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Sui Token Surges as Trading Begins, Giving the Network a Fully Diluted Value of $13B

SUI tokens were offered to users of multiple crypto exchanges in a presale last week.

Updated May 3, 2023, 5:43 p.m. Published May 3, 2023, 1:01 p.m.

Sui Network tokens jumped to $2 apiece minutes after trading began at 12:00 UTC (8 a.m. ET) on Wednesday, data shows. The market capitalization of the tokens reached nearly $690 million at writing time, with their fully diluted valuation (FDV) at a staggering $13 billion.

Validators have staked over 4.2 billion SUI tokens as of Wednesday, data from blockchain explorers show. These are entities in a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network that are responsible for validating new transactions and maintaining the security of that network.

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The market capitalization of SUI's main competitor, Aptos' APT, is around $2 billion, with fully diluted valuation reaching nearly $10 billion, according to CoinGecko.

Such a spike in SUI token's price had some observers on Crypto Twitter criticizing the sky-high valuations.

"People ask why VCs keep funding new pre-mainnet Layer 1 protocols at billion dollar valuation but as long as hyped L1 can keep getting away by launching at $10b+ FDV even amidst a challenging market this trend will continue," tweeted DeFiance Capital founder Arthur Cheong.

"Almost all founders of hyped L1 in past cycles are billionaires now despite little real traction achieved in their blockchain," Cheong added.

Sui Trading Markets

Shaurya Malwa

Shaurya is the Co-Leader of the CoinDesk tokens and data team in Asia with a focus on crypto derivatives, DeFi, market microstructure, and protocol analysis. Shaurya holds over $1,000 in BTC, ETH, SOL, AVAX, SUSHI, CRV, NEAR, YFI, YFII, SHIB, DOGE, USDT, USDC, BNB, MANA, MLN, LINK, XMR, ALGO, VET, CAKE, AAVE, COMP, ROOK, TRX, SNX, RUNE, FTM, ZIL, KSM, ENJ, CKB, JOE, GHST, PERP, BTRFLY, OHM, BANANA, ROME, BURGER, SPIRIT, and ORCA. He provides over $1,000 to liquidity pools on Compound, Curve, SushiSwap, PancakeSwap, BurgerSwap, Orca, AnySwap, SpiritSwap, Rook Protocol, Yearn Finance, Synthetix, Harvest, Redacted Cartel, OlympusDAO, Rome, Trader Joe, and SUN.