Sui sits in the top 20 layer 1 blockchains globally, with a market capitalisation of over US$9 billion, despite having only launched its mainnet in 2023. A lot of the excitement around the coin was predicated on a belief it could emulate Solana’s breakthrough success.
Solana and Sui are two of the fastest blockchains, based on maximum daily average transactions per second (TPS). But for now, SUI is not matching SOL’s vibe when it comes to the speed of its price growth.
$SUI languished below US$1 for most of its first 18-months on the market, before rapidly ascending in late 2024 to reach its all-time high of US$5.35 at the start of 2025 (when Trump-fuelled optimism was high). It couldn’t maintain the momentum, falling to around US$2 by April, before another short-lived rally to just under US$4 in May.
It’s still early days though. Let’s reflect on the future potential of the Sui blockchain, what the analysts predict, and whether you should be packing your bags now in anticipation of Sui’s token price mooning by 2030.
Can the price of $SUI reach $10? $100?
With the coin’s price around US$2.70 at the time of writing, SUI would need to experience a 4x gain to rise above $10 per token. That doesn’t sound too ambitious, but it represents a 270% increase. Sui diehards speculate about $SUI hitting $100 over the long-term, which doesn’t look promising without some kind of hype-driven frenzy.
A number of analyses, based on historical prices and technical indicators, suggest an average price in the $6-$12 range could be achieved by 2030. But the bearish outlook doesn’t have $SUI’s price rising significantly from its current level.
Respected analyst Michaël van de Poppe is predicting altcoins could pop in the second half of 2025 and see 5-20x price gains. In June, he called out $SUI as a token that holds promise because:
- Its decentralised finance (DeFi) trading volume has picked up pace of late;
- ETF approvals for altcoins, including Sui, are likely to happen in the second half of 2025; and
- Its ecosystem is doing well, with its lending protocol SuiLend seeing a recent uptick in TVL and the success of the Walrus protocol, which is a leading DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network).
Poppe said it’s crucial for Sui to break the $3 mark before it can make a run in the short-term to around $4, and that there’s positive signs the token will soon enter a new upwards trend.
Factors driving Sui’s future price action
The utility of Sui is a major plus for the chain as it seeks to become the ideal home for DeFi and gaming applications. It also supports leading stablecoins like USDC and USDT, with stablecoin supply on the network surpassing US$1 billion in May 2025.
Sui is already a top-ten token for total value locked (TVL) in DeFi apps, with over US$1.7 billion TVL. Sui’s TVL had peaked at US$2.1 billion in May, but suffered a hack of its largest decentralised exchange, Cetus, which spooked users (and resulted in a price dip). The chain is also attracting less capital than key competitors like Solana, Arbitrum and Base, and is being closely chased by similar chains like Avalanche and Aptos.
Sui is fast and cost-efficient, making it one of the most lauded potential ‘Solana-killers’ (alongside Aptos). The chain’s maximum theoretical TPS is 1.85X more than Solana. Sui also recently highlighted that its ‘commands per second’ (CPS) metric is an even better indicator of its superiority. Essentially, Sui’s tech allows for bundling up to 1,024 separate operations into one transaction, so the chain’s actual computational throughput is much higher than blockchains that require multiple individual transactions.
Theoretically, these advances could give Sui an edge over other chains. But a lot hinges on the people/companies building apps prioritising tech that can handle very high volumes, which also heavily hinges on blockchain apps becoming wildly popular with mainstream consumers.
While a growing number of developers are building on Sui’s blockchain, it uses the relatively new programming language ‘Move’. More common coding languages used in blockchain projects include Solidity and Rust. Less familiarity with Move could be a potential roadblock for Sui’s widespread adoption. Sui also isn’t compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM): and EVM-compatible chains is where the bulk of multi-chain app development happens.
Of course, even if more app creators are impressed by what’s under the hood of Sui’s chain — the real question is whether investors care?
At least one prominent asset management firm believes that investors will flock to Sui. European-based 21Shares has filed to launch a spot Sui ETF in the US. The head of its US business, Federico Brokate, said: “We believe Sui has the technical underpinnings, DeFi and developer ecosystems, and institutional alignment to play a central role in crypto for a long time.”
Regulated access to Sui on the Nasdaq exchange could open the floodgates, for both retail and institutional investors. Sui has the makings of a chain that should be especially appealing to large investors: strong institutional use cases, a healthy DeFi ecosystem, and a credible team behind it (it was founded by former Meta engineers).
Other recent moves by Sui that could support bullish sentiment moving forward include:
- An integration with the non-custodial multi chain digital wallet Phantom which has about 10 million active users.
- The release of its SuiPlay0X1 handheld gaming console, which lets users play traditional and blockchain games on the Sui network.
Time to buy SUI?
Sui is a solid blockchain that seems to have a bright future, and growing on-chain activity should support price growth. But paying attention to fundamentals doesn’t always pay off in the crypto sphere. More investor money is on Sui’s value increasing than decreasing, based on analysis of long and short positions, with over 70% going long at the time of writing.
The tokenomics of Sui is another factor to watch. It has a maximum supply of 10 billion SUI coins. Around 34% are currently available in the market, with more gradually released over the next five years (to 2030) in line with Sui’s unlock schedule. Large token unlocks could lead to $SUI price volatility, if demand doesn’t align with the sudden supply increases.
. But for now, SUI is not matching SOL’s vibe when it comes to the speed of its price growth.){kind=link}