Why You Should be Paying Attention to Sui

By /

Over the years, we’ve heard about the multiple “Ethereum killers” (a cringeworthy term), most of which have come and gone. 
 
Now that SOL has cemented itself as a top-10 crypto and presents itself as a major competitor to ETH, the “Solana killer” narrative has emerged during this bull cycle. 
 
Many crypto news sources include Sui (SUI) in this category. This crypto could be poised for a significant price increase and has been one of the most hyped projects over the past 12 months.
 
We’ll examine various features of this network, relevant news, and significant partnerships to monitor. I’ll share my thoughts about this towards the end. 
 
Let’s begin. 

 
Project and token info

 
Sui is a “decentralised, permissionless (public) layer-1 network and smart contracts platform” founded by developers at Mysten Labs, a California-based blockchain and Web3 infrastructure firm.

Many from this entity are former Facebook employees who created the Move programming language, designed for the now-defunct Diem stablecoin project (formerly Libra) and payments system managed by the Diem Association. 
 
The Association’s intellectual property and assets were sold to Silvergate Capital in January 2022. 
 
Move’s open-source code can be applied to a range of common use cases in crypto, including, but not limited to: 

  • Various fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
  • DeFi
  • Decentralised identity
  • Cross-chain bridging
  •  On-chain governance
  • Real-world assets (RWAs)
  • Miscellaneous purposes, including Frameworks across other Move-based chains such as Aptos and Starcoin; better integration with Ethereum via MoveVM. 

What are the benefits of Sui over other blockchains?

According to a Sui Foundation blog post from April 2023, its network boasts 297,000 transactions per second (TPS) secured by 100 validators distributed worldwide. 
 
The Foundation also claims Sui offers a near-instant finality (time taken to confirm and record a transaction on a blockchain) of 480 ms. 
 
How does Sui achieve this? The network initially used the Narwhal Bullshark consensus algorithm and mempool but superseded this with a new byzantine consensus protocol called Mysticeti. 
 
This further reduced the ecosystem’s latency, partly due to its parallel transaction processing, removing bottlenecks experienced by other networks.
 
For context, Ethereum and Solana can handle 15* and ~4,700 TPS, respectively. 
 
* 183 TPS when combined with L2s. 
 

According to Electric Capital, Sui has 760 monthly active developers, including 150 full-time devs (as of Nov. 1, 2024). While well behind Solana, it is increasing, unlike Ethereum, which peaked in July 2022. 
 
EC’s 2024 Developer Report noted that Sui was the year’s eighth most popular ecosystem for new devs.

Tokenomics

SUI has four main purposes: covering gas fees, staking and storing transactions on Sui’s blockchain, governance, and digital money.
 
SUI’s market cap is ~$9.4 billion, and its fully diluted valuation is around $30.6 billion. This translates to 31% of the (10 billion) max supply in circulation.
 
The three major types of participants in Sui’s network include: 
 
— Users who broadcast transactions on its network
— Token holders, many of whom delegate SUI to validators to secure the network and earn staking reward
— Validators: According to Staking Rewards, validators manage 77% of SUI’s circulating supply, representing one of the highest staking ratios across all blockchains. 
 
Another benefit of SUI’s tokenomics is the use of a storage fund. This fund helps new validators cover the storage costs of past network activity. 
 
How? For every on-chain transaction that contributes data to Sui’s blockchain, a storage fee is included, which is automatically sent to the storage fund. As this stockpile contributes to the network, it is also eligible for staking rewards. 
 
What about deflation? Yep, Sui developers have also sorted this out. 
 
Besides the 10-billion token hard cap, as more people utilise Sui and add data to its chain, more SUI tokens are sent to the storage fund, thus taking more out of circulation and making the network deflationary. 

Click here to learn about the SUI emissions schedule. 

News and partnerships

 

DeepBook and Franklin Templeton

 
Last November, The Sui Foundation, the key not-for-profit organisation focusing on advancing this blockchain project, announced a collaboration with Franklin Templeton Digital Assets. 
 
The latter will use DeepBook, a decentralised central limit order book based on Sui. It harnesses the benefits of the protocol’s parallel computing and low latency (390 ms), courtesy of last year’s Mysticeti Upgrade. 
 
Franklin Templeton has over $1.5 trillion in AUM and operates across 160 countries, making this one of Sui’s largest partnerships. 

Sui’s foray into RWAs

 
Two months ago, Sui tweeted about one of its latest collaborations with Ant Digital Technologies, a Chinese-based international technology and solar materials producer. 

