Catex Launches as Unichain’s MetaDEX, Offering 100% Trading Fees to veCATX Voters

Catex is set to launch as the MetaDEX and yield engine of Unichain, leveraging Uniswap v4’s hooks infrastructure. This platform is more than just a decentralized exchange (DEX); it is an ecosystem-wide coordination engine designed to drive Unichain’s growth by aligning liquidity providers, liquidity managers, protocols, and users around a shared mission of hyper-efficient liquidity.

Uniswap v4 introduces a significant shift in decentralized finance (DeFi) through Hooks—programmable extensions that reside within the automated market maker (AMM) itself. However, without the necessary infrastructure, coordination, and incentives, these Hooks remain underutilized. Catex aims to change this by providing a purpose-built platform for Hook builders. Developers and protocols can deploy custom strategies directly into the AMM logic, plug into CATX emissions and incentives via gauges, create capital-efficient vaults with automated liquidity management, and earn voting incentives and trading fees for building aligned Hooks and strategies. This makes Catex the de facto hub for Hook builders, offering the tools and incentives needed to create the next wave of modular DeFi primitives.

While Hook builders benefit from deep composability, users on Catex gain access to native yield. Powered by ve(3,3) mechanics, proven by protocols like Curve, Thena, and Lynex, Catex ensures that aligned long-term voters capture the lion’s share of protocol fees, voting incentives, and UNI incentives. On Catex, veCATX voters receive 100% of trading fees and voting incentives, while liquidity providers earn oCATX emissions (convertible into discounted CATX or veCATX) and UNI incentives. Emissions and protocol revenues are directed by governance votes, creating a stable, self-reinforcing yield system that rewards both builders and voters.

Catex is the third expansion of the DefiZoo MetaDEX franchise, following the success of Lynex on Linea, which has dominated with over $5 billion in total volume and over $7.5 million distributed to veLYNX voters. Catex inherits this proven engine and upgrades it to be designed natively for Uniswap v4, fully modular with Hooks and ALM aggregation.

The token launch for Catex is structured to reward strategic buyers and ecosystem believers, with a total sale supply of 5.5% of CATX. The launchpad-based distribution includes platforms like Finceptor, Spores, and Poolz, with voting and liquidity mining going live immediately post-TGE. This model aims to reduce mercenary behavior and build a governance-first base layer of aligned stakeholders.

If Catex captures even a modest 5–10% of Unichain’s total value locked (TVL), it could represent $50 million–$150 million within months of launch. This new financial layer caters to various stakeholders, including Hook builders looking to monetize and distribute their strategies, liquidity providers accessing advanced liquidity strategies and earning emissions and UNI rewards, DAOs and protocols routing incentives and deploying POL with governance, yield seekers locking veCATX and earning from trading and voting incentives, and the Unichain core ecosystem coordinating around a shared MetaDEX layer. This is where capital meets coordination, serving as the native DeFi engine of Unichain.