DeepBook vs Cetus: Order Book vs AMM on Sui
DeepBook vs Cetus compared: Sui's onchain order book against its largest concentrated-liquidity AMM, with October 2026 TVL, volume and fees, and who each suits.
DeepBook is an onchain order book where makers post bids and asks, while Cetus is a concentrated-liquidity AMM where LPs deposit into price ranges; DeepBook suits limit orders and builders, Cetus suits liquidity providers and most wallet swaps. On 31 October 2026 Cetus led Sui on both TVL and volume, with about $24.9 million locked and $425 million traded over 30 days, per DefiLlama. DeepBook held about $11.5 million and traded about $201 million, the second-highest volume on the chain.
Two ways to price a trade
An order book and an AMM answer the same question, "what price do I get?", in different ways.
On DeepBook, the price comes from people. Makers place limit orders at prices they choose. A taker's order fills against the best resting orders, and anything unfilled can rest on the book as a new limit order. The DeepBook V3 design docs describe each market as a shared Pool object that holds the book, and matching and settlement both happen onchain inside a Sui transaction.
On Cetus, the price comes from a formula. LPs deposit two tokens into a price range, and swaps move the price along a curve until the trade is filled. This is the concentrated-liquidity model Uniswap v3 made standard, explained in our CLMM guide. Cetus also runs a DLMM, launched in late September 2025, which splits the price range into discrete bins.
DeepBook vs Cetus at a glance
| DeepBook V3 | Cetus | |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Central limit order book (CLOB) | Concentrated-liquidity AMM (CLMM), plus a bin-based DLMM |
| Who sets the price | Makers' limit orders | Pool formula and LP ranges |
| Front end | None official; reached through wallets, aggregators and apps | Own app and aggregator |
| Token | DEEP: fee payment, per-pool staking, fee votes | CETUS, with xCETUS as an escrowed form |
| Trading fees | Set per pool by DEEP-staker votes within fixed bounds (volatile pools: 1 to 10 bps taker) | Set by each pool's fee tier, paid to in-range LPs |
| Sui TVL, 31 Oct 2026 | $11.5M | $24.9M (CLMM) and $0.4M (DLMM) |
| 30-day volume | $201M | $425M (CLMM) |
| 30-day fees | About $60k | About $552k (CLMM) |
| Peak TVL | $37.4M (8 Jan 2025) | $268.0M (23 Nov 2024) |
| Main risk for depositors | Smart contract; your resting orders can fill at a bad moment | Smart contract; impermanent loss and out-of-range positions |
All figures are DefiLlama data checked on 31 October 2026.
How DeepBook works
DeepBook first went live on Sui mainnet in July 2023. The current version, DeepBook V3, launched with the DEEP token on 14 October 2024, according to the Sui Foundation. It has no official trading screen. The Sui documentation describes it as a building block that wallets, apps and routers integrate, and its swap functions accept coins directly, so an aggregator can route a small trade through DeepBook without the user setting anything up.
To place limit orders, a trader keeps funds in a BalanceManager, one object that works across every pool. Fees follow rules set by DEEP stakers:
- Paying in DEEP costs less than paying in the input token; the docs' example shows a 20% saving.
- Staking DEEP in a pool makes a trader eligible for lower taker fees, which the docs say can fall by half, and lets makers earn DEEP rebates on their maker volume.
- Fee votes happen every epoch, within bounds. Volatile pools can charge 1 to 10 bps for takers and 0 to 5 bps for makers; stable pools 0.1 to 1 bps and 0 to 0.5 bps; whitelisted pools charge nothing.
- Voting power grows linearly up to 100,000 staked DEEP and by the square root above it, which limits large holders.
- Rebates fall when an epoch's volume runs above its 28-day median, and DEEP not paid out as rebates is burned.
V3 also added flash loans. In January 2026 the Sui Foundation announced DeepBook Margin, which adds isolated margin pools and liquidation logic on top of the same liquidity, with Abyss and DeepTrade as early partners.
How Cetus works
Cetus is Sui's largest AMM and also runs on Aptos. LPs on its CLMM choose a price range and a pool fee tier; they earn fees only while the price is inside their range, and a position that drifts out of range sits fully in one token. The DLMM gives LPs bin-by-bin control and preset shapes for how liquidity is spread.
Cetus's developer docs list DeepBook as an external liquidity source its router can draw on, and the Cetus aggregator handled about $266 million in the 30 days to 31 October 2026, the most of any Sui router on DefiLlama. The CETUS token traded around $0.021 on 31 October 2026. xCETUS is its escrowed form for governance and boosted rewards; converting xCETUS back to CETUS requires a lock period chosen in days, per the Cetus developer docs.
