Sui and Sei Lead Altcoin Market Higher

Sui and Sei have rallied over 100% off their August lows, sparking renewed interest in their DeFi ecosystems.

By: Squiffs • September 25, 2024

The Sui and Sei ecosystems are taking off as their native tokens lead the altcoin market.

SEI is up 70% in the last week, surging to $0.46 from $0.27, and SUI has rallied 42% in the same period. Assisted by the increase in token prices, Sui’s total value locked (TVL) is up 29% to $949 million, and Sei’s is up 46% to $201 million over the last seven days, according to DeFiLlama.

Both Layer 1s’ DeFi ecosystems are being boosted by the price appreciation, particularly the liquid staking protocols. Haedal Protocol, which offers liquid staking on Sui, is at an all-time high TVL of $75 million after surging 135% over the last 30 days, while the TVL on SiloStake, the leading liquid staking protocol on Sei, is also at an all-time high, rallying 230% to $66 million in the same amount of time.

Memecoins on Sui and Sei are benefiting as well, with $BLUB on Sui up 50% in the last 24 hours to a $60 million fully diluted valuation (FDV) and $SEIYAN, the leading meme on Sei, briefly reaching a $14 million FDV with a 40% move up.

Growth Catalysts

While there have not been any clear catalysts that sparked this alternative L1 move, Sui, in particular, may have been assisted by a few announcements that signal a maturing ecosystem.

Circle, the issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, announced on Sept. 17 that USDC is coming to Sui through the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol. The onboarding of USDC is likely to bring significant amounts of liquidity into the Sui ecosystem and potentially catalyze further DeFi growth.

Upon the announcement, Sui Network posted on social media, “This partnership will also help further Sui’s leading position within DeFi – currently #10 in the industry based on Total Value Locked – by making DeFi even more safe thanks to easy access to the most secure and robust on-chain digital dollars to the Sui community.”

Grayscale, one of the largest digital asset managers in the world, launched its SUI Trust on Aug 7. Less than two months after its launch, the SUI single-asset trust has amassed $2.3 million in assets under management (AUM).

Meanwhile, Sei is experiencing a huge jump in daily active users (DAU). The network eclipsed an all-time high of 103,000 DAU this week after having as few as 19,000 during the first week of September, according to Artemis Terminal.