From Technical Pioneer to Value Reshaping, the Ecological Evolution of the SUI Public Chain

With the continuous evolution of Web3 technology, smart contract languages are migrating from Ethereum-dominated Solidity to the more secure and resource-abstract capable Move language. The Move language was originally developed by Meta for the Diem project and features first-class resources and formal verification friendliness, gradually becoming an important choice for the underlying architecture of the new generation of public blockchains.

In the context of this technological revolution, Aptos and SUI have become the dual core representatives of the Move ecosystem. Aptos was launched by the original Diem core team, continuing the native Move technology stack, emphasizing stability, security, and a modular architecture. SUI, on the other hand, was built by Mysten Labs, inheriting the Move security model while introducing object-oriented data structures and parallel execution mechanisms, forming the SUI Move branch with breakthroughs in performance and innovations in development paradigms, reconstructing on-chain resource management and transaction execution models. SUI not only pursues high performance but is also committed to reshaping the operating paradigm of blockchain, creating a technological foundation for complex on-chain interactions and large-scale Web3 applications.

1. Ecological data shines, user growth is rapid

Since the SUI mainnet launched in May 2023, user growth has been exponential. By April 2025, over 123 million user addresses had been created on the SUI chain, nearly approaching the cumulative address count of established public chains like Tron. In the second half of 2024, the average number of monthly active addresses on SUI was around 10 million; starting from mid-February 2025, this metric experienced a dramatic leap, exceeding 40 million by mid-April, marking an increase of more than four times in monthly activity.

In terms of new users, a "turning point" will appear by the end of 2024, with the average daily new wallet addresses rising from 150,000 to a sustained level of over 1 million thereafter. In terms of cross-chain funds, as of November 2024, approximately $944.8 million has been bridged into SUI. By mid-2025, the total cross-chain locked amount of SUI is approximately $2.55 billion.

The supply of SUI ecosystem stablecoins is also rising. In mid-April 2025, the market value of SUI stablecoins reached a historical high of over 800 million dollars, equivalent to the stablecoin levels of established public chains like Tron. In terms of stablecoin composition, USDC consistently accounts for over 60% of the market value, and USDT will also be issued on SUI by the end of 2024 and remain active.

2. Significant Technical Advantages and Rich Application Scenarios

Although SUI still lags behind Solana in throughput, it has fully covered high-frequency scenarios such as on-chain order book DEX, real-time PvP, and social interactions. Thanks to fast finality and DAG parallel execution, SUI is particularly suitable for micro-payments, in-game asset exchanges, and social "likes/comments" type write operations. With the Mahi-Mahi upgrade targeting over 400,000 TPS, SUI is continuously solidifying its scalability moat.

Low average Gas fees are a core selling point for SUI in attracting "on-chain real-time application" developers. However, the 150-minute downtime incident that occurred on November 21, 2024, also warns that the stability of the core protocol under high concurrency boundary conditions still needs continuous validation.

3. Continuous optimization of the ecological structure, high developer activity

The SUI ecosystem's financial structure is becoming resilient. By Q2 2025, the steady-state TVL is expected to be around $160-180 million, with stablecoins and LSD accounting for approximately 55%. The proportion of holdings by institutional addresses has doubled from 6% to 14% within half a year, indicating a more concentrated yet more active capital base, providing a safety cushion for the next round of leverage/derivatives expansion.

The developer retention rate is higher than that of peer public chains. The 24-month survival rate for SUI is 37%, which is higher than Aptos's 31% and Sei's 18%. The object model and native SDK reduce the cognitive cost for developers, and most teams tend to deploy their first contract on SUI.

The user structure shows a bimodal distribution between DeFi and content entertainment. DeFi contracts account for approximately 49% of on-chain call volume, while content applications contribute around 35% of call volume. Social and consumption applications have yet to truly launch, representing a potential blue ocean.

BTCFi is rapidly developing on SUI. In March 2025, the amount of BTC locked on the SUI chain exceeded 1000 BTC. By April, BTC-related assets accounted for 10% of the total TVL on SUI, including forms such as wBTC, LBTC, and stBTC.

4. Strategic Investment to Promote Ecological Prosperity

OKX Ventures, as an early discoverer and strategic builder of the SUI ecosystem, strategically invested in core projects such as Cetus, Navi, Momentum, and Haedal at the early stage of the SUI mainnet launch. These projects cover key DeFi sectors like DEX, lending, and LST, laying the foundation for the explosive growth of the SUI financial ecosystem.

The investment of the SUI Foundation and Mysten Labs at the infrastructure level lays a deep competitive barrier for the ecosystem. Mysten has raised over $300 million from 2023 to 2024 for SUI development, focusing on the research and development of "thick infrastructure" such as Walrus, Seal, and Nautilus. This strategy not only addresses the shortcomings at the base layer but also encourages application innovation through grants and hackathons.

5. From "Fastest L1" to "Programmable Internet Stack"

SUI is transforming from a "high-performance parallel chain" to a "programmable internet stack." The team is committed to integrating traditional internet components (computing power, storage, identity, liquidity, privacy computing) into a single native protocol stack, allowing each layer to be accessed and utilized by external applications as needed.

Currently, the SUI infrastructure has entered the production phase. The Mysticeti consensus engine brings sub-second finality, DeepBook has reduced matching latency to 390 milliseconds, SuiNS has minted 280,000 domain names, and zkLogin has completed over 12 million social logins in three months. Components like Walrus, Seal, and Nautilus have made breakthroughs in storage, encryption, and verifiable computing respectively.

Based on these capabilities, SUI has opened up multiple growth directions such as the migration of Web2 SaaS, offline network applications, and AI verifiability. The team is exploring the application of SUI technology in weak network scenarios such as India, Southeast Asia, and disaster relief, as well as on-chain auditability of AI weights, inference logs, and data sources.

In terms of technological advancements, SUI continues to improve various aspects from basic consensus to user tools. The protocol supports dynamic version control and hot updates, the Move language introduces new features to enhance development efficiency, and the wallet side optimizes user experience and asset security.

The SUI ecosystem has built a full-stack architecture covering storage, encryption, and privacy computing. Underlying protocols such as Walrus, Seal, and Nautilus have significantly improved the efficiency of on-chain and off-chain data processing and data sovereignty. SUI also brings together a series of middleware and development tools, forming a "decentralized full stack" that covers modules including computation, communication, identity, payment, and security.

In terms of security governance, SUI has demonstrated a rapid response capability. After the Cetus theft incident, SUI recovered most of the assets through on-chain governance mechanisms and optimized the security mechanisms and community governance processes.

In summary, SUI is transitioning from the narrative of being the "fastest L1" high-performance chain to a higher positioning of being a "programmable internet stack," dedicated to building a universal infrastructure that serves the large-scale implementation of Web3.