The Ceres Wave (166 - 134 BFC) was the first large scale migration of people out of cislunar space, made possible by infrastructure developed by the early asteroid mining companies mining platinum from near Earth asteroids. It began in 168 BFC when Lunar Eagle falsified the amount of lithium in surveys of an M-class asteroid in order to secure additional loans. Lithium was in huge demand due to a massive growth in battery usage, and was most desperately needed by the Eurasian Bloc countries, which had exhausted their reserves and had no strategic partnerships with producers Dominio or the GPR.

The Eurasians started repurposing their automated mining operations in the belt to set up permanent crewed bases in an attempt to take control of what was expected to be a vast supply of Lithium from other similar asteroids. To protect Lunar Eagle's operations and to speed up their own prospecting in the belt, the United States funded the X Group to set up a subterranean crewed base of significant size on the large M-class asteroid Lutetia. The GPR, who had jointly established the first permanent crewed base in the belt on Vesta in 175 BFC, announced they were establishing four more bases in the inner belt. The Dominio space agency, the smallest of the big 4 space programs and heavily dependent on the X Group until the 170s, began a crash programs to expand their new native launch capabilities and establish crewed asteroid bases before the decade was out.

Over the next 15 years a supply chain for life support and building materials for prospecting developed. By the time the Lunar Eagle fraud was discovered, the results of mining of platinum group metals, ice, and smaller quantities of lithium, cobalt, and nickel had already begun reaching Earth. The GPR and the Eurasians, both heavy users of fuel cell transportation on Earth, had tens of automated mining operations focused on platinum. The X Group, controlling a significant fraction of the launch market and a supply chain producing building materials from what was now a small colony on Lutetia, was making enormous profits. Many other smaller companies began their own smaller scale versions of these type of operations, for example several began mining silicates from S-class asteroids.

By 148 BFC, the improved Fusion Engine had increased the pace of development and there were over a thousand automated mining operations, and by this time Dominio has the largest network of crewed bases, with 26 in operation. Their focus on a water economy from low density carbonaceous asteroids such as 52 Europa, along with a state-sponsored initiative recruiting (and in some cases blackmailing) specialists to work long periods in these bases, lead to rapid expansion. In March 148 this network allowed them to leapfrog the GPR in establishing a base on Ceres, the largest asteroid which had significant water reserves. After adjusting their plans the GPR was able to set up an adjacent base in December 148.

The first reported act of space piracy occurred on 12 April, 143 BFC, when an automated Lilium Solid Power shuttle carrying many thousands of Amazon industrial robots to the outer asteroid belt disappeared near Cybele. At this time there were still almost no large scale radar or infrared tracking satellites in the belt, and many ships had failed and been abandoned, including several which had not transmitted a cause of failure. Because of the value of the cargo, LSP had secretly invested in developing and installing a much higher power tighter beam transmitter for this shuttle, which recorded an attempted signal jamming followed by another ship approaching and burning out the transmitter with a laser. The belligerent was never identified, but several historians have used the increased output of multiple X Group assembly lines in the subsequent years to argue that this was a case of corporate privateering. Over the next 5 years there were a handful of other smaller ship hijackings, but the development of better transmitters, more tracking satellites, and in-situ manufacturing of more valuable goods reduced and eventually stopped any more incidents after 138 BFC.

Dominio's policy of shipping up what were effectively poor indentured servants eventually backfired in 134 BFC, when a large proportion of the Ceres colony rebelled and declared independence. The administrator and several visiting Russian scientists were killed. The GPR used this as a justification to send its security forces across to seize control of the base. Due to the lack of automated weapon systems by either side, the ensuing battle of Ceres was primarily fought by humans and resulted in ten GPR security dead, compared to twenty one members of the Dominio base in the attempt to repel them, included two US and one Indian citizens.

An emergency session of the U.N. security council voted 3 to 1 to demand an immediate withdrawal. The Dominio junta, having strong economic ties to the GPR and with a space force with no breaching capability, ruled out use of force to retake the station. This was extremely unpopular domestically, however the junta effectively censored the decision in local media and arrested protestors, which effectively stopped any further dissent. The U.S, which had proposed the U.N. motion, publicly pushed for sanctions, and was later found to have secretly contracted the Constellis Group to began shipping drones and weapons to Lutetia.

The fait accompli situation, combined with lack of Dominio power and the logistical nightmare of any military response, helped the GPR push for an advantageous diplomatic resolution. They proposed establishing a nominally independent state on Ceres in exchange for sharing lucrative mining rights from several other operations they had established in the belt. After several weeks of negotiation, the incident ended with the normalisation of relations between the GPR sponsored State of Ceres and the remaining United Nations security council members.

134 BFC is considered to be the end of the Ceres Wave period, as resource depletion on the more accessible asteroids and oversupply of raw resources to earth had made most new mining ventures unprofitable, and the belt had evolved into a steady state economy with stable population supplying the existing operations and longer range missions, with no more major political shifts until formation of Greater Zhōngguó 36 years later. The Ceres Wave was ultimately instrumental in opening up inter-system commerce, as well causing major structural and political upheaval on Earth and eventually leading to the combination of the U.N. and NATO into the Peacekeepers.