Best DeFi Platforms on Sui (2026): 7 Compared by Use Case

Updated 28 September 2026: TVL and volume figures refreshed from DefiLlama, and the JewelSwap section updated to reflect its current Sui products.

The Sui blockchain has grown into one of the most active environments for decentralized finance. Built around the Move language and an object-centric data model, it was engineered for the throughput, low latency and predictable costs that serious DeFi demands. This guide compares the best DeFi platforms on Sui in 2026 — what each does, what it is genuinely best for, and how to choose between them.

Sui DeFi platforms at a glance

Platform	Type	Best for	Key mechanic
Cetus	CLMM DEX	Deepest spot liquidity, LP fee capture	Concentrated liquidity in chosen price ranges
Turbos	CLMM DEX	Low-latency trading, granular LP control	Concentrated liquidity, trader-focused UI
DeepBook	On-chain order book	Limit orders, infrastructure for other apps	Central limit order book, fully onchain
Scallop	Money market	Supplying assets for lending yield	Utilisation-based variable rates
NAVI	Money market	Leveraged and looped positions	Deep markets on Sui-native assets
Suilend	Money market	Diversifying counterparty exposure	Sui-native lending markets
JewelSwap	Liquid staking + yield farming	Keeping staked SUI productive, hands-off farming	Dual-token JWLSUI/SJWLSUI, auto-compounding vaults

Sui DeFi by the numbers (September 2026)

According to DefiLlama on 28 September 2026, total DeFi TVL on Sui was about $543M. Lending holds the largest share: Suilend had $177.2M and NAVI $175.2M, with Scallop Lend at $11.2M. On the DEX side, Cetus held $29.2M, DeepBook $12.8M and Turbos $4.0M, and Sui DEXs together traded about $1.39B in the 30 days to 28 September. SUI itself was trading around $1.16. These figures move daily, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a ranking.

How to choose

The categories matter more than the brand names. Pick by what you are actually trying to do:

Swapping tokens? Cetus and DeepBook handle most Sui DEX volume, with Bluefin and Turbos behind them; DeepBook if you want limit orders rather than AMM pricing. Our Sui DEX comparison has volume, TVL and fees for each venue.
Earning on idle assets? A money market (Scallop, NAVI, Suilend) pays a variable rate with no impermanent loss — see our note on single-sided liquidity for why that matters.
Holding SUI long term? Liquid staking keeps it earning while staying usable as collateral elsewhere.
Providing LP? Concentrated liquidity earns more per dollar but needs range management, and the impermanent loss maths is sharper than in a full-range pool. Concentrated liquidity explained works through an example.

What makes Sui a strong base for DeFi

Parallel execution. Sui treats assets as independent objects, so transactions that do not touch the same data process simultaneously. The network does not grind to a halt when one app gets busy, which keeps swaps, deposits and liquidations flowing in volatile markets.
The Move language. Move was designed for handling digital assets safely. Its resource-oriented model makes it much harder to accidentally duplicate or lose tokens, removing entire classes of contract bug.
Low, predictable fees. This matters enormously for strategies involving frequent compounding, rebalancing or looping, where unpredictable gas quietly eats returns.
Fast finality. Simple transfers settle almost instantly, giving a responsive experience while remaining fully onchain and non-custodial.

Technical detail lives in the official Sui documentation.

Cetus — concentrated-liquidity DEX

Cetus is the largest DEX on Sui by both TVL and volume, built on a concentrated liquidity market maker design. LPs concentrate capital within chosen price ranges rather than spreading it across the whole curve. Traders get deeper liquidity and tighter spreads on major pairs; LPs get more efficient fee capture on the ranges they pick — at the cost of actively managing those ranges. Because Cetus liquidity is so central, its pools are frequently where automated yield strategies deploy capital. For its May 2025 exploit, the recovery and how xCETUS works, see What is Cetus Protocol?, or the Cetus website.

Turbos — high-performance DEX

Turbos Finance also uses concentrated-liquidity mechanics, emphasising speed and a streamlined trading experience that leans on Sui's parallel execution. Its pools are small relative to the volume they handle, which makes fee income per dollar high and depth thin; the Sui DEX comparison has current figures. See the Turbos website.

