Author: Xi You, ChainCatcher
Editor: Nian Qing, ChainCatcher
On October 13, the closing price of the SUI token broke through $2.2, setting a new all-time high, and its market capitalization entered the top 20, with the upward trend still continuing. On October 14, the token price has already surpassed $2.3, with a gain of over 30% in the past two days. The latest monitoring data from traders shows that the performance of the SUI token has surpassed TON, making it the best-performing public chain token since the beginning of 2024.
At the same time, multiple Meme projects in the ecosystem, such as HIPPO, BLUB, and FUD, have also experienced a concentrated surge, with gains exceeding 10 times. Additionally, the two major DeFi applications in the ecosystem, the lending protocol NAVI Protocol and the order book exchange DeepBook, will officially start token trading on October 14.
The strong performance of the Sui token and ecosystem projects has attracted significant attention in the crypto market, with a large influx of capital entering the Sui ecosystem in search of wealth opportunities. According to a Cointelegraph report, nearly 27% of the funds on Solana flowed out and moved to Sui in September.
According to DeFiLlama data, the trading volume on the Sui chain has exceeded $1.32 billion in the past 7 days, ranking sixth in the entire public chain market, with Arbitrum in fifth place.
How to seize the new wealth opportunities in the rise of the Sui ecosystem has become a hot topic in the crypto community.
The SUI token has accumulated a gain of over 400%, and the ecosystem TVL has exceeded $1 billion
Looking at the K-line chart of the SUI token, August 7 was the starting point of the token's upward trend. On that day, Grayscale announced the launch of the Sui native token SUI investment trust fund, and the SUI token price began a remarkable surge, from a low of $0.5 to a high of $2.3 on October 13, a cumulative gain of over 400% in two months, and its market capitalization has also entered the top 20.
In just two months, the outstanding performance of Sui's token price has not only attracted the attention of crypto investors but also prompted the entire crypto industry to re-examine this high-performance Layer1 network. Some crypto users even have high hopes for Sui to become the next Solana, and capital has begun to pour in en masse to seek opportunities, with the ecosystem also starting to experience concentrated outbursts, from the MEME hype wave of HIPPO to the DeFi application boom.
According to DeFiLlama data, on October 1, the total value locked (TVL) on the Sui mainnet officially exceeded $1 billion, with a monthly increase of about 50%. Now, the amount of crypto assets locked on the Sui chain has risen to the top 7 in the entire blockchain market.
In addition to the growth in token price and TVL, other indicators such as the number of users and trading volume on the Sui ecosystem are also steadily rising. Particularly in terms of trading volume, according to the SuiSVison browser, Sui has seen its daily trading volume surge from a few million to multiple times exceeding 100 million transactions after entering October, with a peak of 117 million transactions on October 5, setting a new record high.
With the rise in token prices, more and more investors and developers are starting to pay attention to this platform. According to developer data, the number of developers on the Sui chain has reached 1,108, an increase of about 64% in the past year, making it the public chain with the fastest growth rate.
The new Mysticeti consensus improves network performance, and the native cross-chain bridge brings new capital to the ecosystem
As a Layer1 project created by the team involved in Facebook's digital currency Libra, Sui has been the focus of attention since its inception.
If Grayscale's endorsement was the ignition point for the surge in SUI token prices, then the growth in Sui's ecosystem TVL and trading volume has mainly relied on the improvement of its own ecosystem infrastructure.
Grayscale's approval of the Sui investment trust fund has undoubtedly enhanced the visibility and recognition of the Sui project among institutional investors. This move not only attracted the attention of institutional investors to Sui but also provided a new investment channel for retail investors. On October 9, the Sui trust fund was officially opened to investors, allowing them to invest in SUI tokens through holding the fund. As of October 14, the assets managed by Grayscale's Sui trust fund have exceeded $3 million.
If Grayscale is the external factor driving the development of the Sui ecosystem, then Sui's improvements and breakthroughs in network performance and infrastructure construction are the solid foundation for the thriving of its ecosystem.
In the latest blog post by founder Evan, Sui's vision is to become the collaboration layer of the internet, where developers can coordinate or collaborate on any behavior and action through the Sui network. He gave an example that if people now have a travel plan, they need to book flights, book hotels, plan their itinerary, and find food, but these contents are very scattered, often requiring users to cross 4-5 websites to complete these actions. However, if there is a coordinating system, users can complete all these operations through a single operation, and Sui hopes to provide such an operating system.
