New Projects Can Still Beat Out ‘Big Dog’ Incumbents of Web3 (Here’s Proof)

TL;DR

• Sui is less than 12 months old, and just became a top 10 DeFi blockchain, overtaking long established projects like Bitcoin and Cardano.

Full Story

You know what we love about the Web3 space?

The little guy can still be a threat.

You ain’t gettin’ that in Web2! (Can you imagine a scrappy startup dethroning Apple or Google? Not a chance).

What prompted this proclamation? Sui.

It’s a project that we knew next-to-nothing about until this morning, outside of:

1. Its name (which we constantly get confused with the Sei project).

2. And the fact that it was built by the folks working on Meta’s since-defunct ‘Diem’ token.

Now, get this:

Sui is less than 12 months old, and just became a top 10 DeFi blockchain, overtaking loooong established projects like Bitcoin and Cardano.

Here’s where that’s significant, and also where it’s a little misleading:

Sui became a top 10 DeFi blockchain when the dollar value locked up in the project topped $430M — that’s genuinely impressive for such a young project!

Overtaking Cardano in total value locked? Also impressive!

Overtaking Bitcoin? Surprisingly, not as impressive.

Most of the value ‘locked’ in DeFi projects, like Sui, comes from their staking and lending functionality — two things Bitcoin doesn’t natively support.

(So it’s kind of like saying “Nike makes better running shoes than Toyota.”)

Still, all of these things considered, Sui’s quick escalation goes to show that we’re still so early, and Web3 is still yet to be ‘won.’

Can we get a “hell yeah!” and a running chest bump??

(Guys?).