Sui

Sui is a layer-1 smart contract platform described in its documentation as a next-generation smart contract platform with high throughput, low latency and an asset-oriented programming model powered by the Move programming language. Its design treats everything — assets, data and permissions — as objects that are owned, versioned and composable, which the project says enables parallel transaction processing through an object-centric fast path alongside ordered processing. Named native primitives include Move, Kiosk (creator-set trading policies including royalties), a Storage Fund that redistributes past transaction fees to future validators, Transfer to Object (parent-child asset relationships), Closed-Loop Tokens, Programmable Transaction Blocks supporting up to 1,024 operations in a single transaction, onchain randomness using threshold cryptography, and a gas pricing mechanism intended to deliver predictable fees and deter spam and denial-of-service attacks.

Around the base chain sits a modular "Sui Stack": Walrus (decentralized storage positioned as a trusted data layer), Seal (programmable encryption and access control), Nautilus (verifiable offchain compute such as order matching and oracles, validated onchain), DeepBook (an onchain central limit order book and liquidity layer spanning spot, margin and prediction markets), SuiNS (human-readable onchain naming and identity), Hashi (native Bitcoin collateralization), and onboarding components zkLogin (sign-up with existing Web2 credentials, no seed phrase) and passkeys. Current positioning emphasises "trusted autonomous execution" for AI agents: policy-enforced assets, all-or-nothing settlement, controlled visibility and always-on security, so that rules travel with the asset rather than relying on supervision of the agent.

The network runs on proof-of-stake, with SUI holders delegating stake to validators to earn rewards, and node operators running full nodes, validators, archival storage and indexing services. Ecosystem activity is coordinated by the Sui Foundation, which publishes documentation, developer tooling and AI coding assistants, and runs events, hackathons, SuiHub locations and funding programs.

Founding story

Evan Cheng, born in Taiwan, spent ten years at Apple on low-level infrastructure work and received the 2012 ACM Software Systems Award, then joined Facebook/Meta where he led programming language and runtime teams and later blockchain research and development on the Libra/Diem project. He had followed blockchain since around 2015 and concluded he could not pursue his goals inside a large company focused on short-term product output, so he left in his fifties to co-found a startup with a friend. His stated ambition was to build a layer on top of the internet supporting full automation and transfer and communication among people, machines and agents, on the view that the web was built for humans and is unfriendly to agent automation.

Business model

Sui is an open blockchain network rather than a conventional software vendor. Network usage is paid for in the SUI token through gas fees, with a gas pricing mechanism intended to keep fees predictable, and a Storage Fund that recycles past transaction fees to future validators. Validators secure the network under proof-of-stake and stakers delegate SUI for rewards. The Sui Foundation additionally publishes pages on SUI circulation, deflation and buybacks, and funds ecosystem growth through accelerators, research awards, requests for proposals and direct strategic investments.

Sources describe network-level economics — gas fees paid in SUI, staking rewards for validators and delegators, and a storage fund redistributing fees — rather than company revenue lines.

Traction

The homepage reports total value locked of $380,000,000 and states the network set a record of more than 6 million transactions per second in July. The ecosystem directory lists numerous applications across DEXs and aggregators, perpetuals and derivatives, borrowing and lending, NFT marketplaces, games, AI, social, analytics and developer tooling (for example 7K, Aftermath, Atoma, Beamable, Beep and Bluefin), and a broad set of supported wallets (Slush, Suiet, Backpack, Ledger, OKX, Bitget and others) and exchange/on-ramp partners (Binance, Coinbase, Robinhood, MoonPay, Transak and others). The Foundation also publicises fundraises by ecosystem teams, including Ika (over $21 million), Bluefin ($17 million), Momentum ($100 million led by OKX Ventures), Suilend ($6 million seed led by Robot Ventures), Talus Network ($6 million led by Polychain Capital at a $150 million valuation), DoubleUp ($4 million seed led by Karatage), Scallop Protocol ($3 million co-led by CMS Holding and 6th Man Venture) and Printr ($2.5 million).

Latest developments

The company's site foregrounds agentic finance, mapping stack components to agent use cases (Sui for policy-bound coordination, Walrus as agent knowledge store, Seal for access control, Nautilus for verifiable agent compute, DeepBook for liquidity management, SuiNS for verifiable agent identity), and promotes Sui Basecamp 2026 on October 7-8, 2026 in Singapore alongside Token2049, including a live TPS record attempt. Recent additions referenced include Hashi for native Bitcoin collateralization and Sui Agent Skills for AI coding agents.