SushiSwap, the popular Ethereum-based decentralized exchange (DEX), has announced the acquisition of Vortex Protocol for an undisclosed amount. This move comes as SushiSwap aims to launch its own derivatives trading platform and acquire a ready-made platform instead of building one from scratch. Vortex Protocol is a decentralized derivatives exchange that offers users 10x margin trading on various assets, built atop Sei Network, a blockchain using Cosmos’ tooling. The on-chain trading platform will come under the SushiSwap umbrella as another product and will take a new name. Both Sei Network and Vortex Protocol will launch on mainnet in Q2 of 2023.

According to SushiSwap’s CEO Jared Grey, “This acquisition is a direct partnership between the SEI, Vortex, and Sushi teams to help bring to market the first fully on-chain perpetual DEX via Sushi.”

SushiSwap to Launch on Cosmos

The acquisition of Vortex Protocol also means that SushiSwap will be one of the first Ethereum applications to make the move over to the Cosmos ecosystem. Another Ethereum-native derivatives exchange called dYdx has also signaled that it would aim to launch on Cosmos in Q2.

Building on Cosmos has several advantages, including the ability for developers to spin up blockchains tailored specifically to a project’s needs. Developers have control over modifying the network’s consensus mechanism, running a native validator set, and more. Jayendra Jog, the co-founder of Sei Network, explained that the network is purpose-built for spinning up decentralized exchanges, with adjusted block processing, decreased finality to 300 milliseconds, and parallelization that can handle up to 22,000 orders per second on its internal testnet. These features, along with Sei’s cross-chain thesis, made the acquisition of Vortex Protocol enticing to SushiSwap.