Project Link

https://cobaltx.io/liquidity-pools/

Project Overview

Role: Lead Product Designer (Sole designer)

Team: Founder + 3 Engineers + 2 Growth Managers

Timeline: 4 weeks, 2025

Scope: Brand identity, product design, design system, socials

Outcome: 150M+ Total Volume, $10M peak TVL, 580k+ transactions, 100k+ unique users

The Challenge

SOON Network launched as a Solana-speed L2 with native EVM support and bridges to Base and BNB Chain.

The challenge was to make token swaps, liquidity provisioning, and pool discovery easy to understand for both new and experienced users. By designing clear interaction flows, reducing cognitive overload in trading actions, and structuring information logically, I helped transform complex on-chain mechanics into a streamlined, accessible product.

The Solution

SOON Network didn't have a native DEX. Without one, every dollar of liquidity sat on chains the bridges pointed to, and every user who wanted to trade on SOON had to leave the chain to do it. CobaltX is that missing primitive.

A swap surface tuned for SOON's confirmation speed, so the chain's advantage is visible the moment a user lands.

A concentrated liquidity pool system that gives sophisticated LPs the capital efficiency they expect.

Brand Identity

The brief on brand was open with no hard concept driving it, we just had an idea of not making it look like every other web3 brand. Web3 brands default to saturated purples, geometric sans, and gradient orb and we didn't want that.

Branding Process:

We went the opposite direction on color, i.e. oxblood red as the primary, against deep space gradients and radial dark backgrounds.

We rejected a flat direction early including flat backgrounds, flat buttons and the standard crypto look. The gradient direction held depth, gave the buttons and panels a sense of light source, and let the oxblood breathe instead of sitting flat on a black plane.

X Handle

The Product

The product contains mainly two features i.e. swap and liquidity pools. The challenge was less about inventing patterns and more about making swap, liquidity provision, and portfolio analytics feel like one native interface, which is fast and reliable for the SOON community.

The Process and iterations:

Swap

The swap is the simple surface, it's the one users land on first, so the goal was speed, not novelty. Token selector, route preview, confirmation states, all tuned to feel fast and fresh to use.

Liquidity

This was the hardest part of the project. I'd designed plenty of swap flows before, but concentrated liquidity wasn't a pattern I had reps on. I treated it as a research problem first. I pulled apart Uniswap V3, Orca Whirlpools, and Meteora to see how each one handled the same problem and where each one failed first-time users.

CobaltX surfaces the choice on pool creation:

• Concentrated Liquidity (CLMM) for users who want capital efficiency and are willing to manage a range.

• Standard for users who'd rather just deposit across the full curve.

CLMM is the default for now, but the alternative is also available, not live right now.

We created a step-by-step process to provide liquidity in a pool, along with previews and clarifications for each step, to reduce the user's cognitive load.

Portfolio

The portfolio page contains info about what tokens you hold, what positions are active, and what's idle.

Leaderboard

We introduced a points system based on the user's trading volume and the number of swaps performed. We later had a plan to perform an airdrop to the most powerful users of the platform based on the leaderboard data. Leaderboard was accessible from the profile section under the connect wallet button.

Outcome

CobaltX shipped on the SOON testnet during the network's incentivized testnet phase and went live on mainnet alongside the chain's launch. As the first native DEX on SOON, it became the default liquidity venue for the ecosystem.

• $150M+ total trading volume across testnet and mainnet

• $10M peak TVL

• 580k+ transactions

• 100k+ unique users

Live: cobaltx.io