Sai Launches Perpetuals DEX with CEX-like Experience
A new perpetuals decentralized exchange named Sai has launched with the goal of offering a clean, CEX-like user experience with the security of on-chain settlement. To attract traders and build liquidity, the platform is hosting the "Let's Go Saicho" trading competition with $25,000 in prizes. The launch reflects a broader trend of DEXs competing with centralized exchanges on user interface and product features.
- Sai is built on the Nibiru blockchain, which provides the necessary performance for a low-latency trading experience similar to a centralized exchange. The platform utilizes a combination of independent price oracles and an automated market maker (AMM) for trade execution and to ensure fair, responsive markets. - The platform offers gasless transactions to lower the barrier to entry and reduce friction for active traders, a feature designed to replicate the ease of use found on centralized exchanges. - A key contributor to Sai is identified as Matthias Darblade, an actuary with over six years of experience in machine learning and a background as a chief data scientist. - The "Let's Go Saicho" trading competition is structured in two parts: a PNL (Profit and Loss) competition from February 18th to March 4th with a $20,000 prize pool, followed by a "Be Early" first-come, first-served participation phase from March 5th to March 19th with a $5,000 prize pool. - Sai's future roadmap includes expanding beyond cryptocurrency markets to offer perpetuals for stocks, commodities, and foreign exchange (FX). It also plans to introduce features like "Sai Savings" for earning yield on deposits and smart accounts for a more streamlined trading experience. - The platform supports USDC from any EVM-compatible chain as collateral and also utilizes stNIBI, the liquid staked version of Nibiru's native token. - Sai enters a competitive perpetual DEX market where established players like Hyperliquid have held significant market share. The sector saw cumulative trading volumes reach over $12 trillion by the end of 2025, indicating a large and active user base for these types of products.