Last week, Libre Capital, a firm that provides access to RWAs and other services across multiple blockchains, distributed a press release covering its partnership with Sui. This involves allowing accredited investors opportunities to access hedge, private credit and money market funds on-chain.
 
I also came across a project called SuiRWA, which uses AI agents to help clients with RWA investments. I expect this and similar ventures to gain popularity as the RWA sector matures and AI agents become more prominent.
 
Watch this space, particularly with any developments on Sui.
 
For the full list of partners, check out Suiscan. 

Sui x Oracle Red Bull Racing

In June 2023, Mysten Labs revealed it forged a multi-year sponsorship deal with the F1 team, making Sui its official blockchain partner.

 

Source:

Oracle Red Bull Racing

 

However, when I visited the official website and its Partners section, it did not mention Mysten Labs or Sui. I checked a newer source (published yesterday) that did not mention Sui. 
 
Other crypto entities, such as Gate.io and Kraken, have signed on as ORBR partners this year, helping promote this asset class and industry.

“Oracle Red Bull Racing, with its global fanbase, offers an excellent use case for the kind of community engagement that our decentralized technology allows.” 
 
Adeniyi Abiodun, Mysten Labs’ co-founder and chief product officer, via Blockworks 

As Sui grows and this asset class continues becoming mainstream, more crypto enterprises will continue increasing their exposure through more sponsorship deals across the sports and entertainment sectors. 

Additional thoughts

A growing Sui community and hype surrounding this chain will help increase its price in the short to medium term. In the long run, it must offer a consistently superior product to Ethereum or Solana, especially with the latter’s rapidly growing prominence. 

“(Regarding Sui) It’s like trying to invent an Amazon or Facebook killer. You need to do something that is next-level.” 
 
Ivan Liljeqvist (Ivan on Tech), programmer and crypto commentator, Jan 16, 2025, live stream.

 Regarding this quote, I recommend listening to Ivan’s two-minute summary of Sui vs Solana. 
 
Let’s not forget about other well-established L1s vying for market share: BNB Chain, Cardano, Avalanche, Hedera, Algorand, and so on. I haven’t even mentioned Aptos, another Move-based project derived from Diem. 
 
Alternatively, Sui could aim to co-exist with many of these, preferably by focusing on a niche that remains to be seen.
 
As things have panned out, Solana appears better suited to retail investors (cheap fees, quick transactions, ample security with reasonable decentralisation). 
 
On the other hand, Ethereum — at least for now — caters more to institutional investors who need robust security and don’t mind paying extra fees, particularly when transferring vast sums in one go. 
 
Why have I frequently referenced major rival L1s when the focus is on Sui? It’s naïve to disregard the competition. 
 
When looking at DeFi metrics such as total valued locked (TVL) and the number of protocols running on top of these networks, Sui is still several times behind Solana, which is also well behind Ethereum, albeit narrowing the gap. 
 
Is SUI worth it? I’m leaning towards yes. While I am impressed with what they’ve achieved so far and the partnerships they’ve secured, I remain unconvinced that this will be the most successful blockchain down the track. However, I believe it still has a promising future.
 
I would definitely buy a small amount to have some skin in the game — especially now that it’s down (like many altcoins) by over 40% from its all-time high set last month — but I still prioritise ETH and SOL.

Even if Sui provides a superior product to Solana and Ethereum, it has to compete with the latter’s established brand reputation and legacy, at least for many (relatively) new laypeople to crypto. 
 
In addition to the expectation that it will continue outcompeting ETH in the remainder of this bull market (and possibly SOL by the cycle’s end), SUI might also benefit from Trump’s patriotic sentiment regarding tax breaks for crypto assets made in the USA; it features on CoinGecko’s list of ‘Made in USA’ cryptos. 
 
Mind you, getting an asset to outcompete ETH this cycle sets the bar pretty low. Even gold is up 45% over the past 12 months compared to ETH’s meagre 6% increase, but I digress.
 
Do you believe Sui poses a major threat to Ethereum, Solana and other established L1s? Leave your thoughts below. 

Ways to stay in the loop with Sui 

Disclaimers

 

• N.B. None of this is financial advice; I am not a financial advisor. This information is for educational purposes only. You are ultimately responsible for your investments.

• My opinions in this piece might not reflect those behind any news outlet, person, organisation, or otherwise listed here.

• Please do your research before investing in any crypto assets, staking, NFTs or other products affiliated with this space.

• At the time of writing, SUI accounts for about 1% of my crypto portfolio, whereas ETH and SOL represent 24% and 7%, respectively.

Featured

image

by ddRender at Shutterstock

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top