SUI Public Chain: From High Performance to Programmable Internet Infrastructure

As the Web3 technology stack continues to evolve, smart contract languages are shifting from the Ethereum-dominated Solidity to the more secure and resource-abstraction-capable Move language. Move was originally developed by Meta for its cryptocurrency project Diem, featuring resource as a first-class citizen and being friendly to formal verification, making it an important choice for the underlying architecture of the new generation of public chains.

In this evolutionary context, Aptos and SUI have become the dual core representatives of the Move ecosystem. Aptos was launched by the original Diem core team Aptos Labs, continuing the native Move technology stack, emphasizing stability, security, and modular architecture; while SUI is built by Mysten Labs, inheriting the Move security model while introducing object-oriented data structures and parallel execution mechanisms, forming a SUI Move branch that showcases performance breakthroughs and innovative development paradigms, reconstructing on-chain resource management and transaction execution models. SUI is a Layer 1 that reconstructs the smart contract operating mechanism and on-chain resource management from first principles. It is not only pursuing high TPS but is rewriting how blockchains should operate. This makes SUI not only powerful in performance but also leading in paradigms, serving as a technological foundation for complex on-chain interactions and large-scale Web3 applications.

1. Breakthrough and Reshape the Public Chain Landscape

After Solana enters the Firedancer era, its performance curve may remain ahead; however, it is still a "single-chain high-frequency trading" paradigm. SUI attempts to respond to demands beyond the performance arms race with a horizontal stack + end-to-end privacy/storage. This constitutes a significant difference from Aptos or Sei. For investment institutions, this means:

• If you focus on high TPS + continuous transaction fees, Solana & dedicated chains may yield faster returns;
• If you value "new type applications" and horizontal interface control, the alpha of SUI comes from the unsaturated SaaS/privacy/offline track;
• Aptos and SUI have a high degree of overlap in DeFi and BTCFi, and caution is needed to avoid competition within the track.

Compared to Solana: Solana has undergone multiple rounds of bull and bear markets, with a vast ecosystem. As a newcomer, SUI has clear advantages: it uses the more secure Move language, avoiding the vulnerabilities caused by Solana's Rust + Sealevel parallel processing, and has lower hardware requirements, resulting in lower costs for verification nodes, which is beneficial for decentralization. In terms of performance, both are comparable, with Solana's TPS slightly higher and SUI having lower confirmation delays. In terms of ecosystem, Solana has more projects and users, focusing on complex DeFi, while SUI is growing faster, with user activity once nearly catching up, achieving differentiation through new areas like BTCFi and LSD. The Solana community is mature, while SUI's international community still needs to expand. In the future, both may coexist, with Solana leaning towards an encrypted native ecosystem, while SUI focuses more on Web2 penetration and gaming social interactions. Both pursue the limits of performance: Solana relies on Firedancer multi-threading, while SUI depends on Mahi-Mahi upgrades.

Comparison with Aptos: Aptos and SUI both originated from Libra/Diem. Aptos launched ahead of SUI and was once awarded the title of "first Move chain" along with a high valuation. Over the past year, the development of the Aptos ecosystem has been slow, with user and developer activity lower than that of SUI. Reasons include: Aptos uses a complex Block-STM parallel processing, and its performance declines significantly under high concurrency, while SUI's object model is more efficient; Aptos positions itself as a robust financial infrastructure, focusing mainly on DeFi and NFTs, with a style similar to Ethereum clones; SUI attempts a diverse narrative, experiencing rapid user growth, but with higher risks. In terms of incentives, Aptos has had airdrops but lacks continuous incentives, while SUI, although it has no airdrops, is strongly supported by its foundation, with monthly active addresses and on-chain transaction volumes both surpassing those of Aptos. The Aptos team has strong financial backing, and in the future, it may focus on institutional finance or the East Asian market, but currently, the market is more optimistic about SUI.

