Original author: @SuiNetworkCN
This article will introduce you to the most popular projects in the Sui ecosystem in 2024, selected from two dimensions: community attention and data indicators, covering various tracks such as infrastructure and DeFi.
Over the past year and a half, projects built on the Sui mainnet have brought record numbers of users to Sui’s most innovative and high-performance blockchain ecosystem, flocking to DeFi protocols that have seen early success on the network while also exploring areas such as media services, NFT marketplaces, and gaming.
As 2024 comes to a close, we look back at the most popular projects during Sui’s first full calendar year. Some of these projects were launched with the Sui mainnet in 2023, while others quickly gained popularity this year.
For each project, their builders learned how to program in the Move language and took advantage of features such as composable objects and kiosks. They used Sui’s unique innovations, such as zkLogin and sponsored transactions, to make the onboarding process for new users as easy as possible. Ultimately, their efforts were recognized by the Sui community and quickly adopted by users.
Most popular projects by community
To select the most popular projects on Sui, we combined two dimensions: community attention and data indicators. First, we compiled a list of the top 30 projects based on active accounts and activity. Then, we invited Suis representative community ambassadors and asked them to select the projects they think are most worthy of attention from this list. Then, we voted on Discord and came up with the ranking of these projects.
It is important to note that account and transaction indicators tend to favor on-chain projects, and while some very popular games may use Sui for digital asset transactions, most activity relies on binary methods. Therefore, we hope to provide a credible perspective on the projects that will receive the most attention from the community in 2024.
Walrus
Engineers at Mysten Labs, the original contributors to Sui, proposed a new decentralized storage platform, Walrus, and launched it on the devnet and testnet this year. Although Walrus is a completely independent platform, the builders use Sui as a coordination layer for assets stored on Walrus. Current activity on Sui is related to Walrus NFTs, showing a high level of interest in this new platform.
Sui Name Service
As the underlying platform that makes Sui easy to use, Sui Name Service converts complex blockchain addresses into human-readable names prefixed with the @ symbol. This format makes the names more familiar, easy to remember, and similar to social media usernames. Compared with domain names in the Web2 world, Sui names can not only serve as personal identifiers, but also support sub-names, which are suitable for complex organizational structures.
DeepBook
Suis first native liquidity layer, DeepBook, was launched in 2023 to support the DeFi ecosystem. DeepBook supports market and limit order exchanges, providing a convenient way to access liquidity for exchanges on Sui. As a decentralized public product, DeepBook is operated by the community and has issued its own DEEP token.
Cetus
The liquidity protocol Cetus was launched on Sui early on and currently provides redemption functions with limit orders, as well as tools such as mining, liquidity pools, and treasuries, serving a wide range of DeFi user groups. Its DeepBook interface provides ordinary users with a unique way to directly access Suis native liquidity layer. Its developer tools also support builders who want to integrate DeFi functions into their own projects.
Suilend
The Suilend team started building on Sui in 2024 and quickly realized that Sui provided a superior development experience for developers. Building on their experience with Solana, they launched their lending platform in March and achieved over $450 million in TVL growth in just eight months. In addition to lending, Suilend also provides exchange and cross-chain bridging services.
NAVI
As one of Suis early DeFi protocols, NAVI combines DEX aggregator, liquidity staking, and lending capabilities. With $714M TVL and over 800,000 users, NAVI continues to innovate and deploy new features to maximize its user potential. Read a feature article about NAVI .
Aftermath Finance
DeFi protocol Aftermath serves as an exchange meta-aggregator service on Sui. When a user enters a transaction, its technology analyzes the exchange rates provided by other aggregators and then finds the best transaction path. Aftermath also provides liquidity staking through its afSUI token and provides various other mining benefits.
Scallop
The lending platform Scallop is another early Sui DeFi protocol that serves a wide range of users from novices to professional users. The platform allows users to invest SUI in a pool to earn interest, or participate in more complex lending strategies. In addition to lending, Scallop now supports redemption functions and provides cross-chain bridge functions.
