Exploring the Sui on-chain NFT Ecosystem: Can Technological Innovation Bring Long-term Prosperity?

On May 3rd, the Sui Network mainnet was officially launched. Prior to this, an active NFT community had already formed on this emerging blockchain, with some projects issuing NFTs that not only generated considerable trading volume but also attracted a lot of user attention.

Although Ethereum and Solana currently have the most active NFT communities, Sui Network has also attracted many NFT traders. As an emerging Layer 1 blockchain, Sui Network is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated projects in recent times, even being seen by some as a "potential competitor to Solana." However, whether Sui can continue to support a thriving NFT ecosystem remains to be seen, as networks like Aptos and NEAR have also experienced a process of explosive popularity followed by a rapid cooling down.

Typical Cases of Sui on-chain NFT Market

On May 4th, the NFT project "Fuddies" launched on the Sui Network. The project consists of 10,000 PFPs, each depicting cartoon owls in various poses and styles, making it the largest NFT project by issuance on the Sui Network to date. However, after the Fuddies NFTs were minted, the hosting platform encountered technical issues, leading to dissatisfaction among NFT traders and Web3 practitioners.

According to the plan, the platform will offer Fuddies NFT to pre-approved users at a price of 95 SUI(, approximately 125 USD), while the public sale will start in a Dutch auction format, gradually decreasing from an initial price of 300 SUI(, around 395 USD), until it reaches 150 SUI(, close to 200 USD), before selling out.

But the problem is that the secondary market has not operated as expected on the Sui Network, leading to disappointment for many buyers hoping to sell Fuddies NFTs for quick profits. After encountering issues, the platform has postponed another round of NFT minting activities that were originally planned, announced the closure of the Launchpad, and issued an apology letter to the Sui community, admitting that the Beta release phase has been quite unsmooth.

However, the platform quickly restarted the secondary market, and trading of Fuddies NFT has also resumed. It is reported that within 24 hours, a trading volume of 605,000 SUI(, approximately 792,500 USD), was generated. Fuddies subsequently released data on social media stating that the trading volume in the 24 hours after resuming trading exceeded the total trading volume on the Polygon on-chain during the same period.

Sui on-chain NFT project sales performance polarized

At this stage, some of the more popular NFT projects on the Sui blockchain seem to have started with "derivative imitation". It is not difficult for the crypto community to find that Fuddies, the largest NFT project on the Sui Network to date, is actually very similar to the Moonbirds NFT project on Ethereum, which also has an "owl" theme. Another NFT project called Suishi, which was minted and sold out on a certain platform, resembles a combination of Cool Cats and the "fat penguin" Pudgy Penguins.

In fact, the sales performance of Sui on-chain NFT projects shows a clear polarization. For example, compared to the 24-hour sales of nearly $800,000 for Fuddies, Suishi has only achieved a secondary trading volume of approximately 10,900 SUI(, which is about $14,300) since its minting.

On the other hand, there is not just one active Sui NFT platform at the moment. The NFT platform launched last autumn on the Aptos blockchain has also expanded to the Sui Network, and the leading NFT projects on that platform have not triggered any sales frenzy. For example, the largest Sui NFT project on the platform is "Sui Trident", which accumulated a trading volume of only about $65,000 within 24 hours of its launch.

Can the SUI on-chain NFT scene continue to thrive?

Before the launch of the Sui Network mainnet, people had high expectations for its on-chain NFT ecosystem. In fact, there have been "gold rushes" on Ethereum, Solana, and more recently Bitcoin Ordinals, where the value of early NFTs on these blockchain platforms soared, and creators were always eager to launch their projects on the new chain first. Similarly, savvy digital collectors would try to snap up some early launched NFT assets, as the value of these NFTs is likely to see a significant increase in the future.

For example, after Aptos made its debut in October 2022, its on-chain NFT trading volume surged, while the on-chain NFT sales on Solana shrank. At that time, one week after the launch of the Aptos mainnet, the Aptos Monkey NFT project went live, generating a massive transaction worth about $2.3 million in just 24 hours, but the craze quickly faded. Now, a similar situation is happening on Sui Network, although Sui has not yet reached the heights that Aptos once did.

So in the NFT scenario, will the Sui ecosystem really repeat the mistakes of Aptos? Not necessarily.

First of all, Sui ecosystem creators are very clear on one point: compared to other blockchains, Sui Network can achieve more and more advanced features, such as real-time updating dynamic NFTs. This use case can bring many advantages to blockchain games, where in-game weapons or armor can continuously upgrade and improve over time, and NFTs can become more useful or valuable in this "dynamic" process.

From this perspective, games may ultimately become one of the biggest driving forces behind the development momentum of the Sui NFT scene. It is reported that a series of early games under the Sui ecosystem, such as an Overwatch-style hero shooter, a game modeled after The Walking Dead, and a tank game ported from Solana, will be launched in the coming weeks. A Web3 project consultant explained: "Many interesting experiments are taking place on the Sui blockchain, which will eventually lead to a wave of NFT and DApp innovations that learn from the lessons of many failed cases in the previous blockchain NFT ecosystem."

Secondly, the Sui NFT scenario can also expand to other potential use cases, such as the domain project "Sui Name Service (SuiNS)" which imitates the Ethereum Name Service (ENS). This project further upgrades the application of domain names by associating them with NFTs and smart contracts, thereby allowing users to interact with greater trust and security.

Overall, the technology of Sui Network provides an innovative platform, and the Move language it employs lowers the barriers for creators to innovate through dynamic NFTs, thereby unlocking more types of use cases and more engaging applications and experiences. Of course, since the Sui mainnet has been online for a relatively short time, it remains to be seen whether many innovative projects and applications can survive in the long term, but one thing is clear: Sui's addition will undoubtedly increase healthy competition in the NFT market, which is more beneficial than harmful for the entire ecosystem.