Full profile: What Is Turbos Finance?, covering how it works, its token, its risks and whether it is integrated with JewelSwap.

DeepBook — on-chain central limit order book

DeepBook is structurally different from the AMMs above. It is an onchain central limit order book acting as a shared liquidity layer for the whole ecosystem — less a consumer app than infrastructure other applications, aggregators and DEXs route through. It is the clearest example of what Sui's architecture enables: order-book matching precision of the kind traders expect from centralised venues, running fully onchain because parallel execution and low fees make it viable.

Full profile: What Is DeepBook?, covering how it works, its token, its risks and whether it is integrated with JewelSwap.

Scallop — money market

Scallop lets users supply assets to earn interest and borrow against deposits. Suppliers provide liquidity, borrowers post collateral, and rates adjust with utilisation. It is known for a polished experience and capital efficiency on both sides of the book. See the Scallop website, or our deeper look at how the Scallop lending protocol works.

NAVI Protocol — lending and borrowing hub

NAVI offers a money market where users deposit to earn yield and borrow against holdings. It has positioned itself as a liquidity hub, and its markets are commonly used by advanced users building leveraged or looped positions around Sui-native assets. See the NAVI website.

Full profile: What Is NAVI Protocol?, covering how it works, its token, its risks and whether it is integrated with JewelSwap.

JewelSwap now integrates NAVI through NAVI Loop, a beta vault that runs same-asset USDY and USDSUI loops; our NAVI how-to guide covers using NAVI directly.

Suilend — native lending protocol

Suilend is built natively for Sui and, with NAVI, is one of the two largest money markets on the chain. Competition here benefits everyone: it keeps rates fair and pushes each protocol to improve risk management. Using more than one also spreads counterparty exposure, which is the main uncompensated risk in lending. See the Suilend website.

Full profile: What Is Suilend?, covering how it works, its token, its risks and whether it is integrated with JewelSwap.

JewelSwap's Ember Loop beta vault uses Suilend as its primary lender. If you are choosing between the two lenders, see NAVI vs Suilend.

JewelSwap — JWLSUI liquid staking, Gauge and auto-compounded yield

JewelSwap is a non-custodial, multi-chain protocol operating across MultiversX, Sui and Radix. On Sui its standout product is dual-token liquid staking built around JWLSUI:

Deposit and mint (currently paused). New SUI deposits into JWLSUI are paused as of October 2026, so minting is not open right now; existing holders can still unstake and redeem. When deposits are open, you deposit SUI and mint JWLSUI and receive 1 JWLSUI per 1 SUI; the protocol may also mint extra JWLSUI as Protocol-Owned Liquidity, paired in the pool with an equal amount of SUI, which does not go to you. JWLSUI is designed to maintain 1:1 backing (per the docs).
Stake for the appreciating variant. Stake JWLSUI to receive SJWLSUI, which accrues staking rewards against JWLSUI while the protocol operates. Your balance stays constant while each unit becomes redeemable for more JWLSUI; the accrual is not guaranteed.
Instant, fee-free unstaking. SJWLSUI back to JWLSUI is instant and free, and SJWLSUI is transferable between wallets.
Redeeming to SUI. 1:1 with a 10-day unbonding period, during which you hold a transferable claim NFT proving ownership of the unbonding position — so the right to that pending SUI can itself be moved or traded.
Gauge-governed delegation. Validator delegation is governed by the Gauge, giving stakers a say in stake distribution — see also how Sui validators work.

Alongside liquid staking, JewelSwap runs auto-compounded yield farming on three Sui venues:

Cetus farms (ten pairs, including USDC–SUI, CETUS–SUI and DEEP–SUI) and Turbos farms (USDT–USDC, SUI–USDC and NS–SUI) run at 1× leverage, with rewards harvested and re-added as liquidity automatically. Two-asset pairs still carry impermanent loss.
Scallop leveraged farms on suiUSDT–USDC and sbwBTC–zwBTC. On 26 September 2026 the live JewelSwap app showed a Total Net APY of 4.0% for suiUSDT–USDC and 15.1% for sbwBTC–zwBTC, both at 2.86× leverage, with Scallop borrow incentives boosted by JewelSwap's protocol-level veSCA position. These rates are variable, not guaranteed: they move with borrow costs and reward prices, and leverage adds liquidation risk. See our Scallop farm guide.

