In a nutshell, here’s the juicy scoop of today’s newsletter:

• Hottest airdrops on Sui

• Sui performance and ecosystem rundown

• Pandora and the innovative ERC404 token standard.

1️⃣ 4 Airdrops On Sui You Should Be Hunting 

Sui is gaining traction as a top DeFi platform with an ecosystem of many fast-growing protocols. Several protocols are currently running airdrop campaigns. Here are some airdrops you can start farming on the Sui ecosystem:

Navi Protocol

Navi Protocol is a Native One-Stop Liquidity Protocol on Sui that allows users to participate as liquidity providers or borrowers within the Sui Ecosystem. NAVI has revealed its tokenomics, with 48.5% allocated to the ecosystem.

Airdrop steps

• Visit Navi Protocol and connect your Sui wallet

• Supply $SUI to any lending pool

• Borrow USDT or other assets

• Repeat multiple times to obtain more points.

• Make sure to claim Supply & Borrow rewards daily.

• Check your points and the Leaderboard Position on app.naviprotocol.io/leaderboard 

• Get your referral link & invite friends for more points.

Join the Navi Protocol Airdrop

Scallop

Scallop is building a Next Generation peer-to-peer Money Market for the Sui ecosystem. It is also the first DeFi protocol to receive an official grant from the Sui Foundation.

Airdrop steps:

• Visit the Scallop website.

• Connect your Sui wallet.

• Lend Sui or other assets to a lending pool

• Borrow some tokens by providing collateral

• Repeat and aim to accumulate more volume

Join the Scallop airdrop.

Aftermath Finance

Aftermath is building an all-in-one platform for trading, investing & earning yield.

Airdrop steps:

• Visit aftermath.finance

• Stake SUI & receive afSUI 

• Deposit afSUI into the afSUI/SUI pool

• Stake the afSUI/SUI LP coin into staking farms 

Join the Aftermath Finance airdrop

Bluefin

Bluefin is a decentralized perpetual exchange backed by Polychain Capital

Airdrop steps:

• Visit bluefin.io

• Deposit $USDC

• Open a few trades on the platform

Join the Bluefin airdrop

2️⃣ State Of Sui In 2024

In the quest to bring the technology to the masses, the battle to develop the perfect blockchain has been raging for a while now. 2023 saw many promising Layer 1s enter the blockchain scene. Sui was one of the most hyped launches of the year, partly due to its founders’ affiliation with Meta’s failed blockchain project Diem.

Fast forward to 2024, Sui seems primed for success. Sui’s TVL has more than doubled since the beginning of the year after rising more than 1500% during the final five months of 2023. This piece will delve deep into Sui and its fast-growing ecosystem.

What Sets Sui Apart?

Sui is a permissionless proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain developed for various applications. Named after the Japanese term for water, Sui aims to infuse the Web3 ecosystem with the fluidity and flexibility associated with its namesake. 

Sui’s value proposition lies in:

• Sui is built on the Move programming language. The move is an object-oriented language that allows parallel execution of transactions, a feature that enhances Sui’s speed and scalability. 

• Sui employs two Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based protocols for its consensus mechanism — Narwhal and Bullshark. Both protocols utilize Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS). The protocols serve distinct, complementary functions to achieve seamless consensus and make Sui more efficient.

• Sui diverges from the traditional method of batching transactions into blocks. Instead, it individually validates transactions before broadcasting the transaction certificate to the network.

• Sui offers high throughput, low latency, and scalable infrastructure for supporting complex and high-volume transactions. Sui can achieve a theoretical capacity of 297,000 transactions per second(TPS), a huge upgrade from Solana’s 4000 TPS.

Sui’s technical fundamentals position it as a competitive player in the layer 1 landscape, rivaling the likes of Solana and Aptos. 

Sui Tokenomics And Team

The SUI token has a maximum supply of 10 billion. SUI is used for validator staking, gas fees, and governance. At launch, only 5% of tokens were released. Sui’s token distribution is as follows:

• Early contributors – 20%

• Investors – 14%

• Mysten Labs team – 10%

• Community Access Program – 6%

• Community Reserve – 50%

Sui has a current circulating supply of 1.1 billion tokens, representing only about 12% of the total supply.  $SUI’s vesting schedule runs to 2030 with linear monthly unlocks for 13 months after launch, and the rest will be released gradually for the next 6 years.

Sui is developed by Mysten Labs, a team consisting of Meta’s former executives and lead developers. Sui's founding team comprises Evan Cheng, Adeniyi Abiodun, Sam Blackshear, George Danezis, and Kostas Chalkias. The founding team was pivotal in developing the Move programming language and Meta’s abandoned Diem blockchain project.

Sui Performance By The Numbers

Sui’s mainnet release took place in May 2023, with an initial listing price of $1.40. The launch happened during a raging bear market characterized by investor skepticism and diminished capital inflows in the crypto market. The token plummeted to an all-time low of $0.36. 

However, the token has been rallying since late 2023 and is up over 80% in the last 30 days alone.

Sui’s TVL has grown by a remarkable 1000% in the past four months, averaging $505 million. This surge has propelled Sui into the top 10 platforms by TVL. 

The DeFi volume has surged by over 1200% since October. Sui registered a  DeFi volume of $745 million in the past week, a 63% increase from the previous week. This massive volume positions Sui among the week's top 5 most active ecosystems.

Amidst the significant increase in TVL and volume, there has been a surge in on-chain activity. Sui managed to surpass Polygon in the number of daily active user addresses only two months after its launch after gaining 2 million active wallet addresses. Currently, Sui has amassed over 8 million total active wallets.

What’s Behind Sui’s Growth?