In July this year, Sui launched a new consensus engine called Mysticeti, mainly to solve the transaction latency and improve the network throughput of the network. The new consensus can reduce the latency to 390 milliseconds, a 80% reduction from the previous consensus system, making Sui network transactions faster and with higher TPS.
In terms of infrastructure building, first on the user onboarding front, Sui launched the zkLogin login technology last year, allowing users to log in to the Sui wallet using Web2 accounts like Google or Facebook, without the need for complex seed phrases.
Currently, multiple wallets in the Sui ecosystem, such as Sui Wallet and Wave Wallet, have integrated the zkLogin technology, supporting the use of email, Google accounts, and other Web2 accounts to log in to the wallet.
Regarding asset interoperability between multiple chains, Sui has developed a native asset cross-chain bridge called Sui Bridge, supporting the cross-chain of native assets between Ethereum and Sui. This means that the assets transferred through the Sui Bridge are native assets, different from the common cross-chain bridges that use wrapped asset mapping.
The Sui Bridge was officially launched on September 30 and currently only supports native assets like ETH and WETH to be cross-chained between Ethereum and Sui. It is worth mentioning that there is no cross-chain fee for asset transfer, and the gas fee for transfers from Ethereum to Sui will also be subsidized. However, it should be noted that the current transfer amount limit of this cross-chain bridge is $8 million per 24 hours from Ethereum to Sui, and $5 million from Sui to Ethereum.
In terms of ecosystem development, Sui not only provides a channel for capital inflow into the Sui ecosystem through the official cross-chain bridge Sui Bridge, but has also taken multiple actions: on October 8, Circle announced the official issuance of native USDC on the Sui chain; the cross-chain transmission protocol CCTP has also been launched on the Sui chain, allowing developers to build native asset interoperability for more chains.
In addition, in terms of early project support, Sui not only has hackathon activities but also provides grant funding support.
In March this year, Sui launched the first Sui Overflow hackathon, and according to official reports, the event had over 2,000 participants, with more than 350 projects submitted, and 32 winning teams, including projects like the prediction platform Pandora Finance, the DEX aggregator Hop Aggregator, and the wallet Wave Wallet.
Meanwhile, early ecosystem projects can also apply for donation support from SuiGrants, and data shows that SuiGrants has provided support to 86 projects, with a total of $4.72 million in funding.
What projects are available in the Sui ecosystem?
Currently, according to the Sui ecosystem portal Sui.directory, there are already 86 native projects recorded, covering areas such as games, DeFi, and infrastructure.
Games
SuiPlay, the Web3 version of the Steem gaming machine
SuiPlay is a gaming hardware device co-launched by Mysten Labs and game system operator Playtron, and the first handheld gaming device SuiPlay0X1 was released in September, integrating native games on the Sui chain while also supporting games from libraries like Steam, being seen as the "Web3 version of Steam".
The SuiPlay0X1 handheld game console officially began pre-sales during the KBW conference in September, with each unit priced at $599. Users can pay with SUI, SOL, and ETH assets. It is reported that within a week of launch, orders exceeded 2,000 units, and the first 1,000 pre-order customers will receive a special soul-bound NFT, granting them special access rights, rewards, and benefits. Many participating crypto users view the SuiPlay0X1 as the next Saga phone, with potentially few airdrop opportunities for upcoming projects.
The official statement indicates that the SuiPlay0X1 has integrated the shooting game Xociety and the dark game DarkTimes, both built on the Sui network. Xociety received a $7.5 million Series A funding round led by Hashed and the Sui Foundation in June this year, while DarkTimes was also invested in by Animoca Brands earlier this year.
It should be noted that as of October 13, the physical SuiPlay0X1 units have not yet been released, and according to the official statement, they will be officially launched in 2025.
DeFi Applications
1. Order Book DEX DeepBook
DeepBook is a decentralized central limit order book exchange built on Sui, with the native token DEEP scheduled to launch on October 14. The maximum supply of DEEP is 10 billion.
2. Cetus, the Highest Trading Volume on Sui Chain
Cetus is a DEX platform focused on ecosystems based on Move technology, such as Aptos and Sui, created in 2022. It is also the earliest DEX platform launched on the Sui ecosystem and has the highest trading volume on the Sui chain, exceeding $160 million in the past 24 hours. According to DeFiLlama data, Cetus has a TVL of $228 million on the Sui chain, ranking second among Sui ecosystem applications.
According to the Rootdata crypto data platform, Cetus has also invested in the Sui ecosystem's lending platform Scallop and the NAVI Protocol.
