SUI Ecosystem Expands: Performance Comparison with Solana

The Sui blockchain has emerged as one of the fastest-growing Layer-1 ecosystems, with rapid user adoption and a strong technical roadmap. As activity increases, many analysts are comparing Sui with Solana, currently the leading high-throughput chain in the market.

Grayscale’s latest research highlights how Sui’s design, infrastructure, and vertical product stack contribute to its expansion. At the same time, it offers a clear view of how Sui’s performance capabilities align with, or differ from, Solana’s operational metrics.

Sui Ecosystem Growth and Adoption Trends

The Sui network has experienced significant ecosystem expansion through 2024–2025. Multiple consumer applications, a vertically integrated stack, and user-friendly onboarding tools have helped the chain attract millions of users.

Major increases in user participation

Monthly active users on Sui have grown from roughly ten million to more than forty million. This makes Sui one of the most active smart contract platforms, ranking just behind the top chains by user count.

Several core applications have contributed to this growth. Recrd brings in hundreds of thousands of daily active addresses, while Fan TV has onboarded millions of wallets. Additional infrastructure tools like Walrus, DeepBook, and zkLogin continue to lower barriers to entry.

Vertical integration across the ecosystem

Sui is notable for its fully integrated product stack built by Mysten Labs. This includes storage systems, identity tools, domain naming services, trading infrastructure, and cross-asset settlement technology. By controlling more of the technology layers, Sui delivers a consistent user experience and reduces fragmentation that often affects other networks.

Web2-style onboarding for mainstream users

Two core technologies make onboarding seamless:

• zkLogin allows users to sign in with familiar services such as Google or Twitch.
• Sponsored transactions let developers pay gas fees for their users.

The result is a smoother application experience with fewer technical requirements for newcomers.

Performance Comparison of Sui vs Solana

Sui and Solana are often compared due to their focus on high throughput, low latency, and consumer-scale applications. Grayscale’s analysis offers a detailed comparison of the two networks.

Speed, Latency, and Execution Model

Sui provides finality in roughly two seconds, offering predictable settlement across a wide range of applications. Solana typically delivers faster settlement that can fall between four hundred milliseconds and one second, although it can fluctuate under certain network conditions.

Sui’s object-based model allows parallel execution by default, while Solana’s account-based model enables parallelism in specific scenarios. Sui also offers fast-path transfers for simple asset movements, bypassing consensus for lower latency. Solana does not offer an equivalent feature for simple payments.

Throughput Potential and Scaling Capacity

Grayscale highlights that Sui achieves the highest theoretical throughput among top smart contract platforms. Its architecture is designed for horizontal scalability, meaning validators can add more hardware to increase network capacity linearly.

Solana leads in real-world transactions per second due to greater active usage, higher transaction volume from applications, and significant on-chain activity. As adoption rises, Sui’s actual throughput may increase substantially.

Fee Stability and Transaction Costs

Fee stability is an area where Sui stands out. Validator-defined reference pricing keeps fees extremely predictable and prevents sudden spikes during periods of high demand. This benefits consumer applications and enterprise-grade tools that require consistent operating costs.

Solana maintains low fees overall but can experience variability during congestion. Sui is generally several times cheaper and significantly more stable.

Revenue Generation and Economic Maturity

Solana has a sizable lead in network fee revenue, projected to exceed five hundred million dollars annually. Sui generates far less, with around fifteen million dollars in annualized revenue. This is largely due to Sui’s lower fees and earlier adoption stage.

Solana’s economic engine supports validators, developers, and infrastructure providers at a more advanced level, while Sui must scale user activity to close this gap.

Token Supply and Long-Term Inflation

Only one-third of SUI’s token supply is currently circulating. More than half of the total supply will unlock after 2030, and annual inflation is expected to be above seventeen percent in the near term.

Solana’s supply is more mature and closer to a steady-state issuance model. For long-term valuation, this is a meaningful distinction between the two networks.

Areas Where Sui May Outperform Solana

Sui’s architecture gives it clear strengths in several sectors. Payments benefit from fast-path transfers and extremely low fees. Gaming applications enjoy parallelized execution and reliable settlement. Consumer apps thrive under Web2-style onboarding and gasless interactions.

Institutional DeFi is another area where Sui has advantages, primarily due to DeepBook’s orderbook structure that appeals to market makers and high-frequency trading firms.

 

Read more: Sui (SUI) Price Prediction for 2025, 2030, 2040-2050, Short-term, Mid-term and Long-term View

Areas Where Solana Currently Leads

Solana remains ahead in real-world throughput, developer activity, liquidity depth, NFT adoption, and major institutional integrations. Its ecosystem is larger and more mature, with stronger revenue flows and global distribution.

This gives Solana a current advantage in network flywheel effects, capital efficiency, and economic sustainability.

Conclusion

Sui’s ecosystem expansion, predictable fee system, and integrated product stack make it one of the fastest-rising Layer-1 platforms. While Solana maintains a lead in real-world performance and ecosystem maturity, Sui’s architecture suggests strong potential for future growth as adoption continues to scale.

Both networks excel in different areas, and the evolving competition highlights the growing demand for high-performance, consumer-ready blockchain infrastructure.

Secure Bitcoin trades. Smart crypto insights. Only at Bitrue.

FAQ

Is Sui faster than Solana?

Solana generally offers faster real-world finality, but Sui provides highly predictable two-second settlement and fast-path transfers for simple payments.

What makes Sui unique compared to other Layer-1 chains?

Sui’s object-based execution model, vertical integration, zkLogin onboarding, and stable fees distinguish it from other chains.

Does Sui have lower fees than Solana?

Yes. Sui maintains consistently low and predictable fees, while Solana’s fees remain low but can fluctuate during high demand.

Which network has more users, Sui or Solana?

Solana has a larger and more mature user base overall, but Sui has experienced some of the fastest user growth among new chains.

Is Sui suitable for gaming and consumer apps?

Yes. Sui’s architecture supports high-frequency interactions, fast settlement, and simplified onboarding, making it suitable for gaming and consumer-focused platforms.