Evaluating Bluefin’s Precarious Market Position

Bluefin Overview

In 2021, Bluefin was formerly known as Firefly Exchange on the Moonbeam network (a Polkadot parachain) however, market challenges led to a shift in strategy. In early 2023, the protocol was rebranded to Bluefin and offered derivatives trading with an orderbook-based system on Arbitrum, facilitating over $2B in trading volume. However, given the scalability, performance, and cost-effectiveness of Arbitrum, the team opted to move to a more performant chain, Sui. Since launching on Sui in late 2023, Bluefin has facilitated over $45B in volume - far more than any other application on Sui. In November 2024, Bluefin released its spot DEX, which has seen steady growth since, with a cumulative volume of over $6B. Bluefin raised over $17M, and its backers include Polychain, Brevan Howard, SIG, Tower Research, and Wintermute.

Sui’s DEX volumes have been cyclical, reaching a peak of $12.4B in January 2025 and a peak market share (among all chains) of 2.62% in December 2024. As of February 2025, monthly volumes have pulled back to around $7B but market share has dropped to 1.9%, the lowest since April 2024. These volumes are heavily tied to the price of SUI, which is a common trend in the DEX landscape. Sui is the 6th largest chain by volume ($8B in 30-day volume) but is a distance off from 5th place Arbitrum ($23B in 30-day volume). 

Fundamentals

Bluefin’s market share on Sui has steadily increased since it launched its spot market in November. As shown below, the DEX now controls ~36% of spot volumes and continues to grow month over month.