

Author: 0xShinChan, encryption KOL

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

The post-FTX era has completely changed the trading landscape, driving a large number of users towards decentralized perpetual contract exchanges (Perp DEX). The daily trading volume on these platforms now often exceeds $30 billion, indicating a significant demand for decentralized derivatives among users.

However, the fragmented nature of early Perp DEX often hindered its widespread adoption due to the impact of UI/UX (user interface/user experience) usability, liquidity depth, and the reliability of price feeds. Starting in 2024, the market landscape began to change, marked by the emergence of innovative models such as GMX PVP and dYdX order books. Today, the lending, DEX, and yield trading protocol teams on the Sui Network are enriching their product lines, including perpetual contract trading.

The advantages of Sui in Perp DEX

Sui actually offers several compelling features that make it a strong contender for building perpetual DEX.

High performance and low latency: Sui’s parallel transaction processing enables high throughput and low latency, which is crucial for efficient order matching and a smooth trading experience on DEX.

Object-Centric Data Model: Sui’s unique data model supports the efficient storage and parallel processing of account and asset data.

zkLogin enables a seamless onboarding experience: the zkLogin feature simplifies the user onboarding process, allowing users to create accounts using familiar Web2 credentials, thereby reducing the experience barriers for new traders.

Sponsored Trading: Sui’s sponsored trading feature can reduce user costs and enhance the overall trading experience.

The following are the early builders of Sui:

Bluefin

Astros powered by NAVI Protocol

Aftermath Finance

Typus Finance GLP trading model

Kriya is also about to launch its Perp DEX.

Before delving into each one, here is an overall comparison table.

The following will compare and study various protocols, analyzing their trading characteristics, protocol mechanisms, and performance.

Bluefin

Bluefin, as an established Perp DEX on Sui, combines a fast-matching off-chain order book with a secure on-chain settlement engine. The protocol’s liquidity is managed by professional market makers (MM):

Leveraging Sui’s parallel transaction processing capabilities, Bluefin boasts extremely low order execution latency and fast on-chain final confirmation (under 500 milliseconds). In addition, it supports almost all perpetual contract assets on Sui, covering the widest range, including $DEEP, $WAL, and $TRUMP.

The trading volume of the Bluefin platform for perpetual contracts in the past 24 hours is between 40 million and 70 million USD, indicating a high level of trading activity on the platform.

The BTC-PERP trading pair usually accounts for the largest share of daily trading volume (about 60%), followed by SUI-PERP and ETH-PERP.

According to Defi Llama data, the fees generated each year are approximately 4 million dollars.

The UI / UX is excellent. Users can utilize the trading view feature, and the interface is clear, containing all the necessary information. It is worth mentioning that Bluefin’s zkLogin integration is supported by Sui. This simplifies the onboarding process for users and eliminates the complexity of wallets and mnemonic phrases.

Aftermath (Testnet)

Aftermath will launch its Perp DEX testnet for the first time in November 2024. It operates entirely on-chain, unlike many Perp DEXs that rely on off-chain order book matching, Aftermath places the entire order book on-chain. Due to being in the testnet phase, statistics are currently limited.

Aftermath focuses more on enhancing the liquidity/TVL of its DEX and existing liquidity pools. Future potential incentives / The formal launch of Perp DEX may take place later.

Astros (Beta)

Astros is a DEX aggregator + Perp DEX developed by the NAVI Protocol team. Like Bluefin and Aftermath, NAVI Protocol also uses an order book mechanism in its Perp DEX. As it is currently in the testing phase, information about the partnering market maker (MM) and specific mechanisms is still not detailed. Its 24-hour trading volume has reached 300 million dollars, which may be driven by its ongoing trader incentive program.

Typus Perp

Typus Finance launched its GMX-style Perp DEX about two weeks ago. According to Defi Llama data, the 24-hour trading volume is approximately $200,000, and the TVL of the TLP pool exceeds $700,000.

The assets in the TLP pool include $SUI, $USDC, $DEEP, and $LBTC, with an APR currently exceeding 100%.

Some observations and conclusions

The Rise of Order Books: The Perp DEX ecosystem of Sui currently clearly leans towards the order book model, a phenomenon reflected both in the choice of protocol design and in its dominant position in trading volume. This indicates that the order book mechanism either has inherent applicability within Sui’s architecture or has received market recognition from its user base.

Asset scarcity and the allure of memes: The range of assets supported by the Sui Network Perp DEX is noticeably limited, representing potential opportunities. If a protocol can quickly embrace the highly volatile yet lucrative memecoin trading space (a field with a continually developing cultural foundation on Sui), then leveraging the inherent speculative nature of these assets may drive an increase in platform trading volume.

The necessity of the initial stage and incentive mechanisms: Compared to the mature and highly liquid Perp DEX ecosystem on EVM and Solana, Sui’s cumulative trading volume and TVL are still in the initial stage. Given the existing feature set and available functionalities of these alternative chains, attracting traders to switch to Sui Network’s Perp DEX may require more than just technological innovation; an attractive incentive mechanism might be the key factor in attracting speculative capital and promoting significant growth of the Perp DEX ecosystem.