Sui (SUI) SUI

Sui (SUI) is a layer-1 blockchain developed by Mysten Labs, a company founded by former engineers of Meta’s Diem project. It uses the Move programming language and an object-based data model that lets many transactions run in parallel, with finality in well under a second. SUI, its native coin, pays for gas and storage, secures the network through staking and gives a vote on protocol upgrades.

What is Sui?

Mysten Labs was founded in September 2021 by Evan Cheng, Sam Blackshear, Adeniyi Abiodun, George Danezis and Kostas Chalkias, who had worked on Diem, the payments project Meta later abandoned. Sam Blackshear created Move while at Meta, and Sui uses an evolved version of it. The company raised $36 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz in December 2021, announced Sui in March 2022 and opened a public devnet in August 2022. The mainnet and the SUI coin launched in May 2023.

How Sui works

Most blockchains treat their state as one big list of accounts. Sui instead stores everything as objects (coins, NFTs, game items, pools) with a clear owner:

• **Owned objects**, such as the coins in your wallet, can be processed independently, so simple transfers do not have to wait for global ordering.
• **Shared objects**, such as a DeFi pool used by many people, go through consensus to be ordered.

Consensus was first handled by the Narwhal and Bullshark protocols and is now run by Mysticeti, a DAG-based protocol that Sui describes as reaching about 300 ms of consensus latency. Validators are chosen by delegated proof-of-stake: SUI holders delegate coins to validators and share their rewards, and every epoch the validators agree on a reference gas price.

SUI supply and the storage fund

According to the Sui tokenomics documentation, supply is capped at 10 billion SUI, released according to unlocking schedules. Users pay a computation fee and a storage fee. Storage fees go into a storage fund that rewards validators over time for keeping data, and users who delete data get part of their storage fee back.

Key dates

• **September 2021:** Mysten Labs is founded by ex-Diem engineers.
• **March 2022:** Sui is publicly announced; a devnet follows in August 2022.
• **May 2023:** mainnet launch and start of SUI trading.
• **May 2025:** an exploit on Cetus, a major decentralized exchange on Sui, drains about $223 million; roughly $162 million is later recovered and Cetus reopens in June after 17 days offline.
• **November 2025:** launch of USDsui, a native stablecoin issued through Bridge.
• **18 February 2026:** the Canary Staked SUI ETF (SUIS) lists on Nasdaq and the Grayscale Sui Staking ETF (GSUI) on NYSE Arca, both passing staking rewards to investors.
• **October 2026:** Hashi, a system for bringing Bitcoin liquidity to Sui, goes live on mainnet, and Samsung Wallet announces Sui integration.

What SUI is used for

SUI pays gas fees, is staked to secure the network and is used in on-chain governance votes. Sui hosts DeFi apps (decentralized exchanges, lending, the DeepBook order book), stablecoin payments, games and NFT collections. Because Move treats assets as objects with strict ownership rules, Sui aims to reduce classes of smart contract bugs that are common on EVM chains.

Sui vs other layer 1s

Sui is often compared with Aptos, another chain from former Diem engineers that also uses Move, and with Solana, which also targets high throughput. Its main distinctions are the object model, the fast path for owned objects and the storage fund. Unlike Ethereum and other EVM networks, Sui cannot run Solidity code directly, so developers must learn Move.

Risks and criticism

• **Validator power:** after the Cetus exploit, the network’s validators played a role in stopping and recovering stolen funds. Supporters saw a quick response; critics saw proof that a small group can intervene in transactions.
• **Token unlocks:** a large part of the 10 billion supply was allocated to early contributors, investors and the foundation, and scheduled token unlocks add supply over time.
• **Ecosystem risk:** DeFi apps built on Sui can be exploited even if the base chain works correctly.
• **Young network:** Sui has a shorter track record than Bitcoin or Ethereum.
• **Volatility:** SUI can drop sharply in value.

How to store SUI

SUI needs a wallet that supports the Sui network; Ethereum or Solana addresses do not work. Several dedicated Sui wallets and multi-chain wallets exist, and major hardware wallets can secure SUI. Staking directly from your wallet lets you keep custody while earning rewards. Read our guide to crypto wallets to choose, and keep your recovery phrase offline.