Crypto Gloss

Cellana Finance

Cellana Finance is Aptos’s ve(3,3) AMM DEX — directly inspired by Solidly and Velodrome — where CELL token holders lock tokens into veCELL for governance rights, vote weekly on gauge emissions to liquidity pools, accept bribes from protocols wanting to direct liquidity, and earn protocol fees, creating an incentive marketplace that Aptos ecosystem projects use to bootstrap token liquidity without direct protocol spending.

Overview

Cellana launched on Aptos mainnet in 2023 as the ecosystem’s Velodrome equivalent — recognizing that the ve(3,3) model (pioneered by Andre Cronje’s Solidly, perfected by Velodrome on Optimism) creates a self-sustaining liquidity incentive marketplace. By arriving as the ve(3,3) DEX on Aptos, Cellana positioned itself to capture a different niche from Liquidswap (basic AMM) and Thalaswap (multi-pool + CDP): the gauge war infrastructure that allows Aptos protocols to procure liquidity through economic incentives rather than maintaining direct liquidity programs.

ve(3,3) Model: Core Mechanics

Here’s how the governance and incentive model works.

CELL Token and veCELL

  • CELL — liquid governance and utility token, can be traded or locked
  • veCELL — time-locked CELL (lock up to 4 years, longer lock = more voting power)
  • veCELL balance decays linearly over lock period (prevents permanent governance power accumulation)
  • veCELL holders receive: trading fee revenue from voted pools + bribe rewards

Weekly Gauge Votes

Every 7 days, veCELL holders vote on which liquidity pools receive CELL emissions:

  • Each pool has a gauge (emission target)
  • Votes proportional to veCELL balance
  • Pools with most votes receive most CELL per week
  • LPs in pools earning emissions get CELL on top of trading fees

Bribe System

The protocol-level use case:

  • Aptos protocols that want liquidity in their token pair (e.g., PROTOCOL_TOKEN/APT) can bribe veCELL voters
  • Bribe = pay USDC, PROTOCOL_TOKEN, or other assets to veCELL voters who vote for their pool
  • Voters receive: [pool trading fees] + [external bribe] for voting for that pool
  • Protocol gets: CELL emission liquidity mining for their pool → LPs deposit → protocol token has liquidity

This creates a liquidity marketplace — protocols compete to offer the best bribe per CELL emission obtained, voters maximize their combined trading fee + bribe yield.

Pool Types

Cellana supports two pool types:

Volatile Pools (xyk):

  • Standard constant product formula for uncorrelated assets
  • 0.22% fee (slightly lower than Uniswap V2’s 0.3%)

Stable Pools:

  • StableSwap curve for correlated assets (USDC/USDT, amAPT/APT)
  • 0.02% fee (optimized for thin-margin stablecoin arbitrage)

CELL Emissions Schedule

  • Fixed weekly CELL emission that decays at ~1% per week
  • Emissions distributed proportionally to pool gauge votes
  • Vesters (those who lock CELL to veCELL) receive a share of emissions as anti-dilution rebases
  • Late lockers receive smaller rebases, incentivizing early lock-up participation

Ecosystem Role

Cellana is the Aptos ecosystem’s liquidity procurement layer:

  • New Aptos token launches → immediately create Cellana gauge → offer bribes → attract LP capital
  • Existing protocols (Thala, Amnis) → bribe Cellana voters for amAPT/USDC or MOD/USDC depth
  • Protocol integrations — Panora aggregator routes through Cellana pools alongside other Aptos DEXs

Sources

Related Terms