Sui vs. Solana: The Complete Guide (2025)

Sui and Solana are Among The Fastest-Growing Layer-1 Blockchains 

Sui and Solana are two of the most popular and fastest-growing Layer-1 blockchains today. As of late March 2025, Solana had a market cap of more than $64 billion, making it the second-largest non-Ethereum Layer-1 blockchain in the industry and the #6 cryptocurrency by market cap. In contrast, Sui is considered to be the fastest-growing large Layer-1, with its market cap growing from a respectable $1.39 billion in August 2024 to more than $11 billion in late January 2025.

While Sui’s market cap had fallen to $7.26 billion by late March 2025, this still represents a more than 420% increase in only 9 months. As of the writing of this article, Sui was ranked as the #17 largest cryptocurrency by market cap. 

Solana and Sui both experienced significant hype during the late 2024 and early 2025 crypto bull run. Solana saw substantial news coverage due to its “memecoin mania,” where thousands of memecoins were created on platforms like pump.fun. In addition, the infamous $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins, which were launched on the day of the presidential inauguration on January 20th, 2025, were also Solana tokens.

Likewise, Sui was featured significantly in the news in the days before and after the presidential inauguration, both for its intense price action and because of (now-debunked) rumors that both Sui and Solana would officially sponsor the inauguration.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the key aspects of both the Sui and Solana blockchains, including their founders and history, token and tokenomics, scalability and performance, architecture and consensus, programming languages, DeFi TVL, GameFi and SocialFi use cases, and NFT implementations. 

Founders and History 

Sui

Sui was founded in 2021 by Evan Cheng and a team that included Sam Blackshear, Adeniyi Abiodun, and George Danezis, who created a new entity, Mysten Labs, to develop the Sui blockchain. Like Aptos, Sui was inspired by Facebook’s (now Meta’s) discontinued Diem/Libra blockchain and stablecoin project, with which all core founders were heavily involved. Like Diem, Supra, and Aptos, Sui utilizes Move, the programming language initially developed for Diem. Sui launched its mainnet in May 2023.   

Solana

Solana was created by Solana Labs, which was founded by developers Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal in 2018. The company’s founding was partially inspired by a 2017 whitepaper published by Yakovenko, which outlined a new type of consensus mechanism for transaction ordering called “proof-of-history” (PoH). Yakovenko and several other Solana co-founders were longtime veterans of the software giant Qualcomm, which was located in Solana Beach, California, which inspired the name.

From April 2018 to July 2019, Solana Labs raised approximately $20 million through a series of private token sales. Solana released its finalized whitepaper and testnet in 2018. Solana officially launched its mainnet and released its native token (SOL) in March 2020. 

Token and Tokenomics 

Sui (SUI) 

Sui’s native token is SUI. The SUI token is utilized for purposes including transaction fees, staking, and protocol governance. 

As of late March 2025, the SUI token had a price of $2.26 and a market cap of approximately $7.2 billion. This is significantly lower than the token’s peak price in early January 2025 of $5.29 and its peak market cap of $15.49 billion but much higher than the token’s historical median price level. 

Sui has a fixed supply of 10 billion SUI tokens, though only 3.16 billion are currently in circulation. According to information from Binance News, as of September 2024, Sui Co-Founder Even Cheng stated that the monthly unlock of SUI tokens was 2.6% of the supply and was continuously decreasing. 

Solana (SOL)

Solana’s native token is SOL. Much like the SUI token, the SOL token is utilized for transaction fees, staking, and governance. 

As of late March 2025, the SOL token had a price of $124.25 and a market cap just over $63 billion. This is significantly lower than the token’s peak price in mid-January 2025 of $261.87 and its peak market cap of slightly more than $127 billion. 

As of the writing of this article, Solana had a total supply of 597.38 million and a circulating supply of 512.28 million. However, unlike SUI, SOL has an unlimited token supply. Information from the Solana Foundation suggests that SOL’s current inflation rate is about 8% per year, with most new SOL being issued to stakers. As more SOL is issued, the Foundation plans for inflation to drop by 15% annually until SOL reaches a long-term inflation rate of approximately 1.5%. 