Deeper walkthrough: JewelSwap on Sui.

More Sui apps worth knowing

Beyond the platforms above, these Sui apps each have their own JewelSwap profile with an at-a-glance table and an integration status:

Momentum — concentrated-liquidity DEX with the MMT token.
Bluefin — order-book perpetual futures exchange with spot pools.
Aftermath Finance — AMM, aggregator, afSUI liquid staking and perps.
Haedal (haSUI) and Volo (vSUI) — liquid staking alternatives to JWLSUI.
FlowX Finance — DEX and swap aggregator.
Typus Finance — options vaults and perps.
Walrus — decentralised storage built on Sui.

For the chain itself and the complete list grouped by category, see What Is Sui? The Sui ecosystem directory.

Sui around the world: country guides

Sui's user base is global, and how you buy SUI and reach these apps depends on where you live. Our country guides cover local exchanges, regulation and tax as of October 2026:

Sui in South Korea: SUI/KRW on Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit, the travel rule and the 2027 crypto tax.
Sui in Singapore: MAS-licensed exchanges that list SUI, retail rules and Basecamp 2026.
Sui in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: the mainland ban, HashKey and MAX, and Taiwan's new crypto law.
Sui in India: buying SUI with INR, FIU-IND registration, 30% tax and 1% TDS.
SUI coin in Turkey: SUI/TRY exchanges, CMB licensing and MASAK withdrawal rules.

For the latest ecosystem news, see our Sui Basecamp 2026 recap: the 40M TPS tunnel test, Samsung Wallet USDC and Hashi.

How these platforms fit together

The strength of Sui DeFi is not any single app but how the pieces interlock. DeepBook and the CLMM DEXs supply liquidity and trading. Money markets provide the credit layer. Protocols like JewelSwap sit on top, turning staked SUI and idle assets into auto-compounding positions that draw on that underlying liquidity. Sui's parallel execution and low fees are what make this composability practical at scale rather than theoretical.

If you want a protocol to manage the position for you, our comparison of the best yield optimizers on Sui sets Ember, Haedal, AlphaFi, Kai Finance, Mole and JewelSwap side by side by strategy, leverage and TVL.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best DeFi platforms on Sui?

The DEXs Cetus and Turbos, the money markets Scallop, NAVI and Suilend, the onchain order book DeepBook, and multi-chain platforms like JewelSwap for JWLSUI liquid staking and auto-compounded yield farming. Which is "best" depends on whether you are trading, lending or staking — see the table above.

What is the best DEX on Sui?

Cetus is the largest by TVL and volume, and DeepBook is the main order book. For sizeable swaps, an aggregator that routes across Cetus, DeepBook, Bluefin and Turbos usually beats any single venue. Our Sui DEX comparison has the numbers.

Why is Sui good for DeFi?

Parallel execution, the asset-safe Move language, low predictable fees and fast finality. Together these give high throughput and a responsive experience without sacrificing non-custodial ownership.

How does JWLSUI liquid staking work?

New SUI deposits are paused as of October 2026; existing holders can still unstake SJWLSUI and redeem JWLSUI to SUI. When deposits are open, you deposit SUI and mint JWLSUI 1:1 (any extra JWLSUI the protocol mints is Protocol-Owned Liquidity paired in the pool, not yours; JWLSUI is designed to maintain 1:1 backing), then stake JWLSUI for SJWLSUI, which accrues staking rewards while the protocol operates (not guaranteed). Unstaking SJWLSUI to JWLSUI is instant and free; redeeming to SUI is 1:1 with a 10-day unbonding period covered by a transferable claim NFT.

Can I use more than one of these at once?

Yes, and most active users do. The protocols are composable: an LST minted in one place can be supplied to a money market, and yield strategies routinely route through DEX pools. Each additional protocol adds contract risk, so spread deliberately rather than by accident.

Keep reading

This article is educational and isn't financial advice. TVL, volume and price figures are from DefiLlama on 28 September 2026; JewelSwap farm APYs are from the live app on 26 September 2026. All of them change daily.

Viktor Vostrikov

Co-Founder

About the author.

Co-Founder at JewelSwap & Chief Strategy Officer at iDenfy. Viktor brings his successful track record of superb development & project management.