CoinW Research Institute: Sui Ecosystem In-Depth Report
Key Points
● Sui has distinguished itself in the Layer 1 space, driven by its innovative foundational technology. Firstly, Sui employs a unique parallel execution architecture, integrating the Narwhal consensus protocol with Tusk’s asynchronous transaction ordering technology. Secondly, Sui has innovated upon the Move programming language, resulting in its own specialized variant, Sui Move. Sui Move is designed for low latency, reduced costs, and enhanced scalability, making it well-suited for mass Web3 adoption. Finally, Sui’s consensus mechanism is built on a Narwhal + Tusk combination, which optimizes transaction ordering and block finalization, significantly boosting system throughput and processing speed.
● According to on-chain data, Sui’s ecosystem TVL has surpassed $1.5 billion, ranking among the top 10 public blockchains. The total number of active Sui accounts has exceeded 45 million, with a daily peak active user count approaching 2.5 million. Sui’s total transaction count has exceeded 8.4 billion, with a daily peak transaction volume reaching 300 million. On the Sui network, there are currently 109 validator nodes, with an average stake APY of 2.56% and a total staked amount of 7.72 billion SUI.
● Sui has 52.2 billion tokens pending unlock, accounting for 52.17% of the total supply. Regarding concerns over potential sell pressure from continuous token unlocks. Sui Foundation has assured that a portion of unlocked tokens will be allocated toward ecosystem development, such as community growth.
● Since 2024, Sui has made significant progress across DeFi, Meme, infrastructure, GameFi, and NFT sectors. This report will analyze key projects representing each category.
● In the DeFi sector, notable projects include NAVI Protocol, Cetus, and Bluefin. NAVI Protocol is one of the largest native one-stop liquidity protocols in the Sui ecosystem, with over $9 million in protocol revenue generated in 2024. Cetus, the largest DEX on Sui, accounts for 65% of the total trading volume on the network. The growth of Meme tokens in the Sui ecosystem, along with the integration of native USDC, has further boosted trading volume on Cetus. Bluefin, the only perpetual contract provider in the Sui ecosystem, dominates over 85% of the market share in perpetual contract trading. Bluefin has evolved into a fully integrated platform, serving as a liquidity aggregator, liquidity pool, and perpetual contract provider. The project aims to become a one-stop decentralized trading platform, making Bluefin the third-largest revenue-generating protocol on the Sui network.
● In the Meme sector, key projects include AAA, HIPPO, and LOFI. AAA is a cat-themed Meme token within the Sui ecosystem, primarily supported by @SuiDeveloper. Currently, AAA’s market cap has dropped to approximately $3 million. HIPPO, known as the “hippopotamus” of the Sui chain, was once one of the most popular Meme tokens on Sui. At its peak, HIPPO’s market cap reached nearly $300 million, surpassing MOODENG on Solana. However, it has since declined to around $50 million. LOFI follows a global warming theme, and its community is highly cohesive, emphasizing collaborative efforts and collective progress while encouraging members to contribute to the ecosystem.
● Key projects in the infrastructure sector include Pyth Network, Wormhole, the native cross-chain bridge Sui Bridge, and stablecoins (such as native USDC, USDY, AUSD, and FDUSD). Beyond these well-known third-party integrations like Pyth Network and Wormhole, Sui has been actively deploying its own native infrastructure, particularly in the stablecoin sector. Since 2024, Sui has integrated four stablecoins, further accelerating its expansion into the DeFi sector.
● GameFi is one of the key areas that the Sui platform is focusing on, and in 2024, Sui launched the SuiPlay0X1 handheld gaming device, providing more opportunities to connect with true gamers. In the GameFi sector, notable projects include BIRDS, Wave Wallet, and Aylab. Compared to other 3A GameFi projects, Sui’s current GameFi initiatives are more lightweight. However, further enhancements are needed in terms of gameplay depth and overall player experience. At the same time, Sui is actively collaborating with Google Cloud and other partners to enhance gaming infrastructure, positioning itself to bring new perspectives to the GameFi sector.
● In the NFT trading market, Sui still needs further development. Previously, one of the largest NFT marketplaces on Sui, Hyperspace.sui, shut down on September 17, 2024. However, other NFT trading platforms are actively exploring new development opportunities.
● Sui has achieved remarkable progress in 2024, attracting investments from top-tier venture capital firms like VanEck, Franklin Templeton, and Grayscale. As an emerging public blockchain, Sui still lags behind major chains in certain markets, but this gap also presents strategic opportunities. Looking ahead, Sui aims to expand into emerging sectors, including but not limited to RWA tokenization, DeFi tournaments, and GameFi competitions. While pursuing rapid growth, Sui must also address issues like network security and maintain a balance between the needs of developers and users to foster long-term ecosystem sustainability.
Table of Contents
1. Sui’s Innovations and Advancements
2. Overview of Sui Ecosystem Projects
3. Future Opportunities and Challenges for Sui
1.1 Expansion into the RWA (Real World Asset) Domain
1.2 Infiltration into the DeFi Ecosystem
1.3 Entry into the GameFi Sector
2.1 Competing as a Leading Pubic Blockchain
2.2 Balancing Security and Scalability
2.3 Building a Developer Ecosystem
Since 2024, Sui has achieved remarkable success in the public blockchain sector. The price of SUI tokens surged from $0.84 to a peak of $5, marking an increase of over 400%. As of this report, Sui’s DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL) has exceeded $1.5 billion, ranking ninth among public blockchains. Additionally, Sui has been included in the Gray Swan Fund and has established a strategic partnership with Ant Group. From an obscure blockchain with a market cap of just a few million dollars to a widely recognized Layer 1 network, how did Sui manage to rise against all odds? Let’s continue exploring this in the following sections.
1. Sui’s Innovations and Advancements
1. Technological Innovations
Sui’s emergence as a standout Layer 1 blockchain is largely attributed to its foundational technological innovations. This report will focus on three key aspects of Sui’s advancements: its parallel execution architecture, the Sui Move language, and its innovative consensus mechanism.
l Parallel Execution Architecture: Sui employs a unique parallel execution architecture, integrating the Narwhal consensus protocol with Tusk’s asynchronous transaction ordering technology. This design enables Sui to achieve highly parallelized transaction processing, effectively resolving the sequential execution bottleneck found in traditional blockchains. Traditional blockchain execution architectures typically define state as a collection of accounts. However, Sui adopts a unique design, treating state as a collection of independent objects, with each object assigned a unique ID. This approach allows operations between different objects to be more independent and explicit, making parallel processing easier to achieve. Sui’s parallelized architecture ensures that different applications and use cases in DeFi can be executed independently.
l Sui Move Language: Sui utilizes the Move programming language, originally developed by Facebook, which aims to enhance smart contract efficiency and security. Compared to other mainstream blockchain languages such as Solidity (Ethereum) and WASM (Solana), Move demonstrates superior capabilities in modularity and composability, making it a more developer-friendly resource-oriented language. Sui has further refined Move, creating its own specialized variant, Sui Move. Sui Move is characterized by low latency, reduced costs, and enhanced scalability, making it well-suited for large-scale Web3 adoption.
l Innovative Low-Latency and High-Throughput Consensus Mechanism:
Sui’s consensus mechanism is built on the combination of Narwhal and Tusk, offering an innovative approach to low-latency and high-throughput blockchain consensus. By optimizing transaction ordering and block finalization, this model significantly enhances the network’s processing speed and scalability. The mechanism ensures that transactions are confirmed within seconds, making it particularly valuable for financial, gaming, and cross-chain applications that require fast response times.
2. On-chain data
Sui’s mainnet launch took place on May 3, 2023, marking the beginning of a new phase of ecosystem development. With the expansion of the network, analyzing on-chain data provides valuable insights into the performance of Sui post-mainnet launch.
TVL Data: Total Value Locked (TVL) serves as a key metric in assessing the growth of the DeFi ecosystem. A higher TVL indicates greater network liquidity availability, expanding the scope of DeFi services. According to DefiLlama, the TVL of the Sui ecosystem has surpassed $1.5 billion, ranking among the top 10 public blockchains.
Total Active Accounts: As of the latest update, the number of active accounts on Sui has exceeded 45 million, with daily active users peaking at 2.5 million. The increase in active addresses reflects strong user engagement on the blockchain. The rapid growth in active users highlights Sui’s solid user base and continued network expansion.
Daily Transaction Volume: As of the latest update, the total transaction count on Sui has exceeded 8.4 billion, with a daily transaction peak reaching 300 million. From a transaction volume perspective, Sui’s ecosystem exhibits a high level of user activity. As the number of transactions surges, the blockchain’s revenue-generating potential also increases. This, in turn, contributes to the sustainable growth of the ecosystem, reinforcing a positive feedback loop in the public chain economy.
TPS：TPS represents the number of transactions a blockchain network can process per second. As of the latest update, Sui’s peak transaction speed over the past 30 days has reached 914 TP.
Validator Nodes: The validator nodes on the Sui network serve as global nodes that store the complete state and transaction history of the blockchain. They also participate in the consensus protocol to validate and add new transactions. These validators play a critical role in maintaining network efficiency and security, ensuring that transactions are processed correctly. As of the latest update, Sui operates with 109 validator nodes, with an average staking APY of 2.56% and a total staked amount of 7.72 billion SUI.
Since the Sui mainnet launch, the network has undergone continuous upgrades, significantly improving performance and functionality. In August 2024, Sui introduced a new consensus mechanism, Mystceti, which reduced latency to just 390 milliseconds, resulting in faster transaction processing speeds. In October 2024, Sui Bridge was deployed on the mainnet, enabling the transfer of ETH and WETH between Sui and Ethereum, further enhancing cross-chain interoperability. Additionally, by the end of 2024, Sui’s mainnet had been upgraded to version 1.39.4, with the protocol version advancing to the 70th iteration, further optimizing network functionality. These upgrades reflect Sui’s continuous advancements in performance optimization, feature expansion, and cross-chain interoperability.
3. Token Economics
The long-term circulating supply of SUI tokens is 10 billion. At the launch of the mainnet, approximately 5% of the total supply was in circulation, while the remaining tokens will be released gradually according to a predetermined schedule. All tokens are expected to be fully unlocked by April 2030. The primary use cases of the token include Gas fees, on-chain governance, and ecosystem participation.
Token distribution is structured as follows: 50% is allocated to foundation-managed communities, 20% to early contributors, 14% to investors, 10% to the Mysten Labs treasury, and 6% to grants for research and application testing.
According to Tokenomics data, as of the latest update, the total locked Sui tokens amount to 1.71 billion, representing 17.14% of the total supply. The pending unlock amount is 5.22 billion Sui tokens, accounting for 52.17% of the total supply. One of the most debated topics within the community is whether Sui’s current state, with over 50% of tokens yet to be unlocked, could lead to sell pressure in the future? The Sui Foundation has addressed these concerns by stating that each token unlock event will include allocations for ecosystem growth, such as community development, ensuring that there is no significant risk of sell pressure.
The next scheduled unlock event is set for March 1, 2025, during which 40.63 million tokens will be unlocked, representing 1.31% of the total supply. In this upcoming unlock, 0.41% will be allocated to the community, while 0.33% will be distributed to early contributors.
One noteworthy aspect of Sui’s tokenomics is its unique “Storage Fund” mechanism. This mechanism operates by using Gas fees paid by early users to subsidize long-term storage and operational costs. By balancing incentives between early and future users, this unlocking mechanism supports the long-term sustainability of the Sui ecosystem.
4. Recent Highlights
Sui’s strong performance in 2024 has gained recognition from top-tier venture (VC) capital firms, leading them to actively enter the Sui market. Among them are VanEck, Franklin Templeton, and Grayscale. This report specifically examines Grayscale’s SUI Trust as a benchmark for market performance. As of the latest update, Grayscale’s SUI Trust holds assets worth $51.65 million, with total managed assets exceeding $1 billion. Since its launch in August 2024, Grayscale’s SUI Trust has recorded a 500% increase in net asset value.
In December 2024, Sui announced a strategic partnership with Ant Group Digital Technology and the Web3 technology brand ZAN. This collaboration aims to introduce ESG-supported real-world asset (RWA) tokenization on Sui in the future. Additionally, this initiative will integrate global technology and solar material manufacturers into a comprehensive Web3 ecosystem.
Furthermore, Sui’s ecosystem expansion continues to progress steadily. To further support the development of its ecosystem, Sui continues to expand its stablecoin offerings while strengthening public blockchain infrastructure. Recently, Sui has integrated with Phantom and Backpack, further enhancing user accessibility.
2. Overview of Sui Ecosystem Projects
According to official Sui data, there are currently approximately 90 ecosystem projects, spanning multiple sectors, including DeFi, meme tokens, GameFi, and infrastructure. This report will focus on key projects in DeFi, meme tokens, infrastructure, GameFi, and NFT, providing an in-depth analysis of their role in the ecosystem.
1. DeFi
According to defillama data, as of the latest update, Sui’s DeFi TVL has surpassed $1.5 billion. However, it only accounts for 1.37% of the total DeFi TVL. Compared to Ethereum and other leading DeFi chains, Sui still has significant room for growth in the DeFi sector.
Within the Sui DeFi ecosystem, the top three projects by TVL are Suilend Protocol, with a TVL of $500 million; NAVI Protocol, with a TVL of $400 million; and Cetus, with a TVL of $170 million. In terms of daily revenue rankings, the top three projects are Cetus, generating $44,000 per day; Suilend Protocol, with $25,400 per day; and Bluefin, earning $24,800 per day. The following section will provide an in-depth analysis of key projects.
1.1 NAVI Protocol
1. Core Mechanisms
NAVI Protocol is one of the leading DeFi projects on Sui, aiming to become the AAVE of the Sui ecosystem. NAVI Protocol’s primary services include lending and liquid staking derivatives. Additionally, it provides both traditional lending and collateral-based borrowing, while also offering institutional users and individual borrowers a one-click collateralized lending service. NAVI Protocol aims to build a decentralized, unified collateralized lending and liquidity market, providing users with seamless on-chain capital lending and borrowing services. The platform’s core mechanisms include:
● NAVI Lending: Lending is one of the core functionalities of NAVI Protocol and an essential component of any DeFi project. The total lending volume on NAVI Protocol has reached $530 million. According to asset distribution data, the highest lending ratio is observed in SUI and USDC pairs.
● Volo LST: In January 2024, NAVI Protocol acquired Volo, a liquidity staking provider. This acquisition marks a crucial step in NAVI Protocol’s transition from a pure lending platform to a one-stop liquidity protocol. Following this upgrade, NAVI Protocol plans to develop a more flexible lending solution that better accommodates the evolving needs of users, while also expanding into the broader LSTFi sector.
● NAVI Dex Aggregator: NAVI Protocol has introduced NAVI.ag, a leading DEX aggregator within the Sui ecosystem. The NAVI Dex aggregator simplifies the user interface and enhances the user experience, providing a more seamless trading experience.
2. Key Innovations
NAVI Protocol leverages Sui’s high-performance capabilities to provide a fast and seamless DeFi experience. It introduces three key innovations: collateral vaults, isolation mode, and the Health Factor (Hf), helping users maximize returns while minimizing risk.
● Collateral Vaults: Collateral vaults allow for automated collateralization, integrating native APY strategies and long-term yield mining rewards.
● Isolation Mode: Assets can only be used as collateral after approval by NAVI governance. This mechanism prevents systemic risk from high-volatility assets.
● Health Factor (Hf): NAVI has introduced the Health Factor (Hf), where higher values indicate greater data transparency and improved security levels. To prevent users from being liquidated unknowingly, NAVI has partnered with Notifii, allowing users to receive real-time Health Factor alerts via email, Telegram (TG), and Discord.
3. Revenue Sources
NAVI Protocol’s primary revenue sources include the following:
● Lending Interest: One of NAVI Protocol’s main revenue streams is interest earned from lending activities. Borrowers are required to pay interest fees, while users providing collateralized assets earn interest income.
● Transaction Fees: NAVI Protocol supports DEX and liquidity pools, allowing users to provide liquidity. The protocol charges a percentage of transaction and liquidity pool fees as revenue.
● Platform Service Fees: For value-added services, such as asset management and trade aggregation, NAVI Protocol collects platform service fees.
4. Token Economics
The total supply of NAVI Protocol tokens is 1 billion. The token serves multiple functions, including collateralization, fee discounts (higher collateral = greater discounts), and ecosystem participation.
To enhance the utility of the native token, NAVI Protocol has introduced veNAVI. When users stake their native NAVI tokens, they receive veNAVI tokens. The more tokens they stake and the longer the staking period, the more veNAVI tokens they earn. The amount of veNAVI staked also impacts LP pool incentives, liquidity allocation, and NAVI token inflation rate, ultimately affecting fund distribution efficiency.
5. Funding Overview
In January 2024, NAVI Protocol successfully completed a $2 million funding round. Investors included Hashed, Mechanism Capital, Nomad Capital, Sui, Mysten Labs, Comma3 Ventures, and Coin98 Finance, among others.
6. Business Data
According to official data, NAVI Protocol’s TVL peaked at $750 million, with over 900,000 unique users. The platform has processed 7.45 million transactions, with a total transaction volume exceeding $27.9 billion and a cumulative trading volume of $17.6 billion. Since 2024, the protocol has generated over $9 million in revenue, with cumulative net profits reaching $1.79 million. Currently, NAVI Protocol supports 21 assets across 17 liquidity pools, primarily composed of stablecoins, BTCFi, and native Sui DeFi assets.
Additionally, NAVI Protocol has partnered with Ondo, a leading RWA project, integrating USDY as collateral within NAVI and exploring new possibilities in the RWA sector. As the largest native one-stop liquidity aggregator within the Sui ecosystem, NAVI Protocol has established a solid user base.
1.2 Cetus
1. Core Mechanisms
Cetus is a DeFi protocol built on blockchain technology, deployed on Sui and Aptos. It focuses on providing users with decentralized trading and liquidity pool (LP) services. The platform’s core mechanisms include:
● Swap: Cetus supports cross-chain interoperability between Sui and Aptos, enabling seamless cross-chain asset flow.
● Liquidity Pools: Cetus liquidity pools allow users to deposit cryptocurrency assets as liquidity providers, earning platform incentives as rewards. A dynamic incentive mechanism is used to ensure stability and capital efficiency.
● Concentrated Liquidity Market Making: Cetus adopts a CLMM model, similar to Uniswap V3’s concentrated liquidity algorithm. This model allows liquidity providers to allocate liquidity within a defined price range, enabling customized liquidity strategies.
2. Key Innovations
● Permissionless Access: All major tools and functionalities on Cetus are built on permissionless standards, allowing users and third-party applications to freely integrate its protocols for their own use cases.
● Programmability: Cetus is built on the CLMM model, offering a highly customizable liquidity protocol. By flexibly combining swaps, range orders, and limit orders, users can execute nearly all complex trading strategies available on centralized exchanges (CEX).
● Composability: Cetus adheres to the “Liquidity-as-a-Service” philosophy, emphasizing seamless integration convenience when building products. Developers and applications can easily access liquidity on Cetus to build their own products.
3. Revenue Sources
Cetus generates revenue primarily from transaction fees and liquidity management fees. For each transaction, a portion of the transaction fee (default 20%) is allocated as protocol fees to support the project’s long-term sustainability. Notably, defillama data shows that Cetus is the top protocol in the Sui ecosystem in terms of daily fees, generating $220,278 per day. Additionally, Cetus is also the highest revenue-generating protocol in the Sui ecosystem, with a daily income of $44,056.
4. Token Economics
The total supply of Cetus tokens is 1 billion, with 50% allocated to the community and liquidity providers (LP), 20% to the team and advisors, 15% to investors, and 15% to the liquidity reserve. The primary functions of the token include providing economic incentives and encouraging user participation in ecosystem development, including community governance. A key point to note is that as of this report, all privately issued Cetus tokens have been fully unlocked, mitigating concerns about potential sell pressure.
Currently, Cetus employs a dual-token model with CETUS and xCETUS to incentivize ecosystem participation. The details are as follows:
● CETUS can be converted into xCETUS at a fixed 1:1 ratio at any time. However, the conversion rate from xCETUS back to CETUS varies between 1:0.5–1:1, depending on the lock-up period.
● The more xCETUS a user holds, the greater their voting power, higher Launchpool purchase limits, and increased rewards from liquidity mining.
Additionally, the official Cetus token, CENTUS, offers various utilities. Users can lock their tokens in the protocol to earn yield or participate in LP staking to generate liquidity rewards. Active participants in the Cetus ecosystem will receive significant incentives, fostering a positive feedback loop for sustainable ecosystem growth.
5. Funding Overview
Since 2023, Cetus has successfully completed two funding rounds. The specific funding amount has not been disclosed. Investors include NGC Ventures, Animoca Brands, IDG Capital, and AC Capital, among others.
6. Business Data
The total trading volume on Sui DEX in 2024 reached $42 billion, with Cetus accounting for 65% of all transactions on Sui. This growth is attributed to two key factors. First, the expansion of Meme tokens within the Sui ecosystem, as most major Meme tokens are listed on Cetus. As the Meme craze gains momentum, more capital and liquidity are flowing into Cetus, further increasing its overall transaction volume. Second, Cetus supports Sui’s native stablecoin, USDC, which serves as the foundation of DeFi development. The integration of native USDC has played a crucial role in the expansion of Cetus’ DeFi ecosystem.
As of the latest update, Cetus’ DeFi TVL stands at $166 million, accounting for approximately 11% of Sui’s total TVL, with a 24-hour trading volume of $140 million. Currently, Cetus hosts around 20,000 liquidity pools, with the majority of TVL concentrated in USDT-USDC pairs. Overall, Cetus plays a pivotal role in the Sui ecosystem, establishing itself as a leading DEX with significant future growth potential.
1.3 Bluefin
Bluefin is currently the sole perpetual contract provider within the Sui ecosystem, capturing over 85% of the market share in Sui’s contract trading. The Bluefin ecosystem has evolved into a comprehensive platform integrating an aggregator, liquidity pools, and contract trading, while also incorporating narratives of Meme tokens and Real World Assets (RWA). It aims to become a one-stop on-chain exchange. Bluefin is showing potential to surpass Cetus, with the community even referring to it as the “Hyperliquid” of the Sui ecosystem. Since its upgrade in September 2023, Bluefin’s trading volume has surpassed $44 billion.
1. Core Mechanisms
Founded in 2021, Bluefin initially operated on the Arbitrum chain and began its operations on Sui in 2023. It has since upgraded to the Pro version. Bluefin is a decentralized trading platform built on the Sui blockchain, designed to serve the cryptocurrency market by offering efficient trade execution, liquidity pool management, and innovative trading mechanisms. Its primary offerings include decentralized derivatives trading and spot Automated Market Maker (AMM). The platform’s core mechanisms include:
● One-Click Cross-Chain: Bluefin introduces an embedded cross-chain bridging solution, allowing users to transfer assets across chains without needing to switch to third-party DApps. By integrating the Wormhole cross-chain protocol, users can swiftly and securely transfer assets between different blockchain networks without the need for complicated manual steps or added security risks.
● Account Abstraction: Bluefin employs account abstraction technology, enabling users to log in and trade directly through their Google accounts, eliminating the need for additional wallet installations or private key management. This streamlining of user experience, combined with enhanced security, makes Bluefin one of the more user-friendly products in the blockchain community.
● Bluefin Liquidity Pool: Bluefin offers an innovative liquidity participation model where users can lend stablecoins to the platform’s top-tier market makers, providing liquidity in a decentralized and non-custodial manner. This approach mitigates the impermanent loss risks typically faced by liquidity providers (LPs). Through this method, users can earn higher returns without assuming the financial risks associated with traditional market-making models.
2. Key Innovations
● Sub-Second Transaction Speed: Bluefin Pro offers a trading speed of approximately 30,000 transactions per second (TPS), with transaction confirmation times under 30 milliseconds, providing users with an ultra-fast trading experience.
● Low Gas Costs: Bluefin maintains an average gas cost of approximately $0.01, making it attractive to large users.
● Full Margin: Full-margin trading accounts are another unique feature of Bluefin, ensuring a better user experience for contract traders.
● Combination of Spot and Derivatives Products: Bluefin’s diverse product offerings have drawn a large user base.
3. Revenue Sources
Bluefin’s primary sources of revenue include trading fees, cross-chain bridging service fees, and liquidity pool management fees.
4. Token Economics
The total supply of Blue tokens is 1 billion. Token distribution includes 52% allocated for ecosystem growth, 20% for core contributors, and 28% for strategic partners. Of the ecosystem growth allocation, 32.5% is set aside for user incentives (with 19.68% for airdrops and 12.82% reserved for future incentives), 8.5% is allocated to protocol development, 6.5% to the treasury, and 4.5% to liquidity reserves. Furthermore, the tokens allocated to core contributors and strategic partners are locked for the first year, with linear unlocking beginning in the second year.
One notable aspect of the token economics is that 19.68% of the total token supply is allocated to airdrops, primarily distributed to Bluefin ecosystem participants. This incentive mechanism has significantly boosted user engagement and community trust, leading to a large base of real users in activities like trading mining and stablecoin pools.
5. Funding Overview
Bluefin has completed four rounds of funding since 2021, raising a total of $29.2 million. The investment roster is distinguished by high-profile firms, including Polychain Capital, CMS Holdings, and Wintermute, with Polychain Capital and CMS Holdings participating in multiple funding rounds.
6. Business Data
Since its launch in September 2023, Bluefin’s trading volume has surpassed $44 billion. The platform currently has 190,491 independent users and $89.76 million in total value locked (TVL). In the past 24 hours, contract trading volume amounted to $180 million, and spot trading volume reached $70 million. Additionally, the protocol’s revenue in the past 24 hours was nearly $25,000, making it the third-largest revenue-generating protocol on the Sui blockchain. Thanks to its outstanding performance, Bluefin is often referred to as the dark horse project on Sui.
2. Meme
Compared to the leading Meme projects on Solana and BSC, Meme projects on the Sui blockchain have a relatively weaker “out-of-the-box” effect in terms of community sentiment and market cap performance. However, there are still a few notable projects worth attention. This report will focus on the most representative Meme projects currently in the Sui ecosystem.
2.1 AAA
AAA is a cat-themed Meme project in the Sui ecosystem. Its core narrative revolves around @SuiDeveloper, a Sui developer, who stumbled upon a cat and posted the image on “buy Sui Name Service”. As community sentiment surged, Drippy launched the AAA Meme token.
Although AAA’s market capitalization has dropped to around $3 million, it still maintains strong community sentiment. Drippy continues to support the AAA community’s development.
2.2 HIPPO
HIPPO, known as the “hippopotamus” of the Sui chain, was once a popular Meme on the platform. Its main narrative centers around the CTO’s “little hippo — Moo Deng”, inspired by Moo Deng, who was born on July 10, 2024, and lives with his family at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. HIPPO has formed a partnership with the zoo, aiming to support wildlife conservation through donations derived from its profits.
With its focus on charity and a connection to the Meme zoo trend, HIPPO gained significant attention and was expected by the community to stand out. HIPPO’s community previously conducted numerous airdrop campaigns with top-tier centralized exchanges (CEXs), which fueled a temporary surge in sentiment. At its peak, HIPPO’s market cap approached $300 million, surpassing Solana’s MOODENG, but it has now fallen to $50 million. Assessing its current status, HIPPO needs a new narrative to reignite the community after the initial FOMO-induced spike.
2.3 LOFI
LOFI’s core narrative revolves around global warming, positioning itself as a snowman protecting the world against climate change. The LOFI community features strong cohesion, with the motto “We are Lofi”, emphasizing collective collaboration and progress. The community encourages members to contribute to the ecosystem.
The LOFI team is composed of real-name individuals, including dozens of artists, chief developers of S-tier projects, and cryptocurrency executives. After its release, the team purchased 25% of the token supply, with 10% allocated for operational funds, 10% for market-making and CEX listings, and 5% for ecosystem airdrops. Additionally, LOFI conducts airdrops to Sui Play 0x1 gamers, popular Sui NFT holders/communities, the Sui Foundation, and Mysten Labs users. Notably, LOFI also allocates 2.5% of LP fees to charity projects aimed at protecting the Earth’s water sources.
LOFI has adopted a unique path in the perspective of Meme development. Interestingly, it has attracted the attention of AI analysis agents like aixbt. As a result, the community views LOFI as a long-term narrative with the potential to become the leading Meme on Sui. Its highest market cap exceeded $200 million, and although it has since dropped to $120 million, it still retains a relatively high level of market sentiment.
3. Infrastructure
Sui’s development in DeFi and other sectors is fostered not only by the inherent technical advantages of its public chain and strong support from the Sui platform but also by the continuous improvement of its infrastructure. This report will introduce the major infrastructure projects currently in the Sui ecosystem.
3.1 Oracle
The largest oracle on Sui is the Pyth Network, which went live on the Sui network in May 2023. Notably, Pyth Network is also a leading oracle on the Solana chain. The main difference between the two is that Pyth provides low-latency, high-frequency price feed services on Solana, while on Sui, it focuses on high performance and concurrency requirements. On Sui, Pyth Network utilizes an innovative low-latency pull-based model, where users can “pull” price updates as needed within a blockchain environment. This design allows Sui network builders to access the required data in real-time without needing permission.
Pyth Network’s core products are primarily divided into three parts: Price Feeds (providing real-time updates for smart contracts), Benchmarks (offering historical market data), and Pyth Entropy (providing a secure random number generator). Pyth has received support from leading VCs such as Jump Crypto, Wintermute Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and Delphi Digital. The native token, PYTH, has a total supply of 10 billion tokens, with 52% allocated to ecosystem growth, 22% to data providers, 10% each to protocol development and private sales, and 6% to community distribution.
As the core infrastructure of Sui, Pyth Network provides reliable market data to decentralized applications on the Sui chain. Leading protocols on Sui, including NAVI Protocol, rely on Pyth for price feeds. Thanks to Sui’s high-performance capabilities, Pyth delivers low-latency and high-concurrency data updates, further promoting the growth of the Sui ecosystem.
3.2 Cross-Chain Bridges
The cross-chain bridge landscape on Sui is primarily divided into third-party bridges like Wormhole and native bridges such as Sui Bridge.
Wormhole is the main cross-chain channel on the Sui network, integrated with several major public blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, and Base, offering a highly diverse range of cross-chain options. According to Wormhole Scan data, over the past seven days, $21,972,732 worth of assets flowed from Ethereum to Sui via the Wormhole cross-chain transactions, while $56,086,671 flowed from Ethereum to Solana. From these records, it’s clear that Sui received more assets than Solana from Ethereum’s outflows. Furthermore, it is noticeable to us that Ethereum remains the primary source of asset inflows to Sui.
Despite being the preferred cross-chain option for the Sui network, Wormhole has some issues. The vast number of supported tokens can be confusing for some users, leading to errors in cross-chain transfers. Additionally, some community members reported that assets transferred via Wormhole aren’t recognized by Sui’s DeFi protocols. These challenges prompted the Sui platform to work on rectifying cross-chain issues, resulting in the introduction of Sui Bridge.
Sui Bridge was officially launched on the Sui mainnet in September 2024. The key difference from Wormhole is that, as a native cross-chain bridge, Sui Bridge relies on network validators to ensure the security of the chain. Initially, it supports interoperability between Sui and Ethereum, allowing the transfer of ETH, wETH, and USDT. The Sui Foundation has stated that they plan to expand support for more assets and functionalities in the future. Additionally, liquidity will transition from the current WETH-USDC pool to an ETH-USDC pool.
In December 2024, Sui Bridge integrated Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), which facilitates the transfer of native USDC between Sui and eight other chains: Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Ethereum, Noble, Op Mainnet, Polygon PoS, and Solana. To transfer USDC across chains, users only need to pay transaction fees on both the source and destination chains. The integration of CCTP opens up more possibilities for the Sui network, enabling additional composable trades and unlocking advanced on-chain automation features.
3.3 Stablecoins
To better stabilize the development of DeFi on Sui, the network has incorporated several native stablecoins, including mainstream options like USDT and USDC. According to official Sui documentation, the following native stablecoins were launched on the network in 2024:
● Circle’s Native USDC: USDC, one of the most popular stablecoins after USDT, was integrated into the Sui network in October 2024. The integration is powered by the previously mentioned CCTP, allowing for the transfer of USDC between Sui and other blockchains.
● Ondo Finance’s USDY: USDY, launched in May 2024, is the first native stablecoin developed by Ondo Finance, a leading project in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. USDY is backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bonds and bank deposits, generating returns over time. It targets users who prefer asset-backed yield generation without the need for traditional mining.
● Agora’s AUSD: AUSD, launched in September 2024, is the second native stablecoin on Sui. AUSD primarily targets users who operate across multiple chains and require cross-chain functionality.
● First Digital’s FDUSD: FDUSD, launched in November 2024 by First Digital Labs, is a stablecoin converted to the U.S. Dollar at a rate of 1:1. Its reserves include funds from Asian banks and U.S. Treasury bonds. FDUSD is primarily aimed at users who prefer a stablecoin with fewer dependencies on the U.S. reserve system.
4. GameFi
GameFi is one of the key areas that the Sui platform is focusing on, and in 2024, Sui launched the SuiPlay0X1 handheld gaming device, providing more opportunities to connect with true gamers. Sui’s GameFi aims to simplify the gaming experience by removing the typical Web3 obstacles such as downloading wallets, buying tokens, and managing private keys. In addition, Sui is enhancing its underlying infrastructure to support GameFi by collaborating with operating systems like Playtron OS and partnering with Google Cloud to make it easier for developers to access the latest blockchain data. Furthermore, Sui is incubating commercial GameFi projects within its ecosystem, exploring ways to bridge Web2 and Web3 gamers, and offering fresh perspectives for the GameFi community.
For GameFi projects, this report focuses on the top three GameFi projects on Sui, based on on-chain data, in terms of active accounts and transaction volume.
4.1 BIRDS
What makes BIRDS unique is its combination of Memecoin and GameFi mechanics, and the game is currently hosted on a Telegram mini-program. BIRDS introduces a fresh concept to GameFi by integrating Airdrop2Play and Play2Earn models.
Built on the Sui ecosystem, BIRDS excels in marketing integration. Recently, BIRDS collaborated with major protocols within the Sui ecosystem, including Bluefin, NAVI Protocol, Cetus, DeepBook Protocol, and Turbos Finance, for token airdrop activities. Users can earn BIRDS airdrops by depositing tokens into these partner protocols.
According to official data, BIRDS has over 7 million daily active users, with over 100 million task participants and more than 9.8 billion game birds. On-chain interactions exceed 1.1 million, with over 38.3 million transactions completed and over 3.5 million NFTs minted. Suivision’s on-chain data shows that in the past 24 hours, BIRDS ranked fourth in total active accounts and fifth in total transactions across the entire Sui network.
BIRDS is also actively upgrading its product, with plans to launch an NFT marketplace. This has been responded with strong support from the BIRDS community. A particularly intriguing observation is the strong support BIRDS demonstrates for major developments on the Sui blockchain. Every time Sui rolls out significant updates, BIRDS actively engages by reposting and interacting with the announcements. This not only increases BIRDS’ visibility among Sui users but also, as a GameFi project bridging Web2 and Web3, draws more gamers into the Sui ecosystem. This dynamic exemplifies a compelling case of mutual reinforcement and symbiotic growth between a public blockchain and its ecosystem projects.
Compared to other AAA GameFi projects, which suffer from long development cycles and unlimited funding needs, BIRDS, boasting more streamlined GameFi experience, appears to be better grounded, potentially appealing to a broader base of authentic users. However, in terms of gameplay, BIRDS might still need further enhancements.
4.2 Wave Wallet
Wave Wallet has received significant support from the Sui platform and was integrated into the Sui blockchain in 2023, with investors including the Sui Foundation. Based on user numbers and transaction volume, Wave ranked first in Sui’s official 2024 report. Wave Wallet integrates wallet functions with gaming on the Telegram platform, providing players with more convenience. Players can earn OCEAN points by using Wave Wallet, which can be used to unlock various in-game activities. Additionally, Wave Wallet offers NFT and token rewards like SUI to encourage ecosystem participation.
Wave Wallet is not limited to GameFi; it has also implemented integration initiatives with DeFi functionalities. It has already partnered with leading DeFi protocols on Sui, such as NAVI Protocol, and launched staking and mining activities. Wave GameFi rewards players for participating in games in an attempt to increase assets, while Wave DeFi offers a secure and fast way to manage and increase users’ crypto assets. The integration of GameFi and DeFi in Wave Wallet creates a powerful synergy, as shown in the following diagram:
According to Suivision’s on-chain data, in the past 24 hours, Wave Wallet had 116,126 active accounts and 196,337 transactions. Like BIRDS, Wave Wallet is highly engaged with the Sui mainnet and has shown good community activity. Currently, Wave Wallet operates on a point-based system and is set to launch its Token Generation Event (TGE) in February, with growing community anticipation.
4.3 Aylab
The founding team of Aylab has extensive experience in the gaming industry, having previously developed the popular game Cricket Fly, which has been downloaded over 7.5 million times and boasts over 2.5 million Unique Active Wallets (UAW). Aylab has undergone product upgrading, which evolved from a GameFi project into a Web3 advertising engine.
According to official data, Aylab boasts over 10 million active wallets and 200 million cross-application transactions monthly. Suivision’s on-chain data shows that in the past 24 hours, Aylab had 8,679 active accounts and 8,759 transactions.
Aylab has also gained attention and support from the Sui Foundation. According to Aylab official dashboard, it currently supports multiple sectors, including Games, NFTs, DeFi, and Art. Recently, Aylab integrated the well-known Korean game Otherworld, developed by @own_protocol, an IP-based NFT game, which has attracted considerable attention from the Korean community.
Aylab’s shift towards being an advertising platform helps clients capture precise user groups and enhances the Web2 advertising distribution system. While the Sui platform has classified Aylab as a GameFi project, the community tends to view it as a Web3 consumer application. As a business support model for Sui, Aylab plays a key role in user acquisition and marketing. However, Aylab is still in the early stages of development, and more efforts are needed to build the community and monetize the project before realizing its full potential.
5. NFT
The NFT market on Sui has not progressed as smoothly as expected. The once-dominant NFT marketplace, hyperspace.sui, ceased operations on September 17, 2024. Other NFT platforms are actively seeking new development strategies. This report highlights representative NFT marketplaces on Sui for further discussion.
5.1 Tradeport
Tradeport has been selected as one of the most popular projects in the Sui ecosystem for 2024. It is a multi-chain NFT marketplace that aggregates NFTs from various chains, including Movement, Base, Sui, Aptos, Near, and Stacks. In addition to NFT trading, Tradeport encourages users to mint their own NFTs and is committed to developing more advanced tools based on community feedback.
Tradeport has been proactive in marketing. During its Season 1 event, the platform airdropped points to users who were actively trading NFTs. Additionally, Tradeport has closely monitored NFT market trends, promptly launching popular NFT projects like @AptosMonkeys from Aptos. In a recent Movement Testnet NFT activity, more than 1,000 users participated in minting. From the last 7 days of trading data, it is evident that Tradeport is actively exploring ways to merge current market trends with its offerings, aiming to bring new traffic and funding to its projects.
Currently, Tradeport has not issued its own token, but the airdropped NFTs and point rewards are highly attractive to the community. In terms of future plans, Tradeport intends to expand to more public blockchains and develop more tools that align with market needs, positioning itself as a key player in the development of NFTs on the Sui blockchain.
5.2 BlueMove
BlueMove is another multi-chain marketplace supporting Aptos, Sui, and Sei. It also combines NFT and Memecoin trading. More interestingly, BlueMove also supports staking mining, although the tokens involved are from relatively niche projects, with an APY (annual percentage yield) as high as 10,000%. However, liquidity in these pools remains low; for example, in the SUI-MILK liquidity pool, there are only 1,758 SUI in total.
BlueMove’s current focus is on the development of Move Pump Pro. However, in the Pump market, BlueMove is still in the very early stages. Compared to more established Pump platforms on Solana and Base blockchains, Move Pump feels more like a project that is initially developed. Based on the most popular tokens on Move Pump in the past 24 hours, only a few Sui ecosystem projects have garnered significant market recognition.
Since its inception in 2022, BlueMove has accumulated some users over three years. However, despite several attempts to adjust to market demands, the project has struggled to demonstrate its own unique identity. Moving forward, BlueMove will need to strengthen its unique value proposition in order to carve out new growth horizons.
3. Future Opportunities and Challenges for Sui
Backed by its unique Sui MOVE technology and forward-looking ecosystem strategy, Sui has developed a competitive blockchain ecosystem. The community remains optimistic, considering Sui one of the most promising public blockchains for the future. According to the 2024 developer survey by @ElectricCapital, Sui leads the Move ecosystem in terms of monthly active developers and full-time developers. It also ranks among the top 10 ecosystems with the fastest growth in monthly active developers, with a year-on-year increase of 24%.
However, as a new player in the public chain space, Sui faces various opportunities and challenges in its development.
1. Opportunities
1.1 Expansion into the RWA (Real World Asset) Domain
Sui is staying closely updated with market trends and actively expanding into the RWA sector. Apart from incubating projects within its ecosystem, Sui has formed partnerships with Ondo and Ant Group to promote the expansion of the RWA ecosystem through ESG initiatives. With its efficient consensus mechanism and smart contract advantages, Sui is poised to become a key infrastructure provider in areas such as cross-border payments, asset management, and supply chain finance, offering new technological support to traditional financial markets. This positions Sui as a representative project in the RWA domain.
1.2 Infiltration into the DeFi Ecosystem
Sui has made significant strides in the DeFi sector, securing a position within the top 10 by market share. However, there is still considerable room for growth in terms of market shares. Additionally, the DeFi protocols on Sui continue to innovate, and its high throughput and low latency are expected to attract more DEXs (Decentralized Exchanges), lending platforms, and other DeFi applications in the future.
1.3 Entry into the GameFi Sector
Sui’s Move language offers developers a highly efficient programming framework, and the ongoing expansion of its ecosystem provides long-term growth opportunities. Furthermore, Sui is actively pursuing partnerships with leading gaming companies, particularly in regions such as South Korea. With its high performance, low latency, and innovative parallel processing capabilities, Sui holds significant potential in the gaming sector. As the Web3 gaming and virtual asset markets continue to grow rapidly, Sui has great potentials to become the foundational blockchain for these applications.
2. Challenges
2.1 Competing as a Leading Pubic Blockchain
Although Sui has made significant progress since its inception in 2024, it still has significant room for improvement compared to more established public blockchains. Taking DeFi as an example, the chart below illustrates a comparison between Sui and leading blockchains using comprehensive metrics that measure ecosystem engagement and user retention. In terms of daily trading volume and daily active addresses, SOL holds the top position, while ETH remains the leader in DeFi TVL.
2.2 Balancing Security and Scalability
While Sui’s parallel execution model and high-performance consensus mechanism enhance transaction speed and throughput, these features may introduce security challenges. In November 2024, Sui experienced a network outage that resulted in nearly two hours of halted block production. As Sui continues to evolve, one of its primary challenges will be ensuring network security and stability while maintaining decentralization and high performance.
2.3 Building a Developer Ecosystem
Despite offering robust development tools and resource support, Sui’s developer ecosystem is still in its early stages compared to other blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. Sui needs to focus on fostering and strengthening its developer community, encouraging more developers to deploy applications on the Sui blockchain.
3. Conclusion
Sui has achieved remarkable progress in 2024, attracting investments from top-tier venture capital firms like VanEck, Franklin Templeton, and Grayscale. Since 2024, with the Sui Move language and significant support from the Sui platform for its ecosystem, Sui has made substantial breakthroughs in DeFi, infrastructure, stablecoins, Meme coins, and GameFi. Currently, Sui’s DeFi’s total TVL has surpassed $1.5 billion, ranking ninth among public blockchains. Various protocols within the Sui ecosystem continue to innovate, and Sui is also actively driving the development of native infrastructure such as the Sui Bridge and the native stablecoin USDC, further promoting the ecosystem development.
However, as a new public blockchain, Sui still has a way to go to match the leading public blockchains. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for Sui. As the cryptocurrency market evolves, Sui has the potential to become a leader in emerging market opportunities. In the current phase, Sui should further explore possibilities in areas including but not limited to RWA, DeFi, and GameFi. While pursuing rapid growth, Sui must also address issues like network security and maintain a balance between the needs of developers and users to foster long-term ecosystem sustainability.
In conclusion, Sui’s continued focus on strengthening its foundational infrastructure has injected fresh energy into the public blockchain space, and it remains a project worth watching for the future.
