An Overview of the Sui Network

Introduction

The Sui network is a fast and efficient Layer 1 blockchain based on the Move programming language, which enables transactional finality in under a second, parallel transaction processing, and infrastructure built to support complex blockchain games.

Sui was developed and launched by Mysten Labs in May 2023 after raising a $300M Series B funding round from big names like a16z, Lightspeed Ventures, and Circle. As the market comes out of its crypto winter slumber, Sui is gaining a lot of attention and traction from traders and investors alike as a potential big mover. In this article, we’ll cover our view of Sui as a network as well as its rich ecosystem of DeFi protocols, games, and more.

Sui Network at a Glance

Almost a year into operation, Sui has amassed a market cap of more than $1B and currently sits in the top 50 largest tokens. Its ecosystem is also considerable with a TVL of $464M at time of writing, with the majority of liquidity spread between lending protocols and decentralized exchanges.

Sui TVL, Source: DeFiLlama

One of Sui’s most exciting features from a user experience perspective is their innovative wallet technology called zkLogin. In a nutshell, zkLogin allows anyone to use any dApp on Sui with familiar web credentials like Google and Facebook. This makes onboarding to Sui as easy as using any normal site on the internet, which has historically been a major sticking point for crypto. Sui also introduces native account abstraction, a feature of which allows one wallet to control other wallets . This is important for any application as it allows developers more flexibility in how they design their protocols, and ensures a seamless user experience even from a web2 standard.

For users already on the chain, trading and transactions in general feel lightning fast. As compared to chains like Ethereum, Sui network fees seem nonexistent at less than a penny per transaction on average. The high throughput in combination with low fees makes it a great option for complex contracts for games, innovative DeFi protocols, and high frequency trading.

Ecosystem

One of the most popular games on Sui is called Panzerdogs, a 2D play & earn tank battling game where players can own all of their in-game assets. Panzerdogs is developed by Lucky Kat Studios, a Dutch studio with a track record of over 200 million downloads on previous releases. The game is already live to play, and you can check it out yourself here.

Panzerdogs In-Game Footage, Source: GAM3S

Panzerdogs is just one of many games building on Sui, a testament to the infrastructure Mysten Labs has created. Action game Samurai Shodown, the open world of The Walking Dead Lands, strategy game Legend of Arcadia and more can all be found via Sui’s PlayBeyond site.

On the DeFi side, lending protocol Scallop Lend occupies the top spot by TVL with $72M at time of writing. Scallop aims to provide institutional-grade quality, enhanced composability, and robust security to Sui’s suite of dApps. Historically, the growth of lending protocols on a chain precedes liquidity influxes into the ecosystem as it allows traders to have liquidity on collateral they would otherwise have to sell in order to trade with, so it is encouraging to see this sector heating up on Sui.

Scallop Lend Incentives, Source: Scallop via Twitter

The leading DEX on Sui is called Cetus, a concentrated liquidity protocol similar to UniSwap v3 however it is built specifically to leverage the Move programming language featured by Sui and Aptos. With a strong presence on both chains, Cetus is slowly making a name for itself in the Move ecosystem.

Conclusion

With top tier backing, an innovative technology offering, and an early product-market-fit for blockchain gaming Sui is one of the most exciting chains on the market. With everything from liquidity mining to battling tanks against your friends, there’s a lot to do on Sui. Additionally, their native wallet offering which enables easy sign-ups for new users is a huge improvement over the industry standard.

The future looks bright for Sui, and we are excited to watch it grow as the market heats back up!