SUI Network (SUI) Plunge

Sui's co-founder Evan Cheng makes a radical prediction: within four years, digital payment volume on the Sui blockchain will rival that of traditional card networks and banking systems. This claim is ambitious for an L1 blockchain whose token trades just above $0.60. Cheng, CEO of Sui's developer Mysten Labs, frames Sui's roadmap as an infrastructure play, not a trading platform. He believes current Web3 infrastructure is stuck in an "era of dial-up access." Founded by ex-Meta engineers behind the Diem blockchain and Move programming language, Mysten Labs envisions Sui as a "communication system" for stablecoin settlements, remittances, and future AI-to-AI commerce. Co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun adds that the internet will soon enable free, private, large-scale payments as privacy features roll out on Sui. The vision is backed by data. Since Mysten Labs eliminated gas fees for stablecoin transfers at the protocol level in June, Sui has processed over $65 billion in stablecoin transfers. Having handled $2.27 trillion in stablecoin volume since early 2024, this move removes a major barrier by not requiring merchants to hold a second asset for fees. Sui is also encroaching on Bitcoin's territory with the Hashi testnet, allowing Bitcoin to be used as DeFi collateral on Sui without converting to a synthetic token. Furthermore, a default privacy feature for stablecoin transactions is in development, cited by institutions as crucial for moving real payment volume to public blockchains. Skeptics point to Sui's token facing sell pressure from unlock schedules and its $2.8B market cap being a fraction of the payment volumes Cheng cites. Whether Sui becomes the "rail for every internet payment" or captures a smaller but significant share of stablecoin and cross-border settlements remains to be seen. The coming year's gas-free transaction data and Hashi bridge adoption will test if Cheng's four-year forecast is realistic or founder-driven optimism.

The L1 blockchain Sui announced the integration of two post-quantum digital signature schemes as part of its long-term plan to enhance network security. The update aims to protect user accounts and smart contracts from potential threats posed by the advancement of quantum computing. The network will implement the ML-DSA-65 algorithm for regular user accounts and the SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s algorithm for smart contract-managed storage. Both algorithms are based on post-quantum cryptography standards approved by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). According to the Sui team, using two distinct signature schemes mitigates risk, as each relies on a different mathematical approach. The core implementation is already complete and tested. Quantum-resistant storage is scheduled for deployment on the mainnet by the end of this year, while support for ML-DSA-65 accounts is targeted for the testnet by the end of 2026. The full launch of post-quantum account authentication on the mainnet is planned for the first quarter of 2027. The update will be accompanied by necessary upgrades to wallets, SDKs, and CLI tools, with independent security audits ongoing.

The Sui blockchain network has announced Tessera, a new infrastructure designed to provide transaction amount privacy for B2B payments and settlements. According to Sui, a major barrier to institutional blockchain adoption is the transparent display of transaction information on traditional blockchains, which deters companies from conducting transactions where competitors could see their prices and volumes. To address this, Tessera utilizes Seal MPC and confidential data transfer technologies to hide transaction amounts from other market participants. However, the system is not designed to be completely unregulated. Parties involved in a transaction, regulators, and other authorized entities will be able to access transaction information when necessary, aiming to balance commercial confidentiality with regulatory oversight. This initiative highlights growing efforts to apply blockchain technology beyond cryptocurrency transfers to corporate finance and B2B payment infrastructure, with transaction privacy being a critical component for enterprise adoption.

Sui developer Mysten Labs has introduced a prototype network called Tessera, designed for confidential inter-company settlements on a blockchain. The solution aims to conceal transaction amounts from public view while still allowing counterparties and regulators to access necessary information. The public nature of transaction values is seen as a major barrier to corporate blockchain adoption. Tessera addresses this by utilizing multi-party computation (Seal MPC) and confidential transfers. In the prototype, a vetted group of companies can settle invoices using a confidential stablecoin, with network access governed by KYC procedures. The blockchain records the sender, receiver, and timestamp of a payment, but the amount is hidden from external observers. Counterparties can see the full amount of their transactions, and regulators can be granted tailored access. For instance, a prudential regulator could see all operations, a tax authority only a specific participant's activity, and an arbiter only the disputed transaction for the duration of a case. Network operators maintain consortium management functions, such as onboarding participants or freezing accounts. Tessera supports both one-time transfers and recurring payment channels. The prototype's code is open source.

Kostas "Kryptos" Chalkias, co-founder and chief cryptographer at Mysten Labs behind the Sui blockchain, announced he is working on developing affordable, quantum-resistant hardware wallets for around $10. He revealed that over the past year, he rented a specialized facility to mass-produce these quantum-safe wallets. The goal is a keycard costing less than $10 and achieving quantum signature generation via NFC in 1-2 seconds, with Chalkias even considering sponsoring cards for users who cannot afford them. He directly referenced the recent Coldcard hardware wallet vulnerability as motivation for his project, emphasizing that such a failure would never happen with his solution. The Coldcard incident, involving a firmware flaw that compromised private key generation, led to estimated losses of around 2,055 BTC (~$130 million). While not a quantum attack, the Coldcard case highlighted the fundamental risk of cryptographic failures in hardware wallets, which Chalkias aims to preempt. His wallet project builds on Sui's broader quantum security roadmap. The Sui protocol plans to integrate two NIST-approved post-quantum signature schemes, one for everyday accounts and another for high-value Move-based vaults. Existing Sui accounts will be able to upgrade to a quantum-safe key derived from their current recovery phrase without requiring a full wallet migration, a flexibility Chalkias cites as a structural advantage over chains needing hard forks for similar upgrades.