Momentum (MSafe) Raises Strategic Round for Move Ecosystem

June 5, 2025 – Momentum, the central liquidity engine for the Move ecosystem and one of the fastest-growing decentralized exchanges (DEX) on the Sui blockchain, today announced the successful close of a strategic funding round at a $100 million valuation. The round was led by prominent Web3 investors including OKX Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Protagonist, and DNA Fund, with additional participation from Gate Ventures, MEXC Ventures, KuCoin Ventures, Coin Bureau, Monke Ventures, MultiChain Advisors (MCA), Crypto Lark, and theonlynom (Core Contributor at Bonk).

This latest capital infusion follows a previous $10 million round led by Varys Capital in March 2025 and an earlier $5 million seed funding in January 2023. The new funding will be instrumental in accelerating Momentum’s astronomical growth within the Sui DeFi ecosystem and solidifying its position as a leading force in Move-native finance.

Momentum has rapidly established itself as a critical infrastructure layer, leveraging Sui’s high-performance architecture to deliver a seamless, CEX-like trading experience entirely on-chain. Powered by its innovative ve(3,3) DEX model, Momentum has achieved remarkable milestones in less than two months, including:

$3 billion in swap volume
$69 million in Total Value Locked (TVL)
Over 420,000 users

"Sui’s architecture sets a new standard for DeFi infrastructure – enabling near-instant transaction finality, scalable performance under heavy load. It takes a strong chain to make a DEX that delivers, and because of this, I’m confident in Momentum’s ability to build a DEX that delivers a seamless, CEX-like experience entirely on-chain," said ChefWEN (@ChefMMT_X), Co-founder of Momentum, who also served as the architect of MSafe and a senior engineer for Meta’s Libra project.

Momentum’s roots trace back to MSafe, the first multi-signature, non-custodial digital asset management solution built on Move, launching on Aptos mainnet in October 2022 and Sui mainnet in May 2023. MSafe has been trusted by trailblazers across the Move-based ecosystems, including ArgoUSD, Aries Markets, Thala Labs, Layerzero, and Pontem Network, for secure treasury management, smart contract deployment, and protocol control. This legacy of security and robust engineering, underpinned by ChefWEN’s expertise, ensures minimal fund risk for Momentum’s users through audited smart contracts, a robust review process, real-time monitoring, and 24/7 support.

The strategic investors expressed strong conviction in Momentum’s potential:

Cass Cai, Head of KuCoin Ventures, commented, "We are delighted to partner with and invest in Momentum, whose model will effectively enhance trading efficiency, boost liquidity depth and increase user rewards. This innovative approach has the potential to make a significant impact in the DeFi space, especially for the Sui ecosystem."

Saurabh Sharma, Head of Investments at Jump Crypto, previously noted about MSafe, "SAFE's non-custodial digital asset management platform offers best-in-class security, decentralization and flexibility needed by organizations. Excited to support SAFE’s strong team with ambitious goals and capabilities to scale web3 financial services."

Momentum’s groundbreaking ve(3,3) model incentivizes liquidity through vote-escrowed tokenomics, redistributing 100% of protocol revenue to stakers. This flywheel of token locking, voting, and deeper liquidity pools positions Momentum to provide better rates for traders and higher earnings for liquidity providers, mirroring the success of projects like Aerodrome.

The new capital will be deployed to continue Momentum’s rapid expansion, enhance its product offerings, and further contribute to the growth and decentralization of the Move ecosystem. Momentum is poised to become the definitive central liquidity engine, driving the next wave of DeFi innovation.

About Momentum:

Momentum, formerly MSafe, is the central liquidity engine for the Move ecosystem, operating as a leading DEX on Sui. It offers trading, vesting, and treasury management for both retail and institutional participants. Co-founded by ChefWEN, an early architect of Meta’s Libra project, Momentum leverages an innovative ve(3,3) model to provide deep liquidity and a CEX-like trading experience with on-chain security.

About OKX Ventures:

OKX Ventures is the investment arm of the OKX exchange, focusing on supporting innovative blockchain projects that contribute to the growth of the Web3 ecosystem.

About Coinbase Ventures:

Coinbase Ventures is the venture capital arm of Coinbase, investing in promising early-stage companies and projects in the crypto and blockchain space.