Moonshots Program Recipient WaterX Debuts AI-Native Trading Engine on Sui

Main Takeaways

• WaterX brings decentralized AI-native trading to Sui, launching a multi-asset trading engine built for 24/7 AI-assisted and autonomous markets across crypto, tokenized equities, and commodities.
• As a participant in the Sui DeFi Moonshots Program, WaterX seeks to expand Sui’s DeFi ecosystem to support agents and human traders alike.

Overview

As onchain activity becomes increasingly programmatic, trading infrastructure must also evolve. Today, WaterX opens early access on Sui as the first AI-native trading engine designed specifically for a world where AI agents and human traders operate on a single platform. 

As a participant in the Sui Foundation DeFi Moonshots Program, WaterX joins a select group of teams building category-defining financial products on Sui. Its launch marks another step forward for Sui’s DeFi ecosystem and underscores why Sui is the only blockchain built for mass adoption: the network is designed to support the speed, scalability, and programmability that next-generation financial applications require.

WaterX debuts with 13 perpetual markets including core crypto assets (including BTC, ETH, SUI, SOL) and tokenized equities such as Nvidia, Tesla, Apple and the S&P 500. WaterX opens with per-position size limits during its initial phase as part of a staged rollout, expanding to full capacity as the platform scales.  

Built for the future of trading

Most perpetual DEXs are still designed around manual trading, with APIs added later. WaterX flips that model. Programmatic access, agent permissions, and strategy execution are core to the platform from day one.

In the shift toward autonomous finance, trading is a critical early frontier. WaterX provides the purpose-built infrastructure complete with REST/WebSocket APIs and an MCP server for LLM integrations that allows traders to automate execution with native guardrails.

“WaterX is expressly designed for autonomous trading and AI agents running on Sui, playing to the network’s ability to let builders seamlessly deploy high-performance payments and financial toolings,” said Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Mysten Labs. "The AI-native trading engine’s direct integration with LLMs could help put Sui on a direct path to the future of agentic AI.”

WaterX Core Agent Infrastructure:

• SessionCap: Sui’s native permissions model for time-limited, capped trading without exposing private keys.
• MCP Server: Native integration for LLMs to read market data and execute trades.
• Isolated Sub-accounts: Separate risk profiles and collateral for different automated strategies.

Early access users can sign in with Google via Sui’s zkLogin and begin trading in less than a minute. All markets trade 24/7 with USDC and USDsui settlement, with support for leveraged trades included. 

Tying to Sui’s AI Vision

WaterX is arriving on Sui at a moment when DeFi is expanding beyond manual, human-operated interfaces, and into software-native finance. For AI-assisted and autonomous trading to work in practice, builders need fast execution, predictable performance, and assets that are programmable at the base layer.

It behaves the way developers and traders expect. Orders, positions, and permissions can be handled directly onchain as programmable objects. Programmable Transaction Blocks make it possible to bundle complex actions atomically. And, crucially, Sui’s performance gives agents the execution speed needed before market signals decay.

This launch also adds an important new layer to the Sui DeFi stack. Sui already offers strong primitives for payments, permissions, and user onboarding. WaterX builds on that foundation with a multi-asset trading venue designed specifically for 24/7 programmatic markets and agent-based execution.

A Moonshots team building for the next phase of DeFi

WaterX is one of the projects selected for the Sui Foundation’s DeFi Moonshots Program, which supports top teams building category-defining financial products on Sui. WaterX was selected for its potential to deliver real market impact and help define a new AI-for-finance layer within the ecosystem. As a Moonshots participant, WaterX receives technical collaboration support from DeFi engineering specialists, credits for security auditing, and go-to-market support.

Builders are increasingly choosing Sui for applications that demand performance, composability, and intuitive user experiences. Sui’s continued momentum in DeFi and growing base of developers and users point to a network that is increasingly well suited for the future of global, always-on finance.

What comes next

WaterX plans to expand beyond its launch product into a broader AI-native financial stack. Its roadmap includes a market discovery engine aggregating funding rates, open interest, liquidation levels, and sentiment; an intent engine that lets users describe trades in plain language; and personal trading AI designed to identify behavioral patterns and execution opportunities.

Later releases are expected to expand into lending, yield-bearing margins, tokenized stock spot trading, and an agent marketplace for developers to publish and monetize trading agents.

For Sui, WaterX’s launch is another signal of where the ecosystem is heading: financial applications that are faster and more scalable, and built for a world where markets run every hour of the day, globally.

Note: This content is for general educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed or relied upon as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset, investment or financial product and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice.