jakiro
Author: David C, Bankless; Compilation: Tao Zhu, Bitchain Vision
In the saturated L1 area, differentiation often depends not only on throughput or transaction costs, but also on vision, architecture and execution.
Sui is a competitor not only because it provides another highway chain, but also because it builds an integrated modular ecosystem that aims to reshape how applications are built and deployed in a decentralized world.
From DeFi to games, from institutional infrastructure to social primitives, Sui is quietly building a framework for the entire Internet chain – and public chains are just the beginning of the Internet.
Let’s dive into the momentum we’ve seen and the next wave of catalysts we’re tracking.
Bull market progress
Those catalysts we followed in the last update a few months ago?They have arrived.
From the momentum of BTCfi to the new mechanism to optimize blockchain performance, what was once “upcoming” has now truly been implemented and put into operation.Let’s see how things develop together.
BTCfi is advancing
Sui is committed to positioning itself as the preferred platform for Bitcoin DeFi, leveraging its MoveVM-based security to attract $BTC capital that has some concerns about the smart contract risks posed by on-chain earnings.
Although Sui is still in its early stages, its efforts have proven successful, with $BTC derivatives already accounting for 10% of its total locked assets (TVL).Sui has attracted projects like Satlayer, Lombard, Babylon and Stacks (coming soon), and more are underway, such as Native, Native and Rhei Finance.
Mysticeti v2 is officially launched
The Mysticeti v2 upgrade of Sui parallelized consensus mechanism is now available, which will speed up transaction confirmation for DeFi, gaming and other high-throughput use cases.Common transactions like token transfers or NFT minting now do not require full consensus, but take faster paths, which reduce execution time and reduce network load.
Walrus is officially launched
In late March, Sui’s blockchain-neutral storage solution Walrus officially launched the main network and airdropped 4% of its total supply.
Walrus is adopting very quickly, with upcoming L1 nodes such as Plume and Linera working with it, 17.5% (725 TB) of capacity has been taken up, while NFT projects such as Claynosaurz and Pudgy Penguins use it to store content.Token prices have risen by about 66% from their issuance lows, and using $WAL on platforms such as Suilend, STEAMM, Scallop and Cetus can get rich liquidity incentives.
Ika will be launched on the main website soon
After raising $21 million in financing, Ika appears to be on the main network soon.
Ika allows you to safely control and use assets like $BTC or $ETH across blockchains—like a secure remote that ensures both the assets are secure on their native chains and can be used on other chains.To do this, it adopts a 2PC-MPC model distributed over hundreds of nodes, making tampering nearly impossible.This greatly expands the DeFi field, allowing new cross-chain lending, staking and transactions, and projects such as Full Sail, AeonHQ and Ekko are currently being built on Ika.
Protocol upgrade
One of the highlights of Sui is that it provides modular, out-of-the-box tools that not only develop a chain, but also build a full-stack infrastructure with built-in solutions such as liquidity, storage, messaging, etc.
This full-stack approach has recently received significant updates, with new versions released in terms of liquidity, networking and privacy:
DeepBook 3.1
Sui’s native order book engine has ushered in a new upgrade, introducing multiple functions.
DeepBook is Sui’s shared liquidity layer, which provides an exclusive liquidity pool for each asset to access by DeFi applications, meaning that DeFi applications do not need to build liquidity on their own.
In v3.1, the agreement now offers license-free liquidity pools, lower fees, flexible fee payment methods, and smarter fund management.
SCION
Next comes the progress of SCION, a next-generation network protocol that provides authenticators with reliable and secure communication methods even during DDoS attacks or internet outages that may cause other blockchains to offline.
By bypassing failures and enforcing trusted paths, SCION will help Sui stay online at critical moments, representing an important part of Sui’s vision of building a completely new full-stack infrastructure that serves not only cryptocurrencies but the entire internet as well.
SEAL
On the security side, SEAL is an encryption and access control system that is still in the testnet, allowing developers to set custom data sharing rules—for example, allowing only NFT holders or access files for a specific time period.
Working with Walrus, SEAL enables applications to directly manage private data, allowing sensitive content to be secure while still being accessible through programmable permissions.
Nautilus
Also in the beta phase is Nautilus, a system that uses a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) to offload complex operations on secure external machines and then verify results on the chain.
TEEs are becoming more and more popular, and Unchain uses them to safely sort transactions and reduce harmful MEV manipulation.Nautilus will introduce this tool to Sui to support more use cases such as privacy AI systems, data feeds or complex game logic without causing blockchain overload.
Technical updates
In addition to the new features of these protocols, Sui’s base layer has also been significantly improved, including:
-
Move VM 2.0 — Transaction execution speed is increased by 30-65%, especially under high loads.
-
Remora — allows validators to scale across multiple machines to cope with massive growth without slowing down speed.
-
Pilotfish — Further enhances parallel transaction execution, increasing throughput by 10 times through improved validator economics.
-
Move Registry (MVR) — allows developers to use simple smart contract names instead of long strings, thereby improving code transparency and interoperability.
-
SIP-45 — Improves MEV fairness by increasing transaction speeds that pay higher fees, helping it complete transactions faster and avoiding preemptive transactions.
Ecosystem update
Sui’s growth in the past few months is reflected in its ecosystem, with daily active users tripling in the past three months, as new wallets account for the majority of active wallets during this period.
The surge in new users shows that more and more eyes are turning to the ecosystem.In addition to the booming DeFi sector, this growth may also benefit from institutional announcements and developments in the entertainment and gaming sectors.
DeFi
Sui DeFi continues to grow, with total locked value (plus stablecoins) hitting record highs.DEX volumes remain strong, comparable to those at $SUI when it approached its all-time highs.
DEX Aggregator Cetus leads with a monthly transaction volume of approximately US$5.5 billion and a cumulative transaction volume of approximately US$51.5 billion.It is worth mentioning that perpetual contract platform Bluefin is currently ranked second, with monthly trading volume of approximately US$1.7 billion after integrating general swap transactions.
Kraken supports $USDC transfers on Sui, and the new bridge built by Allbridge, Axelar and LI.FI through Jumper, as well as the full integration of Phantom and Sui also support growth.
Looking at the protocol pattern, the top three participants are as follows:
Suilend (total locked value of $675 million) – DeFi suite, including lending (Suilend), decentralized exchange (STEAMM), and liquid staking (SpringSui).Deployed token launcher, license-free LST creation and fee-free lending.In Sui’s lending market, it accounts for about 48% of the market share.
NAVI (Total Locked Value $534 Million) – a lending platform with the highest open lending quota, with its Astros aggregator achieving quarterly growth of about 200% in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter.
Cetus (total locked value of $235 million) – a decentralized exchange that powers most of Sui’s trading volume.Auto Vault LP has been launched and plans to add more third-party vaults.
Institutional Investors
Sui’s institutional investor adoption rate has risen rapidly, and new partnerships have emerged in the financial sector.
Most notably, the Athens Stock Exchange is working with Sui to develop an on-chain order book proof-of-concept platform using zero-knowledge confidential bidding to test how blockchain transparency improves traditional markets.
As Canary Capital and 21Shares apply for $SUI ETF, Sui’s investment channels are also expanding.21Shares is also working with Sui to develop new products and conduct research as it enters the U.S. market, after Grayscale, VanEck and Franklin Templeton have expressed interest.
Meanwhile, Trump-backed World Liberty Financial has added Sui assets to its reserves (Eric Trump holds $SUI), and Fireblocks is preparing to launch custodial support for Sui.
Entertainment and Games
Entertainment and gaming use cases flourish on Sui, making impressive progress in multiple verticals.
SocialFi platforms are particularly prominent, with RECRD (a short video content monetization platform) having been Sui’s top application for the past three months, with approximately 1 million daily active users and more than 100 million transactions.Ranked second is FanTV, with 128,000 daily active addresses, a platform powered by artificial intelligence for creators to make music, videos and podcasts while users can earn tokens through participation.
Another popular app is DoubleUp, a “GambleFi” and prediction platform based on its Unihouse protocol that allows users to pledge tokens and earn benefits pegged to the platform’s bet volume.DoubleUp recently completed a $4 million round of financing and announced plans to further expand its sports betting business, continuing the momentum of $UP TGE last week.
The most notable headlines in mainstream applications come from Parasol, a platform acquired by Mysten Labs to help create, manage and trade digital assets in traditional gaming experiences.Parasol’s recent appearance in Pokémon HOME’s privacy policy has sparked speculation that its new “Medal” may be based on blockchain.If true, this would mark an important step in the integration of cryptocurrencies with one of the gaming giants.
Parasol’s acquisition is in line with Sui’s broader gaming strategy, along with a series of new product launches in the first quarter and the upcoming SuiPlay0X1 – a “crypto Switch” handheld console with built-in wallet and game store.Although not released yet, the device is reportedly currently under development from more than 65 studios, covering a wide range of games from standalone games to 3A masterpieces.
In traditional entertainment, horror film director Eli Ross is working with Walrus Protocol to tokenize movie IP and give fans stake in upcoming films.Meanwhile, MoviePass launched a closed beta version of MogulPass on Sui, an app similar to fantasy sports where users can select actors and directors and earn points based on real-world performance.
Future Outlook
Overall, Sui’s strong momentum in BTCfi, DeFi, institutional applications, gaming and social applications demonstrates its ambition: not just being another Layer-1, but a complete decentralized stack.
Sui founder Adeniyi Abiodun details how Sui is committed to replacing today’s walled gardens in an all-round way.Applications on Sui are more than just having a chain – they get built-in liquidity through DeepBook, verifiable storage through Walrus, secure access through SEAL, high-performance network through SCION, and off-chain computing through Nautilus.All of this is modular, open and composable.
Sui’s recent growth shows that this approach is working.The BTCfi protocol was chosen by Sui because of its security, social applications are expanding to millions of users, and institutions are exploring the on-chain market – all of which attracts it more than just speed.Even so, many infrastructures are still under test and competition is very fierce.But as more and more products come online and prove themselves in production, we will see whether Sui’s vision for a composable, open Internet can be realized.