Scalability and Performance

Sui

While Sui may have a theoretical capacity of 300,000 transactions per second (TPS), under ideal conditions, real-world factors slow things down quite a bit. Sui also claims that it can achieve finality in 400 milliseconds. 

According to the Sui blockchain explorer Suiscan, Sui reached a maximum real-world TPS of 765 on July 27, 2023. More recently, however, Sui has seen a significantly lower real-world TPS, averaging only 92 TPS during the last three months of 2024. 

In contrast, Solana has a theoretical capacity of 65,000 transactions per second (TPS), but its speed in real-world TPS is much higher. 

Solana

According to the official Solana Explorer, as of late January 2025, Solana was averaging a maximum real-world TPS of around 4,700. This makes Solana one of the fastest blockchains in the world by real-world TPS– much faster than Sui, even though its theoretical TPS is currently much lower. It’s unclear if this is because Solana is still much more popular than Sui, meaning that Sui’s network may not be being pushed to its full limits. 

A 2023 report from Visa claims that Solana can achieve finality in as little as 400 milliseconds, though the real-world finality of Solana is often closer to 500-600 milliseconds. 

Architecture and Consensus  

Sui

Sui is a modular, Layer-1, proof-of-stake network. Sui uses parallel execution to enable high transaction output and low latency. Sui validators use the network’s native SUI token to pay network transaction fees, earn staking rewards, and vote on decisions. 

In addition, Sui’s modular design allows the network to adapt over time without requiring hard forks, which are radical changes to the blockchain’s protocol. Specifically, Sui’s modular design allows it to scale up faster and more efficiently with fewer barriers for users and developers. This is because when different elements of a blockchain are separated, each component can be updated at a faster pace. 

Modular blockchains contrast with monolithic blockchains, as modular blockchains are separated into different layers, including different layers for: 

• Consensus: How the nodes come to an agreement upon which data is accurate. 
• Execution: How the blockchain actually processes transactions.
• Data Availability: How and when the necessary data is made available. 
• Settlement: How transactions are made final (i.e., irreversible). 

Due to this separation of responsibilities, modular blockchains are increasingly seen as superior in scalability and flexibility compared to monolithic blockchains like Ethereum and Solana. 

Solana

Solana is a high-performance blockchain that uses proof-of-stake consensus through a practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (PBFT) method called Tower BFT. 

Like most proof-of-stake chains, Solana’s validators are incentivized through the network’s native $SOL token, earning rewards from transaction fees, staking, and block rewards.

However, unlike most other chains, Solana’s Tower BFT consensus method incorporates a new technology called proof-of-history (PoH). Proof-of-history allows the various nodes on the Solana blockchain to agree on the timestamping of the blockchain in a centralized fashion without the individual nodes having to interact with each other to verify timestamps themselves. 

By using PoH, Solana can significantly increase the efficiency of its core Tower BFT proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. 

According to the official Solana documentation “PoH is used as the network clock, arranging the order of blocks, transactions, and data.”

For those who may not know, a blockchain timestamp is a record that describes when a specific transaction or event occurred and is essential to the blockchain record-keeping and transaction process. Timestamps are necessary to avoid “double spending” (i.e., spending the same crypto twice) and ensure that records are kept accurate. 

For an in-depth discussion of Solana’s consensus methods, you can check out this article from Helius. 

Programming Language 

Sui

Sui uses the Move programming language as its’ primary language, which, as previously mentioned, was initially developed for Facebook’s canceled Diem blockchain project. 

Solana

In comparison to Sui, Solana is written directly in Rust. It does support some coding in Python, C, and C++, though using these languages isn’t recommended, especially for beginning developers.  

DeFi TVL 

Sui

Sui TVL, Mar. 31, 2025: Source: Defillama. 

As of late March 2025, Sui supported a wide array of DeFi dApps and had more than $1.28 billion of DeFi TVL (total value locked), with some of the top protocols by TVL including Suilend Protocol, NAVI Protocol, and Haedal Protocol. 