Turbos
Turbos is a decentralized crypto market built on Sui that provides two main functions: exchange and providing liquidity to other users. As an early DeFi project on Sui, the Turbos team brings a wealth of experience and continuous development, focusing on making it as efficient as possible.
Tradeport
NFT marketplace Tradeport launched on Sui, building on its success on chains like Near and Base. Its interface makes it easy for even novice users to find and buy NFTs. In addition to the marketplace functionality, Tradeport also includes tools that let users mint their own NFTs and perform more advanced development.
Most popular projects by data indicator
For those who only care about data metrics, we aggregated the top 10 projects ranked by active accounts, excluding public projects that have not yet reached the active standard. The active account metric has a high correlation with transaction volume, so we chose to use the former to represent the number of users for each project.
Wave Wallet
Wave Wallet combines wallet functionality with gaming and uses Telegram as a platform, attracting a large number of active users on Sui. Users can play fun games and use their digital assets in one interface. The company also uses Telegram as a general gaming platform. Read a feature article about Wave Wallet .
BIRDS
BIRDS is another Telegram-based app that gamifies DeFi and provides a continuous interactive experience in multiple stages. Players first incubate an egg and help it level up until it hatches. The next stage of the game is to feed the bird to make it stronger and faster, unlocking more advanced game features.
FanTV
Video platform FanTV aims to disrupt services like YouTube and TikTok by more fairly compensating content creators. Launched in India, the app is gaining traction with audiences around the world, consistently ranking in the top 10 by users. Read our feature article about FanTV .
Aylab
Aylab uses Web3 technology for advertising and has provided more than 120 million ad impressions and more than 95 million transactions. As an advertising platform, Aylab helps other projects with user acquisition and marketing, becoming an important part of Suis business support model, similar to Googles transformational role in traditional Internet advertising.
Fomo
Fomo is essentially a proof-of-work (PoW) memecoin based on Telegram, and it has demonstrated high interest from users. It appears to have been launched as a promotional activity and may be discontinued. However, its high transaction rate shows how Sui can easily scale while maintaining stable transaction fees.
Walrus
Engineers at Mysten Labs, the original contributors to Sui, proposed a new decentralized storage platform, Walrus, and launched it on the devnet and testnet this year. Although Walrus is a completely independent platform, the builders use Sui as a coordination layer for assets stored on Walrus. Current activity on Sui is related to Walrus NFTs, showing a high level of interest in this new platform.
SuiLink
As a utility, SuiLink facilitates cross-chain interoperability by connecting a users Sui account with an Ethereum or Solana account. The link proves identity through a soul-bound NFT. SuiLink provides access to cross-chain rewards, priority features, and exclusive events.
NAVI
As one of Suis early DeFi protocols, NAVI combines DEX aggregator, liquidity staking, and lending capabilities. With $714M TVL and over 800,000 users, NAVI continues to innovate and deploy new features to maximize its user potential. Read a feature article about NAVI .
Scallop
The lending platform Scallop is another early Sui DeFi protocol that serves a wide range of users from novices to professional users. The platform allows users to invest SUI in a pool to earn interest, or participate in more complex lending strategies. In addition to lending, Scallop now supports redemption functions and provides cross-chain bridge functions.
Cetus
The liquidity protocol Cetus was launched on Sui early on and currently provides redemption functionality with limit orders, as well as tools such as farms, liquidity pools, and treasuries, serving a wide range of DeFi user groups. Its DeepBook interface provides a unique way for ordinary users to directly access Suis native liquidity layer. Its developer tools also support builders who want to integrate DeFi functionality into their own projects.
In Sui’s first full year, we’ve seen strong user interest in infrastructure projects like the Sui Name Service and DeFi protocols, which are often early adopters of the network. The GameFi project has also attracted attention, indicating that new games coming later this year and next could be very successful.
We very much look forward to seeing more new projects landing on Sui in the coming year and leveraging its scalability to attract more and more users.