Sui’s rapid growth across different metrics can be attributed to:

Ecosystem Projects

Sui hosts a budding ecosystem of projects. From liquid staking to DEXs and DePIN projects, Sui’s high throughput and composable tech stack outperforms many Layer 1 blockchains and is rapidly attracting developer interest. 

Currently hosting four protocols with TVL of over $50 million and nine protocols exceeding $10 million, Sui's ecosystem is showing signs of significant user interest. Sui’s $500,000 ecosystem grant, launched in November 2023, has boosted the ongoing development of DeFi protocols on Sui. 

Partnerships

In recent weeks, Sui has unveiled numerous partnerships and expansions with top-tier builders:

• Sui’s latest partnership with Ondo Finance, a prominent player in the real-world asset DeFi sector, will bring Ondo Finance’s treasury-backed tokens, tokenized securities, and real-world assets into the Sui ecosystem and introduce Sui’s first native stablecoin. 

• Sui has partnered with Banxa, a leading payments infrastructure provider, to integrate the SUI token into its platform. 

• Sui has also partnered with Oracle Stork to deliver accelerated pricing data to builders within its ecosystem. This ensures real-time pricing information for DEXs and lending protocols on Sui, enhancing speed and access to unique index and mark prices for DeFi applications.

Aside from DeFi, Sui has garnered the interest of web3 game developers. Sui has partnered with Space and Time, a data platform backed by tech giant Microsoft, to equip developers with cutting-edge zero-knowledge-proof (ZK) tools. These tools are expected to accelerate the burgeoning Web3 gaming niche on Sui.

Furthermore, Sui has unveiled KeepSakeMarket, an NFT marketplace tailored for Web3 gaming. This marketplace introduces innovative possibilities in the gaming industry, providing a platform for enriched experiences and interactions.

Sui Ecosystem Rundown

DeFi protocols are currently leading the Sui ecosystem regarding user activity, revenue generation, and growth. Some ecosystem projects of note are:

Scallop 

Scallop is a leading next-gen peer-to-peer currency market in the Sui ecosystem. Scallop is the first DeFi protocol to secure funding from the Sui Foundation. Prioritizing institutional-grade quality, advanced composability, and strong security, Scallop focuses on creating a dynamic market for high-yield lending, low-cost borrowing, AMM, and digital asset self-management. This comprehensive platform includes an SDK tailored for professional traders.

Scallop leads the Sui ecosystem with a TVL of $117 million, 

Navi Protocol

Navi Protocol is a native one-stop liquidity protocol on Sui, functioning as a decentralized money market enabling users to borrow assets directly without requiring intermediaries. Navi connects borrowers and lenders through an overcollateralized loan protocol. 

Navi’s current TVL is $114m.

Cetus Protocol

Cetus Protocol, operating on the Sui and Aptos chains, is a DEX providing users with opportunities for decentralized asset exchange and liquidity mining. Cetus utilizes the Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker(CLMM) to create a system that enhances the utility of liquidity pools. 

Cetus holds a TVL of $72 million.

Aftermath Finance

Aftermath Finance is another DEX on Sui powered by an optimized AMM that gives users a “CEX-like experience.” Aftermath Finance features a bridge powered by Wormhole and Cetus.

The current TVL stands at $14 million.

KriyaDEX

KriyaDEX is a non-custodial order-book-based DEX built for trading under-collateralized derivatives like perpetual, dated futures and options. KriyaDEX enables institutional-grade infrastructure for on-chain trading.

Current TVL is $43 million.

Sui in 2024 and Beyond Bullish Or Bearish?

Sui is emerging as a next-generation DeFi powerhouse. With its unique technical specifications, Sui will likely keep attracting developers' interest in building high-throughput, scalable applications. If Sui can reciprocate the success of Arbitrum’s DeFi landscape, the blockchain is poised to gain a significant market share.

Sui’s experienced and well-connected team will play a huge role in attracting more partnerships. This will further bolster network activity, raising SUI's demand and value. Sui’s first ecosystem grant was already rolled out, but more grants are set to be unveiled. Sui is set to embark on a huge partnership and marketing campaign in 2024, further helping it to onboard more builders and users. 

One major concern surrounding Sui’s future performance is the huge fraction of vested tokens. Token unlocks, and subsequent dumping into the market could cause price dilution, generating skepticism among token holders. With only 12% of the supply currently in circulation, token inflation will likely take a significant toll on SUI’s price. While the vesting period is spaced out over the next six years, SUI price action will need to outperform token inflation to remain stable regardless of the crypto market conditions.

Ultimately, Sui’s success will depend on user adoption rates, community backing, market conditions, and broader cryptocurrency trends.

3️⃣ Pandora and ERC404

Pandora's recent launch has gotten a lot of traction. It is based on the innovative ERC404 token standard, which merges characteristics from both ERC20 and ERC721 standards. This allows the tokens to have both fungibility and collectability. 

When a user purchases a PANDORA token, they receive the token itself and a corresponding NFT, dubbed a "replicant," which is generated randomly and could possess varying degrees of rarity. The sale or transfer of a PANDORA token results in the burning of the associated NFT, adding a layer of dynamic interaction between the token and the NFT.

4️⃣ M6 Labs Research

• Bitcoin Weekly: Bukele Reelected, Argentina Drops Crypto Tax, BlackRock Overtakes GBTC

• M6 Labs L1, L2 & DeFi Weekly: Jupiter & WEN Drop, Friendtech Fades, Market Sentiment Plummets

• M6 Labs NFT Weekly: No Stopping Azukis, OpenSea for Sale, Yuga Labs Moving

Speaking of research, have you checked out the Token Unlocks annual report for 2023 yet? M6 Labs was proud to be involved in this report. Make sure to check it out!