Sui network outage triggers 7% price drop despite broader bull market

Update: Sui said the blockchain network “is back up and processing transactions again.” The team attributed the outage to “a bug in transaction scheduling logic that caused validators to crash.”

Layer-1 blockchain, Sui, has confirmed that its network is currently down and unable to process transactions.

In a Nov. 21 statement, the team behind Sui identified the issue and announced that a fix would be deployed shortly. The project stated:

“The Sui network is currently experiencing an outage and not processing transactions. We’ve identified the issue and a fix will be deployed shortly.”

Meanwhile, Sui’s status page reveals that block production stopped over an hour ago due to a “major outage” that disrupted its validators.

According to CryptoSlate’s data, this outage has caused the price of SUI to drop by about 7% to $3.42 at the time of writing. The downturn contrasts with the broader crypto market’s bullish trend, with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high.

A setback for Sui’s promising trajectory

This marks the first significant downtime for the network since its launch in May 2023. Sui, often referred to as a “Solana Killer,” now faces comparisons to Solana’s history of network disruptions.

The outage comes at a critical moment for Sui, which has gained considerable attention from retail and institutional investors. Grayscale recently launched a Sui-focused investment trust, and asset management giant VanEck introduced an SUI-linked exchange-traded note (ETN) for European investors. These developments highlight the growing confidence in Sui’s long-term potential.

Meanwhile, Sui’s DeFi ecosystem has experienced rapid growth. Trading activity on Sui-based decentralized exchanges (DEX) has reached an all-time high of nearly $6 billion this month, while the network’s total value locked (TVL) is also at a record high of around $2 billion.

These numbers are driven by increased memecoin trading and the introduction of native stablecoins like FDUSD and USDC on its blockchain.

Despite this setback, market analysts remain optimistic about Sui’s future. They argue that if its growth continues at this pace, the blockchain could pose a serious challenge to established players like Solana and Ethereum in the near term.

Mentioned in this article