Betting on the Money Printer

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1. 🪙 Circle Reportedly in Acquisition Talks with Coinbase. Fortune reports that the stablecoin issuer is fielding offers from both Coinbase and Ripple ahead of its planned IPO.
2. 🟠 Strategy and MetaPlanet Add to Their BTC Reserves. The firms announced Monday that recent buys had added 7,390 bitcoin and 1,004 bitcoin to their respective reserves.
3. 🗳️ Bitcoin Leaders Discuss BIP-177 Renaming Proposal. Jack Dorsey was among the supporters of a new proposal aimed at keeping the focus on 'bitcoin' as the standard denomination versus 'sats.'

	Crypto $3.32T	↗ 0.7%	↗ 0.3%
	BTC $105,450	↗ 1.1%	↗ 2.8%
	ETH $2,519	↗ 4.6%	↗ 1.5%

Arthur Hayes returns to Bankless for a wide-ranging macro and crypto conversation.

We cover why ETH ripped, why the Trump administration might walk away from US treasuries as the global reserve asset, and why capital controls—not tariffs—could redefine the global economic order.

Arthur lays out his full thesis on how a massive shift in global liquidity is unfolding, what it means for crypto, and why he’s betting big on Bitcoin, gold, and “buying everything” as the money printers rev up again.

Listen to the full episode👇

In a saturated field of L1s, differentiation often comes down to more than just throughput or transaction costs — it's about vision, architecture, and execution.

Sui has emerged as a contender not merely by offering another high-speed chain, but by building an integrated, modular ecosystem aimed at reimagining how apps are built and deployed in a decentralized world.

From DeFi to gaming, from institutional infrastructure to social primitives, Sui is quietly assembling the scaffolding for a fully onchain internet — one where the chain is just the beginning.

Let's dig into the momentum we're already seeing and the next wave of catalysts we're tracking.👇

🔥 Bullish Progress

Those catalysts we were eyeing a few months back in our last update? They've arrived. From BTCfi momentum to new mechanisms that optimize chain performance, what was once "coming soon" is now very much live and operational. Let's jump in and see how things have evolved.

▪️ BTCfi Way Up

Sui has leaned heavily into positioning itself as the go-to place for Bitcoin DeFi, leveraging its MoveVM-based security to attract $BTC capital wary of the smart contract risk which comes with onchain yield.

While still early, Sui's efforts have proven successful, with $BTC derivatives already accounting for 10% of its TVL. Sui has attracted projects like Satlayer, Lombard, Babylon, and Stacks (soon), with more in the pipeline like Native, Nativerse, and Rhei Finance.

▪️ Mysticeti v2 Live

The Mysticeti v2 upgrade of Sui’s parallelized consensus mechanism is now live, speeding up transaction confirmations for DeFi, gaming, and other high-throughput use cases. Common transactions like coin transfers or NFT mints now skip full consensus, taking a faster path that improves execution times and reduces network load.

▪️ Walrus Went Live

In late March, Walrus, Sui's blockchain-agnostic storage solution, hit mainnet, airdropping 4% of its total supply.

Adoption has been swift, with 17.5% (725 TB) of capacity already occupied as upcoming L1s like Plume and Linera partner with it, while NFT projects like Claynosaurz and Pudgy Penguins use it to store content. Token price has jumped ~66% from its launch day low, with juicy liquidity incentives for using $WAL on platforms like Suilend, STEAMM, Scallop, and Cetus.

▪️ Ika Approaching Mainnet

Ika looks to be on the brink of mainnet following a $21M raise.

Ika lets you securely control and use assets like $BTC or $ETH across blockchains — like a secure remote control that keeps assets safe on their native chains while enabling their use elsewhere. To do this, it uses a 2PC-MPC model distributed across hundreds of nodes, making tampering nearly impossible. This greatly expands the DeFi space, allowing new cross-chain lending, staking, and trading, with projects like Full Sail, AeonHQ, and Ekko building on Ika.

⚙️ Protocol Upgrades

One of the standout features of Sui is how it provides modular, out-of-the-box tooling, developing not just a chain but full-stack infrastructure with built-in solutions for liquidity, storage, messaging, and more.

That full-stack approach has seen major updates lately, with new releases across liquidity, networking, and privacy:

▪️ DeepBook 3.1

Sui's native orderbook engine saw a new upgrade introducing several features. 

Remember, DeepBook is Sui's shared liquidity layer, giving every asset its own pool for DeFi apps to access, meaning they don't need to bootstrap liquidity themselves. 

With v3.1, the protocol now offers permissionless pools, lower fees, flexible fee payments, and smarter fund management.

▪️ SCION

Next comes progress on SCION, a next-generation networking protocol giving validators reliable, secure ways to communicate, even during DDoS attacks or internet outages that could knock other blockchains offline.

By routing around failures and enforcing trusted paths, SCION will help keep Sui online when it matters most, representing an essential part of Sui's vision to build out entirely new, full-stack infrastructure for not just crypto, but the entire internet.

▪️ SEAL

More on the security front, SEAL is a still-in-testnet encryption and access-control system letting developers set custom data-sharing rules — like making files viewable only to NFT holders or for set periods.

Paired with Walrus, SEAL enables applications to manage private data directly, keeping sensitive content secure while still accessible through programmable permissions.

▪️ Nautilus

Also in testing is Nautilus, a system using Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) to offload complex operations to secure external machines, then verify results onchain. 

TEEs have become increasingly popular, with Unchain using them to securely order transactions, reducing harmful MEV manipulation. Nautilus will bring this tooling to Sui, enabling additional use cases as well, like private AI systems, data feeds, or complex game logic without overloading the blockchain.

