Sui (SUI)
System: Sui — Blockspace Production
Sui is a layer-1 smart contract blockchain that provides transaction execution, finality, and on-chain state storage, allowing application teams and end users to purchase blockspace to run smart contracts and transfer digital assets. Founded in 2021, it uses the Move programming language and a delegated proof-of-stake consensus design. The system boundary includes the Sui mainnet protocol, covering validators, full nodes, system Move modules, staking, and gas and storage fund mechanics, as well as the protocol upgrade mechanism, while excluding application-layer dApps, bridges, wallets, and centralised exchanges.
Market Data
| Price | $0.926070 |
| Market Cap | $3.71B |
| Fully Diluted Valuation | $9.26B |
| 30d Change | 7.74% |
| 365d Change | -73.14% |
Token Functionalities
Service Provision
- State Transition Execution and Transaction Sequencing
Right to execute deterministic state transitions and decide transaction inclusion/ordering as a validator, which requires staking SUI; validators are rewarded via protocol-defined fees/rewards, and SUI holders can delegate stake to validators (supporting validator selection/weighting).
Payments
- Native Resource Fee (Strong)
Right to consume the system’s valuable resources (execution and storage) where payment is enforced in the native token as gas fees.
Collateral
- Financial Collateral (Weak) [Exogenous]
SUI is used as collateral on the Suilend and NAVI Lending lending markets.
Governance
- Actor Set Permissioning (Unilateral)
Right to appoint/remove/re-weight validators by staking/delegating or withdrawing staked SUI, which deterministically changes validator voting power used in consensus/governance (token holding is sufficient; no extra privileged role required).
- Economic Design/Parameter Control (Partial)
Right to influence/approve changes to protocol-level economic parameters (e.g., storage fee) through the network’s governance process, executed via validator decision-making at epoch boundaries.
- Technical Parameter Control (Partial)
Right to participate in protocol upgrade decisions (protocol version/framework upgrades) through validator voting and epoch activation.
System Attributes
Operating Model
Sui operates as an on-chain protocol in which validator nodes participate in delegated proof-of-stake consensus to execute and validate transaction blocks, while full nodes validate state and serve history and query requests. Validator responsibilities also include protocol-level tasks such as staking operations, gas price reference updates, and execution of system transactions.
Value Creation
Value in Sui is created on-chain through the sale of metered execution and storage resources to users and application teams. Transactions directly represent on-chain operations, including asset transfers, object creation, and smart contract interactions, with gas paid in SUI to consume protocol resources.
Value Capture
Value in Sui is captured and routed on-chain via gas fees paid in SUI for computation and storage. Computation fees and stake reward subsidies are pooled each epoch and distributed to validators and their stakers, while storage fees accrue to a dedicated storage fund whose rewards are routed to validators to offset storage costs, with partial rebates issued when stored data is deleted.
Governance
Binding protocol upgrades are participant-based, requiring validator votes meeting a supermajority threshold to adopt new protocol versions. By contrast, the validator actor set is token-mediated in its weighting, as any SUI holder can stake or delegate to deterministically re-weight validator voting power, with validator admission mechanics reflecting a mixed surface where stake-based weighting is token-driven but operational entry actions remain participant-gated.