Compared to Sei: Sei is a dedicated trading chain that emerged in 2023, based on Cosmos, focusing on order book trading, with a block time of about 500ms. It tries to seize the market created by Solana's downtime, experiencing high short-term popularity, but the TVL and user growth have not been sustained, and ecological development is limited. Its positioning is too narrow, relying on liquidity mining, making it difficult to form a complete ecosystem. In contrast, SUI takes a general L1 route, supporting diverse applications and having stronger risk resistance. Sei's cross-chain compatibility and language advantages are inferior to SUI's, and although it may transform or fully integrate into the EVM ecosystem, it is unlikely to threaten SUI in the short term. More attention should be paid to Linera, incubated by Mysten, which is positioned for high-frequency micropayments and may serve as a sidechain for SUI expansion, differing from SUI's positioning.

Comparing Ethereum L2: The Ethereum L2 ecosystem is thriving, with TVL exceeding $2 billion. The advantage of SUI lies in ultra-low latency and high concurrency, which Rollup finds hard to match, and it has low Gas fees, making it suitable for high TPS games and other applications. Meanwhile, Ethereum L2 benefits from strong network effects of capital and security backing. The competition between SUI and L2 is essentially a competition between new paradigms and traditional paradigms; in the long term, they may coexist, while in the short term, it depends on who can better meet application demands.

II. Soaring Ahead, Ecological Data Shines

Since the SUI mainnet went live in May 2023, user growth has been exponential: by April 2025, over 123 million user addresses had been created on the SUI chain. This number is nearly on par with the cumulative address count of established public chains like Tron. In the second half of 2024, the average monthly active addresses on SUI was about 10 million; however, starting from mid-February 2025, this metric experienced a dramatic leap, steadily surpassing 40 million by mid-April, more than quadrupling the monthly activity. In terms of new users, a "turning point" was reached at the end of 2024—average daily new wallet addresses rose from 150,000 to a sustained level of over 1 million thereafter.

In particular, the rise of new public chains is often accompanied by a large influx of cross-chain funds. SUI welcomed its first wave of traffic in the second half of 2024 through third-party bridging: by November 2024, approximately $944.8 million had been bridged in total. By mid-2025, the total locked amount of SUI cross-chain was approximately $2.55 billion. This indicates that in addition to the internal TVL of DeFi, there are also a large number of assets remaining as bridge assets, supporting the liquidity demand on SUI. Furthermore, with the increase in DeFi activities, the supply of stablecoins in the SUI ecosystem has risen significantly: in mid-April 2025, the market value of SUI stablecoins reached a historical high of over $800 million. This scale is already comparable to the stablecoin levels of established public chains like Tron, highlighting the growing trust users have in the SUI network for value storage and transfer. In terms of stablecoin composition, USDC remains the absolute mainstay, consistently accounting for over 60% of the market value. USDT was also issued on SUI by the end of 2024, maintaining a certain level of activity.

Although it still lags behind Solana in throughput, SUI has fully covered high-frequency scenarios such as on-chain order book DEX, real-time PvP, and social interactions. Additionally, due to fast finality + DAG parallel execution, it naturally fits the track for micropayments, in-game asset exchanges, and social "likes/comments" type writes. With the upcoming upgrade targeting >400,000 TPS, SUI is continuously solidifying its scalability moat. However, the 150 min downtime event on 2024-11-21 serves as a warning that the core protocol's stability under high concurrency boundary conditions still needs continuous verification. Furthermore, low average Gas is the core selling point for SUI in attracting developers for "on-chain real-time applications"; however, if peak fee rates repeatedly hit high levels, user churn may occur in gaming and social scenarios. Holders/stakers need to pay attention to storage fund parameters and the rhythm of L2 solutions to assess the long-term cost curve.

Currently, the SUI ecosystem data is very impressive: First, the resilience of its funding structure is forming. By Q2 2025, the stable-state TVL is expected to be around 1.6 to 1.8 billion USD, with stablecoins + LSD accounting for approximately 55%. The lack of incentive subsidies can still retain funds—indicating that the "sticky capital" after the hot money cycle has initially settled. In addition, the proportion of institutional addresses holding funds has increased from 6% to 14%, while the share of retail funds has decreased but their activity has increased. Funds are becoming more concentrated yet more active, providing a safety cushion for the next round of leverage/derivative expansion.

