The space of decentralized finance (DeFi) is rapidly changing, new Layer-1 blockchains popping up like daisies looking to take Ethereum’s crown. Among these contenders, Sui has quickly made a name for itself, with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of over $2 billion. This increase in TVL proves to be more than just a showy figure. It emphasizes Sui’s revolutionary architecture, high-performance capabilities, and a quickly-growing ecosystem that attracts both builders and users. As a Friends of Token, we’re excited to dig in on what’s driving Sui’s DeFi boom. This deep dive will unpack what that spells for the future of blockchain technology.

So what’s behind Sui’s success thus far? Unlike legacy blockchains, which process transactions one after the other, Sui takes advantage of a democratic parallel processing architecture. This is to guarantee super-fast transaction speeds. Consequently, gas fees are almost always very low, making it a very attractive option for traditional finance institutions and DeFi users alike. The numbers speak for themselves: Sui's average transaction fee is a mere $0.00018, dwarfing Solana's $0.0044. What’s more, Sui’s throughput of 756 transactions per second (tps) already beats most of its competitors, Solana included. This high-performance capability positions Sui as a leader in the blockchain space, capable of handling the demands of a growing DeFi ecosystem.

The development of native stablecoins on Sui has been key to its TVL surge. Stablecoins like USDC, AUSD, FDUSD, USDY provide liquidity and stability to the Sui ecosystem. They push users to use their platform and perform DeFi transactions. The same year, usage of stablecoins exploded from $540,000 to $4.9 million. This remarkable growth is a testament to the confidence and adoption Sui’s DeFi offerings are receiving. This growth is largely fuelled by the expansion of new creative DeFi protocols. Prominent examples are DeepBook, Suilend, Navi Protocol, and Cetus Protocol. DeepBook’s cumulative trading volume already nears $1 billion. This major milestone is a testament to the growing development activity and excitement in the Sui ecosystem.

Comparing Sui to Other Layer-1 Blockchains

Sui’s remarkable performance really shines once you put it into perspective with other Layer-1 blockchains. Aptos, another Move-based blockchain, has a healthy $1.6 billion total value locked (TVL). Sui has rocketed out front and carved out a stronghold as the best in the business. What’s more, Sui’s growth has outpaced nearly every other chain besides Bitcoin, showing a clear pattern of sustained, rapid growth in TVL. This growth is much more than just bringing in capital. It’s really about building the rich ecosystem that attracts developers and users on both sides of the marketplace.

One of Sui’s main advantages is its transaction speed and finality. With this capability, Sui can confirm a cross-chain transaction in only 400 milliseconds! By comparison, Solana is confirmation in 5 seconds, Ethereum 78 seconds, and Bitcoin 60 minutes. This speed is extremely important for DeFi applications that need real-time, on-chain data with immediate execution. Sui boasts an eye-popping throughput of 297,000 TPS. Yet, it makes it possible for it to have a huge scale up to millions of TPS! Transactions on Sui are mere fractions of a cent so it doesn’t break the bank doing DeFi activities on Sui.

Now Sui is processing transactions at near lightning speed. Its parallel transaction handling makes it ideal for real-time applications, such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and the gaming of tomorrow. This exceptional speed, scalability, and low fees drive platform development and ecosystem growth, with robust metrics underscoring its growing utility and ability to attract users and capital from competing Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchains. This provides developers a hand-holding, easy, one-click, speedy onboarding experience, along with the growing mainstream adoption.

Opportunities for Investors and Developers

The explosive growth of Sui is hugely exciting for investors and developers alike. For investors, the Sui ecosystem provides an exciting range of opportunities across different sectors, whether it’s DeFi protocols or NFT marketplaces. With the collaboration of Mastercard, this bridges Sui wallet users to virtual credit card spend across 20,000-plus European merchants. In short, this collaboration enhances Sui’s use cases and real world usage, giving investors a unique opportunity. BlueMove NFT marketplace offers Sui users a simple and secure platform to buy, sell, and trade NFTs on Sui blockchain. Sui’s tokenomics Sui hard caps the supply of its native token to 10 billion tokens, increasing its attractiveness by encouraging long-term value retention.

Sui’s developer-first ethos and modular design means that it’s easier for new protocols to slide into place. Empowering Builders This approach lowers barriers to entry, fosters innovation, and provides the essential infrastructure for scalable Web3 ecosystems. Sui has attracted a diverse array of projects across DeFi, gaming, and NFTs. It is flush with a deep and widening river of developers and users. This has allowed for dynamic smart contracts as well as composable object standards. This has led developers to build deeper dApp experiences from DeFi automation through social tokens.

By funding Sui accelerators, grants, and other initiatives that focus direct investment programs to help foster the development of a healthy ecosystem that best supports developers. All of these incentives and support mechanisms combine to create a fertile ground for innovation and growth within the Sui ecosystem. Sui features cutting-edge architecture and high-performance capabilities. Having a constantly developing ecosystem at its back, it is set for explosive growth and on a course to become one of the dominant forces in the DeFi space.