BLUE will be unveiled in July and will include user incentives such as airdrops and trading rewards.
The DEX also received an undisclosed amount of investment from Flow Traders ahead of the token roll-out.

Decentralized orderbook exchange Bluefin will launch its governance token in July after securing total of $17 million in funding since its inception in 2020.

The exchange - which lets users trade crypto perpetual swaps on the Sui network - also recently received an undisclosed amount of investment from trading giant Flow Traders ahead of the token unveiling. Bluefin will use the proceeds to expand beyond perpetual trading and develop a decentralized financial ecosystem, the firm said in a statement to CoinDesk.

Bluefin claims to be a leading derivatives exchange in the Sui network and has captured over 70% market share with its perpetual trading product. Its upcoming token, BLUE, will help the firm decentralize decision-making processes while incentivizing users and contributors.

“Our vision is to accelerate the adoption of decentralized finance by bringing a sustainable, powerful, and user-friendly exchange to the market.” Said Zabi Mohebzada, co-founder of Bluefin.

Decentralized exchanges or DEXs became popular during the crypto winter after some large centralized platforms (CEXs), such as Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, imploded dramatically. DEXs are self-executing, meaning they can coordinate the trading of digital assets between users using automated algorithms and forgo the human element.

Perpetual swaps, unique to crypto, are financial products that are essentially futures contracts without an expiration date.

The BLUE token will have a maximum supply of 1 billion and an initial circulating supply of 116 million, according to a tokenomics document seen by CoinDesk. Investors and Bluefin's team will have a three-year vesting period with a lockup that will expire one year after the initial roll-out next month. It also plans to allocate 32.5% of the token for user incentives that will include airdrops, trading rewards, liquidity provisions and future growth initiatives, according to the document.

The DEX is also planning to start an aggregator for trading spot digital assets and "Bluefin Pro," which will offer cross-margin trading and faster executions.

Bluefin raised funds from major hedge funds, including Brevan Howard Digital, Tower Research, Cumberland DRW, and Susquehanna International Group. The exchange said it has seen more than $25 billion in trading volume so far this year and monthly revenues exceeding $1 million.

DEX Exclusive token airdrop perpetual contracts

Aoyon Ashraf

Aoyon Ashraf is CoinDesk's managing editor for Breaking News. He spent almost a decade at Bloomberg covering equities, commodities and tech. Prior to that, he spent several years on the sellside, financing small-cap companies. Aoyon graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in mining engineering. He holds ETH and BTC, as well as ALGO, ADA, SOL, OP and some other altcoins which are below CoinDesk's disclosure threshold of $1,000.