3. Multifunctional Platform Aftermath - DEX and Liquid Staking
Aftermath is a decentralized trading platform based on Sui, which also integrates functions such as liquidity staking for the SUI token, allowing users to trade and stake SUI tokens on the platform to earn Sui network PoS rewards.
As of October 13, the TVL of the Aftermath platform has reached $116 million.
4. AMM DEX Platform Turbos
Turbos is an AMM-based DEX platform that received investment from Jump Crypto and the Sui Foundation in March last year.
During the recent Meme craze on the Sui chain, Turbos positioned itself as a Meme hub, supporting the issuance and trading of Meme tokens such as BLUE and FUD, which have been very popular on the Sui chain. As a result, Turbos' TVL has skyrocketed, reaching $26 million, an increase of over 143% in the past month, making it the fastest-growing DEX platform.
5. Largest Lending Protocol on Sui Chain - NAVI Protocol
NAVI Protocol is a lending platform based on Sui. On October 7, the platform's native token NAVI was listed on Bybit Launchpool and will open for trading on October 14.
According to DeFiLlama data, the TVL of the NAVI Protocol platform reached nearly $400 million on October 13, the highest on the Sui chain.
In addition, in January this year, NAVI Protocol not only received strategic investment from Cetus but also completed a $2 million funding round led by OKX Ventures and Hashed, and acquired the Sui chain's liquid staking protocol Volo, which means that NAVI Protocol supports not only lending but also staking of the SUI native token.
6. One-Stop Lending Platform Scallop
Scallop is also a one-stop lending protocol based on the Sui chain, supporting not only crypto asset-backed lending but also integrating functions such as trading, liquidity staking, and cross-chain.
On October 10, Scallop announced that it had received investment from the Sui Foundation, in addition to previous investments of $3 million led by THE CMS and 6MV in March, and strategic investment from DWF Labs in April.
As of October 13, Scallop's platform TVL is $160 million, ranking among the top five in the Sui ecosystem.
7. Suilend - Lending Platform Developed by Solana's Solend Team
Suilend is a lending platform developed by the Solana-based Solend team on the Sui chain, with a TVL of $187 million, ranking among the top three ecosystem applications on Sui, but has not yet issued a token.
8. Perpetual Contract Platform Kriya
Kriya is building a suite of DeFi products on Sui, including a cross-chain bridge, an AMM trading protocol, and on-chain order book perpetual contracts. The platform's 24-hour trading volume is $7 million.
9. Derivatives Trading Platform Bluefin
Bluefin, formerly known as Firefly and dTrade, was a decentralized perpetual contract protocol during the DeFi Summer period, receiving a total of about $30 million in funding in 2021, and announced the launch on the Sui network last October.
Meme Sector
1. Sui Chain Hippo Su deng (HIPPO)
Su deng (HIPPO) is a hippo Meme project on the Sui chain, along with MOO DENG on Ethereum and Moo deng on Solana, all based on the hippo image from a Thai zoo. At one point, HIPPO's market cap exceeded that of MOO DENG on Ethereum and Moo deng on Solana.
As of October 14, HIPPO's market cap is $116 million, the highest among Meme tokens on the Sui chain, while Solana's Moo deng has a market cap of $130 million, and Ethereum's MOO DENG has a market cap of only $35.2 million.
2. BLUB
BLUB's image design reflects the aquatic characteristics of the Sui ecosystem, claiming to be a fallen fish in the Sui ocean that will stir up the development of the Sui ecosystem. The project was launched on June 30 and was once the highest-valued Meme token on the Sui chain.
On October 14, BLUB's market cap is $51 million, ranking second among Sui chain Meme projects.
3. Sui Ecosystem's Doggo Project Fud The Pug (FUD)
Fud The Pug (FUD) is a Pug project in the Sui ecosystem, which was airdropped to Sui ecosystem users for free at the end of last year. With an early launch time, FUD's market cap reached $50 million as of October 14.
4. Meme Token Issuance Platform Pump.fun
MovePump, launched by the NFT trading platform BlueMove on Sui and Aptos, is a Meme issuance platform with a mechanism similar to Pump.fun. The deployment cost for each Meme token is only 0.5 SUI, and more than 50 Meme projects have been created on the platform, with the number still growing.
5. Hopdot.fun - Meme Platform Launched by DEX Aggregator Hop
Hopdot.fun, a Meme token issuance platform launched by the Sui chain DEX aggregator Hop, was originally planned to go live on October 12 but has been postponed to October 20.