Secondly, the developer retention rate is higher than that of peer public chains. According to Electric Capital statistics, the 24-month survival rate is SUI = 37% > Aptos 31% > Sei 18%. The key factors are: the object model + Walrus / Seal native SDK reduces the mental cost of "rewriting on-chain structure"; most teams prefer to write their first contract on SUI rather than porting it.

Third, the user structure is bimodal, driving diversified on-chain interactions. DeFi contracts account for about 49% of on-chain call volume; content applications like FanTV, RECRD, and Pebble City contribute approximately 35% of the call volume. Social and consumer applications have not yet truly launched, representing a potential blue ocean. The Web3 transformation of content creation has already shown signs in SUI, but there is room for further development. Particularly, since SUI has a significant number of users in Southeast Asia, social products tailored to the habits of users in that region could be considered. Localized on-chain short videos and on-chain fan tipping may have market potential. As these products grow, they could lead to businesses such as advertising and data analysis, creating a positive cycle for the ecological economy. The growth period for social products can be long, but once successful, they have strong stickiness.

For example, by March 2025, the locked amount of BTCFi on the SUI chain surpassed 1,000 BTC; by April, BTC-related assets accounted for 10% of the total TVL on SUI, covering forms such as wBTC, LBTC, stBTC, etc. In other words, there are already approximately $250 million worth of Bitcoin functioning on SUI. These Bitcoin assets are being fully utilized on SUI: users can pledge BTC-backed assets to lending protocols in exchange for stablecoins, achieving "earning interest on holdings," or provide BTC/stablecoin liquidity to earn transaction fees. One-stop liquidity protocols like Navi quickly supported BTC as collateral and launched yield aggregation strategies such as "BTC Plus."

Fourth, potential growth curve: RWA and native derivatives present two major gaps. In terms of RWA, Seal/Nautilus provides compliant privacy + verifiable computing, serving as a natural base for issuing bonds and fund shares; they have collaborated with Open Market Group, 21Shares, etc., to test the tokenization of physical assets/bonds. The opportunities this brings include developing RWA issuance SaaS, compliant identity as a service, on-chain secondary exchanges, and valuation oracles. Regarding native perpetual/options, the current on-chain Perp OI is about 20m, with Bluefin accounting for about 70%. The difference between Hyperliquid-style application chains and SUI is "performance vs liquidity aggregation." If SUI decides to enable composable/cross-protocol matching at the consensus layer, there is a chance to create unified derivatives infrastructure, with a potential growth space of 10x.

3. Forward-looking Layout, SUI Foundation, OKX Ventures, Mysten Labs, etc. become key ecological forces

A thriving ecosystem relies on the catalysis and empowerment of strategic capital. Throughout the process of the SUI ecosystem's emergence and rapid rise, OKX Ventures has played a crucial role. Its investment strategy is not merely a financial bet, but rather a prospective and systematic layout based on a profound understanding of the SUI technology architecture and ecological potential, thereby catalyzing the prosperity of the SUI ecosystem.

The Sui application ecosystem currently focuses primarily on financial applications, followed by entertainment, while AI-native tools and derivatives are still in their early stages. The real gaps are concentrated in RWA lending and on-chain derivatives: the former is waiting for the privacy compliance solutions of Seal/Nautilus to be implemented, while the latter requires stronger matching depth and risk hedging tools.

OKX Ventures is recognized by the market as one of the earliest discoverers and strategic co-builders of the SUI ecosystem. Shortly after the launch of the SUI mainnet, when the ecosystem was still in its early stages, OKX Ventures, with its keen judgment, decisively invested strategically in several core projects such as Cetus, Navi, Momentum, and Haedal. These projects cover key tracks in the DeFi field, including decentralized exchanges, lending, and liquid staking, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent explosive growth of SUI's financial ecosystem. For example:

• Momentum: is an innovative DEX deployed on the SUI blockchain, co-founded by ChefWEN, a former core engineer of Meta Libra. Since its launch in 2025, its trading volume has rapidly exceeded 1 billion USD, with over 200,000 active users, making it one of the fastest-growing liquidity platforms on SUI. It adopts the ve(3,3) model, returning 100% of token emissions, trading fees, and rewards to users, achieving interaction.