The Sui Network’s native token, SUI, experienced a remarkable surge of nearly 54% over a 30-day period concluding in early October 2026, outperforming both Bitcoin and Ether amidst a general market rebound.
This surge was not without context, coinciding with a variety of ecosystem developments, such as Bitwise’s introduction of a new institutional yield product and impressive transaction throughput figures shared during Sui’s developer conference.
In the last month, the total value locked (TVL) in Sui’s decentralized finance (DeFi) applications rose by 15.5%, indicating a healthy growth in assets.
This recent increase in TVL occurred despite a 5.2% dip observed in the last week, paralleling a cooling off in SUI’s price, which is significant since a portion of the locked value is tied to the token itself.
Sui’s DeFi TVL reached an impressive peak of around $1.21 billion on September 22, 2026, propelled by the contributions of NAVI Protocol, a lending platform operating within the network.
During this timeframe, SUI’s trading range fluctuated between $1.15 and $1.27, and by early October, it was trading at approximately $1.12 to $1.15.
At these levels, SUI’s market capitalization was approximately $4.6 billion, with around 4.1 billion tokens circulating out of a total cap of 10 billion, indicating that about 41% of the planned supply is currently in circulation.
A series of significant ecosystem announcements were made in quick succession.
First, Bitwise debuted the PPLUS Premium+ RWA Vault on Sui, which focuses on real-world assets—traditional financial instruments like credit and treasury bonds—transitioned onto blockchain technology. This vault aims for a net yield exceeding 10% and primarily targets institutional funds.
Next, Sui achieved a groundbreaking transaction rate of 40.6 million transactions per second during a stress test conducted at its Basecamp conference held on October 7-8, though it’s worth noting this test was performed off-chain.
This clarification is important; off-chain stress testing demonstrates the capabilities of the underlying technology under controlled circumstances, which differs from actual sustained usage on the live network.
Additionally, Samsung announced that its Galaxy devices will now support USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the dollar, integrating Sui’s functionalities into the experience. This opens up Sui’s features to potentially millions of Galaxy users.
SUI reached an all-time high of approximately $5.35 in January 2025. As of early October 2026, the token remains about 78% below this peak.
In simpler terms, an investor who purchased at the peak would now need to see the token increase roughly fourfold to recover their initial investment.
With just 41% of the maximum token supply currently circulating, the remaining tokens represent potential future supply that may consecutively enter the market. Investors analyzing SUI’s market capitalization should consider the fully diluted supply in their assessments.
The recent 5.2% drop in weekly TVL underscores the close correlation between Sui’s DeFi metrics and its token price; declines in price directly impact the ecosystem’s main statistics.