Sui [SUI] just put on a show for the entire market. The token blew past its Layer-1 rivals in mid-July 2025, flirting with the $4 resistance mark as traders took notice.
The engine behind the climb? A staggering $2.2 billion now locked into its DeFi ecosystem, a figure that has investors and analysts seriously debating whether an ambitious $10 price tag is just a wild dream.
To figure that out, you have to look past the hype and dig into what’s happening on-chain, what’s coming next, and what could send the whole thing tumbling down.
A DeFi ecosystem on fire
The heart of SUI’s recent surge beats in its DeFi protocols. The network’s Total Value Locked (TVL) didn’t just grow; it multiplied, rocketing from just $25 million at its 2023 launch to $2.122 billion as of the 30th of July.
Source: DefiLlama
That flood of capital has shoved Sui ahead of giants like Avalanche [AVAX] and Polygon [MATIC] in TVL, making it the third-biggest chain outside the Ethereum ecosystem.
Money flowing in means trading is frenzied. May 2025 saw DEX trading volume hit an incredible $14.8 billion for the month, almost four times its usual pace.
With total DEX volume now at $598 million, Sui has become a go-to playground for traders.
Source: DefiLlama
It wasn’t magic; lending platforms like NAVI Protocol and Suilend became magnets for capital, while exchanges like Cetus handled the volume.
You can’t have a DeFi party without stablecoins, and Sui’s supply swelled from $400 million in January 2025 to nearly $1.2 billion by May 2025, giving traders and institutions a solid foundation to work with.
Even the big suits are showing up, with the Grayscale Sui Trust, a 21Shares ETF filing, and validator participation from HSBC and DBS Bank lending the network some serious institutional credibility.
More than just Money: A network buzzing with activity
The network itself is humming with new users—daily activity spiked 145% in one 24-hour stretch in mid-July 2025, and the platform has consistently seen over 2.5 million active addresses this year.
This activity isn’t just for show. The blockchain has proven it can chew through more than 10 million transactions a day without breaking a sweat or jacking up fees.
Sui’s architecture, with its Move language and parallel processing, proves its worth by providing a scalable and secure sandbox for developers to build the next wave of dApps.
What could push SUI to $10?
Traders are circling a few key dates on the calendar, looking for the next big push.
- Gaming Goes Mainstream: Sui is betting big on gaming. Its SuiPlay0X1 handheld console, slated for a 2025 release, isn’t just a gadget; it’s a Trojan horse designed to sneak Web3 gaming into the hands of the masses.
- A Faster Network: The upcoming Mysticeti v2 mainnet upgrade promises to slash consensus latency, making the network even faster and more responsive for high-demand DeFi trades.
- Tokenizing the Real World: Bringing real-world assets (RWAs) onto the blockchain is a huge focus. If partnerships with finance heavyweights like Franklin Templeton and VanEck continue to deepen, they could unlock trillions in value.
- An AI Playground: Sui wants to be the chain for AI. A partnership with Google Cloud is already giving developers access to powerful AI tools and data, positioning the network for a future where AI and blockchain merge.
But don’t ignore the red flags
For all the bullish momentum, SUI’s climb is far from guaranteed.
- The coming token flood: First and foremost, there’s a torrent of SUI tokens waiting to hit the market. Only about 34.5% of the total supply is unlocked, and vesting schedules for early backers stretch all the way to 2030. Each unlock is a potential wave of selling pressure.
- The scar of a hack: DeFi is a dangerous place. In May 2025, Sui’s biggest exchange, Cetus, was hit by a massive exploit that cost users between $223 million and $260 million. The flaw was in a third-party tool, not Sui itself, but the incident rattled confidence. The decision by validators to freeze the hacker’s wallets, while effective, also sparked uncomfortable questions about how decentralized Sui truly is.
- Centralization worries: With only around 114 to 150 validators securing the network, Sui achieves its speed by sacrificing some decentralization. Critics point to this small validator set as a potential risk, a concern that the coordinated wallet freeze only amplified.
- A brutal battlefield: The Layer-1 space is a knife fight. Sui is up against titans like Solana and a constant stream of new, fast, and hungry competitors all fighting for the same developers, users, and cash.
A possible but treacherous climb
Despite the risks, the derivatives market remains optimistic. Open Interest in SUI shot to a record $2.34 billion at press time, a clear sign that traders are placing heavy bets on its price going higher.
A positive Funding Rate further supported the bullish notion.
So, can SUI actually reach $10? The on-chain growth is real. The technology is impressive. The institutional interest isn’t just noise.
But the path to double digits is a minefield of token unlocks, security scares, and legitimate centralization debates.
Hitting that ambitious price target isn’t just about building cool tech; it’s about navigating the messy, human elements of trust, risk, and market pressure that will ultimately decide SUI’s fate.