• Suilend is a decentralized lending protocol built on the Sui blockchain, developed by the team behind Solend. It enables users to deposit various cryptocurrencies to earn interest or borrow assets against their deposits. The platform’s native token, SEND, is utilized within the ecosystem. 
• NAVI offers over-collateralized lending/borrowing for assets including SUI, ETH, wBTC, wETH, USDT, and USDC. It also has features including isolated pools and flash loans. Reportedly, NAVI will also soon offer cross-chain lending and borrowing services. 
• Haedal is a liquid staking protocol built on Sui that allows individuals to stake their SUI tokens to participate in the governance of the Sui network. By staking with Haedal, users get haSUI tokens in return so that they can continue to engage in DeFi activities to earn additional yield. 

Solana

Solana TVL, Mar. 31, 2025: Source: Defillama. 

As of late March 2025, Solana also supported a wide selection of DeFi dApps and had more than $6.69 billion of DeFi TVL (total value locked), with some of the top protocols by TVL including Jito, Jupiter, and Raydium. 

• Jito is a decentralized liquid staking protocol on the Solana blockchain created by the Jito Foundation. Jito is governed by the protocol’s native token, JTO. As of late March 2025, $2.18 billion in $SOL was staked via Jito. 
• Jupiter is an extremely popular decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator on Solana. Jupiter is governed by the protocol’s native token, JTO. As of late March 2025, Jupiter had $1.97 billion in TVL.
• Raydium is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM) on Solana intended to provide users with fast and low-cost trading. Raydium is governed by the protocol’s native token, RAY. As of late March 2025, Raydium had $1.19 billion in TVL.

NFTs

Sui

The first Sui NFT collection, Fuddies, was launched in May 2023, less than 24 hours after the launch of the Sui mainnet itself. While still dwarfed by Ethereum and Solana, the Sui NFT market has significantly increased in popularity over the last few years, with an impressive 56.3 million Sui NFTs minted as of late March 2025, according to data from SuiVision. In recent months, the number of new NFTs minted on Sui each day has often exceeded 100,000, though this frequently includes collections of 10,000 or even more.

Solana

Solana is generally considered the second most popular blockchain for NFTs after Ethereum itself. While the first Ethereum NFTs launched in 2017, the first NFT collection on Solana launched much later, in March 2021. Solana NFTs caught a fraction of the hype of Ethereum NFTs during the NFT bull run, with the most expensive Solana NFT sale, SMB #1355, selling for $2.1 million in October 2021. 

Today, Solana still lags behind Ethereum in most major NFT metrics. However, it has occasionally beaten Ethereum on certain days in overall NFT sales volume and currently beats Ethereum in other specific metrics, like the number of active traders. Therefore, Sui has quite a lot of catching up to do if it wants to get anywhere close to Solana in the NFT space.

GameFi

Sui

Currently, Sui hosts several popular GameFi dApps, some of the most popular of which are BIRDS and Legend of Arcadia. 

• BIRDS is a memecoin and GameFi community on Sui that features an AI game, an NFT marketplace, and a telegram-based Sui wallet, among other features. New players get free airdrops of the $BIRDS token, can hatch their NFT birds, and can play their way to even bigger rewards. 
• Legend of Arcadia is a multi-chain play-to-earn strategy card game that combines a traditional gaming experience with Web3. While exploring the game’s large universe, players can also earn additional yield through mining, battling, and staking.

Solana

Solana hosts significantly more popular GameFi dApps than Sui, with top hits including the gameified fitness app StepN as well as the games Star Atlas and Genopets. 

• StepN: StepN is a blockchain-based fitness app that allows users to track their activity and earn crypto while doing it. Users equipped with StepN NFTs can earn the game’s native STEPN token by walking, jogging, and running outdoors. 
• Star Atlas is a futuristic metaverse RPG game set in the year 2620 that allows players to explore the cosmos with virtual experiences while interacting with both human space travelers and exotic alien races. 
• Genopets is a free-to-play, fitness-focused mobile game that allows users to summon Genopet NFTs. Like StepN, players are rewarded when they walk and move, getting special food and toys for their pets if they log more than 1,000 steps daily. Players can nurture their Genopets with these food and toys while engaging in battles and other challenges. 

