Sui Network, a Layer 1 blockchain network, is launching its mainnet today, May 3, at 12 pm UTC. The protocol, which uses a modified version of the Move programming language initially created at Meta, has been gaining traction in the crypto community.
🌊 Mainnet officially launches this Wednesday at 12:00 PM UTC. Get ready. pic.twitter.com/EBVF9kmCX2
— Sui (@SuiNetwork) April 30, 2023
Sui was created by Mysten Labs, one of two spinoffs from Meta’s Diem project; the other is Aptos Labs, which launched its mainnet in October. However, the Sui team has stated that it hopes to use the Move programming language, which developers claim is a more user-friendly way to create smart contracts, to make the network the leading NFT and gaming platform for the cryptocurrency industry.
The network has gained attention for its approach in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector, which involves supporting programmers by simplifying the creation of smart contracts. Everyone can participate in running the network whether directly by running a validator or indirectly through stake delegation thanks to Sui’s Proof-of-Stake mechanism.
SUI Token IOU Rallies Ahead of Mainnet Launch
Sui’s native token, SUI, is projected to play a significant part in the layer 1 blockchain ecosystem, such as gas fees, engaging in PoS consensus, staking, and on-chain voting for protocol updates, among others.
Since April 20, the SUI token has been running an initial coin offering (ICO) which will come to an end today when the mainnet goes live. Meanwhile, investors have been purchasing IOU versions of the token.
As of the time of writing this line, the token’s IOU was trading at $2.80 according to CoinMarketCap and had seen its price spike 41.34% in the past day, with a 24-hour trading volume of $877,444, from the excitement surrounding the mainnet launch.
The token will be listed on multiple crypto exchanges, including OKX, Kucoin, and Bybit, with a share of its total supply becoming liquid at its mainnet launch. However, the remaining tokens will be available over the coming years or distributed as future stakes rewards.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, also announced SUI as the 33rd project in its launch pool after allowing users to farm the tokens using staked BNB tokens and the TUSD stablecoin. Binance will list the token if the liquidity criteria are met.