The biggest event in Cetus's history is the 22 May 2025 exploit. An attacker used a faulty overflow check in a shared math library to take about $223 million. Sui validators froze about $162 million, and Cetus relaunched on 8 June 2025 with a $30 million USDC loan from the Sui Foundation helping refill pools, The Block reported. Our Cetus explainer covers the recovery in detail. We found no comparable exploit of DeepBook in our research.
Which is better for traders?
For a market swap of a few hundred dollars, the difference is small and an aggregator will usually pick the venue for you. The choice matters in three cases:
- You want a specific price. DeepBook takes limit orders natively. A CLMM fills at whatever price the curve gives, so you need a separate limit-order tool on top.
- You are trading size on a major pair. Compare the aggregator quote with DeepBook's book. On a liquid pair the book can be tighter than a thin AMM pool, which can move several percent on a large order.
- You trade often. DeepBook's DEEP fee discount and staking tiers reward repeat traders who hold DEEP.
Both venues feed the same routers, so you can compare quotes in one place. Our Sui DEX comparison covers the other venues those routers use.
Which is better for liquidity providers?
For a typical user who wants to deposit tokens and earn fees, Cetus is the practical option. Providing liquidity on DeepBook means running a market-making strategy: posting and updating orders, managing inventory, and staking DEEP to qualify for rebates, work that professional market makers do.
Cetus is easier to start and harder to do well. Concentrated positions earn more fees per dollar in range, and they suffer sharper impermanent loss than a full-range pool. On DefiLlama numbers, Cetus's gross 30-day fees, annualized, were about 27% of its TVL on 31 October 2026, before any protocol cut. That is an average across all pools and ranges; individual positions can earn far more or nothing.
Which is better for builders?
DeepBook was designed for builders. Any Sui app can call its pools, borrow through flash loans, or build margin products on DeepBook Margin, and every integration adds to the same shared book. The Sui Foundation's V3 announcement named 7K Aggregator, FlowX, Kriya and Turbos as early testnet partners.
Cetus also offers SDKs for its CLMM, DLMM and aggregator, and many Sui yield vaults deploy into its pools. If your product needs LP positions or AMM pricing, Cetus is the more direct fit. If it needs an order book, limit orders or margin, DeepBook is.
Risks on each side
- Smart-contract risk applies to both. Cetus's 2025 loss came from a math-library bug, the kind of flaw an audit can miss. DeepBook Margin adds borrowing and liquidations, so margin users take on liquidation risk as well.
- Liquidity risk: DeepBook's depth depends on market makers continuing to quote. If they pull orders in a fast market, the book thins out. Cetus pools stay where LPs left them, but a pool's depth can still be small; Sui's whole DEX sector held about $62 million on 31 October 2026.
- Token risk: DEEP and CETUS both traded around two cents on 31 October 2026. Fee discounts, rebates and boosted rewards paid in these tokens are worth only what the tokens fetch.
- LP-specific risk: on Cetus, a position that falls out of range stops earning and sits fully in the weaker token.
Where JewelSwap fits
JewelSwap's link to Cetus is JWLCETUS, JewelSwap's derivative token for staked xCETUS, and on Sui it also runs auto-compounded leveraged yield farms built on Scallop. See JewelSwap on Sui. For the wider DEX picture, read Uniswap alternatives on Sui or the Sui TVL breakdown by DefiLlama.
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepBook bigger than Cetus?
No. On 31 October 2026 Cetus had about $24.9 million of TVL and $425 million of 30-day volume, against about $11.5 million and $201 million for DeepBook, per DefiLlama.
Does Cetus use DeepBook?
Cetus's router can add DeepBook as an external liquidity source, per Cetus's developer docs. Its own pools are AMM pools and do not depend on DeepBook.
Can I place limit orders on Cetus?
Cetus's pools fill at the price the curve gives. For native limit orders on Sui, DeepBook is the order-book venue, usually accessed through an app or aggregator built on it.
What is the DEEP token used for?
Paying DeepBook trading fees at a discount, staking in a pool for lower taker fees and maker rebates, and voting on each pool's fee levels every epoch.
Is DeepBook safer than Cetus?
Both carry smart-contract risk. Cetus lost about $223 million in a May 2025 exploit and relaunched in June 2025. We found no comparable DeepBook exploit, which does not make it risk-free.
Educational only, not financial advice. Figures from DefiLlama and protocol docs, checked 31 October 2026; DEXs carry smart-contract, liquidity and impermanent-loss risk.