SocialFi

Right now, there is only one well-known social dApp on Sui, FanTV, which migrated from Polygon to Sui in mid-2023.  

FanTV is an increasingly popular streaming platform, with over 5 million Sui wallets onboarded and over 1.5 million monthly users. FanTV a SocialFi platform centered around the idea of platform ownership. 

As of late March 2025, Solana hosted quite a few social dApps. Some of the most popular social dApps on Solana included Clout, which lets users buy tokenized versions of social media profiles, Twetch, a social media app with a native NFT marketplace, and iMe, an intelligent, AI-powered, Telegram-based messaging platform that allows users to send and receive messages with Solana-enabled wallets. 

Where to Buy Tokens 

If you want to participate in the future of either the Sui or Solana blockchains, you can easily buy their native tokens from several major exchanges. 

SUI tokens are currently available on centralized exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, OKX, Cetus, Upbit, Bitget, Kraken, and KuCoin. They are also available on DEXs, including Turbos Finance, DeGate, BlueMove, and SuiSwap. 

SOL tokens are also available on many centralized exchanges, including the aforementioned Binance, Bybit, Coinbase, OKX, Cetus, Upbit, Bitget, Kraken, and KuCoin exchanges. SOL tokens are also available on DEXs such as DeGate, DeFi Chain DEX, Saber DEX, and Raydium. 

Which is Better? 

Sui and Solana are promising blockchain ecosystems, but each has its benefits and drawbacks. 

Solana is a better-known and well-established blockchain with a significantly larger developer and user community and more live dApps. 

Despite those advantages, Sui is theoretically more secure and can handle more TPS (in theoretical testing). Due to its smaller market cap, it will likely grow much faster than Solana, at least from a token investor’s perspective. 

FAQs

1. What are the main differences between Sui and Solana?

The main differences between Sui and Solana lie in their architecture, programming languages, and consensus mechanisms. For example: 

• Sui is a modular blockchain, while Solana is monolithic. 
• Sui uses the Move programming language, while Solana uses Rust. 
• Sui uses a traditional proof-of-stake (Pos) mechanism, while Solana combines its proof-of-stake (Pos) mechanism with other ancillary technologies, such as proof-of-history (PoH). 

2. What challenges do Sui and Solana face?

Sui may face challenges due to the limited developer base for the Move programming language and concerns over the SUI token inflation rate.

In comparison, Solana may face ongoing security issues due to the introduction of malicious code and potential backdoors into the Solana network ecosystem, as evidenced by a recent December 2024 attack on one of Solana’s developer libraries. 

3. What are the pros and cons of the Sui and Solana blockchains? 

Sui and Solana both have various pros and cons, which we’ll detail below. 

Sui 

Pros:

• Extremely faster user growth 
• Fast token value growth for investors
• More secure and stable programming language (Move) 
• Faster theoretical TPS 
• Some concerns over token inflation

Cons:

• Much smaller user base
• Much smaller developer base (Move is less popular than Rust) 
• Fewer active dApps 
• Lower real-world TPS 

Solana

Pros:

• Massive user base and high level of brand recognition 
• Highest (or second highest) real-world TPS of any real-world blockchain 
• Limited concerns regarding token inflation

Cons:

• Less secure programming language (when compared to Sui Move) 
• Lower theoretical TPS than competitors like Sui and Aptos 
• Security concerns due to recent breaches 

4. Which blockchain network token is better for investors, SUI or SOL? 

While we can’t give specific investment advice, and all crypto investing is risky, many crypto analysts would suggest that SOL may be a more secure but lower-growth token due to its long history and relatively large market cap. In contrast, many analysts would suggest that SUI has higher growth potential due to its relatively smaller market cap. Still, investors may experience higher volatility and risk of permanent loss due to its shorter history. Either way, investors should not place money into cryptocurrency investments they cannot afford to lose.