▪️ Tech Updates

Beyond these protocol additions, Sui's base layer has seen large improvements from:

• Move VM 2.0 — 30-65% faster transaction execution, especially under high load.
• Remora — Lets validators scale across multiple machines, handling massive growth without slowdowns.
• Pilotfish — Further enhances parallel transaction execution, boosting throughput by 10x via changes in validator economics.
• Move Registry (MVR) — Lets developers use simple names for smart contracts instead of long strings, making code more transparent and interoperable.
• SIP-45 — Helps make MEV more fair by boosting transactions that pay higher fees, helping them go through faster and avoid getting front-run.

🌌 Ecosystem Updates

Sui's growth over the past few months shows in its ecosystem, with daily active users tripling over the past three months as new wallets make up most active wallets during this period.

This surge in new users shows more eyes turning to the ecosystem. Beyond a blossoming DeFi scene, this growth can likely be attributed to institutional announcements and developments in entertainment and gaming.

▪️ DeFi

Sui DeFi continues to grow, with total value locked (plus stables) at a new all-time high. DEX volume remains robust, as strong as or even exceeding levels seen when $SUI was closer to its all-time highs.

DEX aggregator Cetus leads with ~$5.5B monthly volume and ~$51.5B cumulatively. Interestingly, perps platform Bluefin currently holds second place with ~$1.7B monthly volume after integrating general swaps.

Growth is also supported by Kraken’s $USDC on Sui transfers, new bridges from Allbridge, Axelar, and LI.FI through Jumper, and Phantom’s full Sui integration.

Looking at the protocol landscape, the top three players are:

1. Suilend ($675M TVL) — DeFi suite with lending (Suilend), DEX (STEAMM), and liquid staking (SpringSui). Deployed a token launcher, permissionless LST creation, and fee-less borrows. Leads Sui’s lending market with ~48% dominance.
2. NAVI ($534M TVL) — Lending platform with the highest open borrows and ~200% quarterly growth on its Astros aggregator in Q1 vs Q4.
3. Cetus ($235M TVL) — DEX powering most of Sui’s trading volume. Launched Auto Vault LPs and plans to add more third-party vaults.

▪️ Institutional

Institutional adoption of Sui picked up quickly, with new partnerships emerging across finance.

Most notably, the Athens Stock Exchange is working with Sui on a proof-of-concept for an onchain order book using zero-knowledge confidential bidding — testing how blockchain transparency could improve traditional markets.

Access to Sui as an investment is also expanding as Canary Capital and 21Shares filed for $SUI ETFs. 21Shares is also partnering with Sui on new products and research as it enters the U.S. market, building on previous interest from Grayscale, VanEck, and Franklin Templeton.

Meanwhile, Trump-backed World Liberty Financial has added Sui assets to its reserve (Eric Trump holds $SUI), and Fireblocks is preparing to launch custody support for Sui.

▪️ Entertainment and Gaming

Entertainment and gaming use cases have been blooming on Sui with impressive traction across multiple verticals.

SocialFi platforms particularly stand out, with RECRD — a platform for monetizing short-form video content — reigning as Sui's top application over the past 3 months, boasting ~1M daily active users and over 100M transactions. In second place, with 128K daily active addresses, is FanTV, an AI-powered platform for creators to produce music, videos, and podcasts while users earn tokens for engagement.

Another popular app is DoubleUp, a  "GambleFi" and prediction platform powered by its Unihouse protocol, which allows users to stake tokens and earn yields tied to platform betting volume. Having recently secured a $4M funding round, DoubleUp announced plans to expand further into sports betting, keeping the momentum going from their $UP TGE last week.

The biggest headline for mainstream adoption comes from Parasol, a platform acquired by Mysten Labs that helps create, manage, and trade digital assets within traditional gaming experiences. It recently appeared in Pokémon HOME's privacy policy, sparking speculation that its new "medals" could be blockchain-based. If true, it would mark a major milestone for crypto integration with one of gaming's largest franchises.

Parasol’s acquisition fits into Sui’s broader gaming push, alongside a wave of Q1 launches and the upcoming SuiPlay0X1 — a “crypto Switch” handheld with a built-in wallet and game storefront. Though unreleased, the device reportedly has 70 titles in development across 65+ studios, from indie to AAA.

In traditional entertainment, horror director Eli Roth is working with Walrus Protocol to tokenize film IP, letting fans own stakes in upcoming projects. Meanwhile, MoviePass launched MogulPass in closed beta on Sui, a fantasy sports-like app where users draft actors and directors, earning points based on real-world performance.

🏁 More Ahead

Overall, Sui's momentum across BTCfi, DeFi, institutional adoption, gaming, and social applications showcases its ambitions to be more than just another L1, but rather a full decentralized stack.

Sui's founder, Adeniyi Abiodun, detailed how Sui seeks to be a holistic replacement to today's walled gardens. Apps on Sui don't just get a chain — they get built-in liquidity via DeepBook, verifiable storage through Walrus, secure access with SEAL, high-performance networking via SCION, and offchain computation with Nautilus. All modular, open, and composable.

Sui's recent growth shows this approach is working. BTCfi protocols are choosing it for security, social apps are scaling to millions of users, and institutions are exploring onchain markets — all drawn by more than just speed. That said, much of the infrastructure is still being tested, and competition is intense. But as more pieces go live and prove themselves in production, we'll see whether Sui's vision of a composable, open internet holds up.

Unlock the power of Unichain – a fast, decentralized Ethereum Layer 2 network built to be the home for DeFi and cross-chain liquidity. To bridge tokens to Unichain and start swapping today, get started with Uniswap Labs’ web app or mobile wallet.