By James Davis
It’s barely a week since the most anticipated Sui blockchain launched, but several NFT creators have already dropped projects, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in trading volumes.
Some crypto users say Sui is a worthy competitor for Solana. Today, Solana is a host of one of the booming NFT spaces, only behind Ethereum. Sui has been attracting traders over the last few days, but it is still early to know if the blockchain will create a thriving NFT world or the current hype will fade away with time, just like it happened on other networks such as Near and Aptos.
The first Sui-based NFT project to drop was Fuddies. The collection features 10,000 unique cartoonish owls. Based on the trading volume, Fuddies is the leading drop so far. Unfortunately, Clutchy, the marketplace which facilitated the launch of the NFT project, encountered some technical issues, prompting backlash from traders.
Traders whitelisted for the presale of Fuddies bought the NFTs at about 95 SUI or $123. Each NFT was initially priced at 300 SUI during the public mint, but the price gradually declined to 150 SUI before all NFTs were sold.
The technical glitches experienced on Clutchy frustrated many traders who wanted to flip their Fuddies to make quick profits. But the marketplace has started operating, and as of this writing, Clutchy has processed 606,000 SUI or $792,000 in trading volume for Fuddies over the past 24 hours. That figure, according to CryptoSlam, has surpassed the total NFT volume recorded on Polygon over the same period.
Other Projects Built on Sui
Suishi is another NFT collection that launched on Clutchy on Friday. But its trading volume is nowhere closer to that of Fuddies. Suishi has yielded only 10,800 SUI or $14,200 worth of trades since its launch.
Clutchy is not the only marketplace on Sui. Souffl3, a trading platform launched initially on Aptos, has expanded its presence to Sui. But few NFT enthusiasts have shown interest in trading its biggest project, Sui Trident. In the past 24 hours, the NFT collection has only generated $64,000 in trading volume.
All these Sui-based NFT projects sold out quickly when they launched; however, their floor prices have been declining fast. For example, each Suishi NFT was minted for 145 SUI, but as of this writing, the cheapest NFT is priced below the mint price as it trades at 118 SUI.
Why Build on Sui?
Creators building on Sui have expressed their excitement about the blockchain’s capabilities which they claim are more advanced than some other networks. For example, Sui supports dynamic NFTs, which update in real-time.
Meanwhile, one of Clutchy’s developers called Lawless, says they decided to develop the marketplace on Sui because the technology used to build the blockchain supports innovation. Sui was built using Meta’s programming language, Move.
Besides NFT collections, several Web3 games are set to launch in the coming days, including Panzerdogs, a Walking Dead Game, and Overwatch-esque hero shooter Bushi.
That said, the big question that remains unanswered is whether Sui will attract more developers in the coming weeks or end up like Aptos.
Aptos blockchain, also developed using Move, was launched last October. At the time, NFT projects built on the network saw a massive surge in their trading volumes. Aptos Monkeys, in particular, posted $2.2 million worth of trades in just a day. But the Aptos NFT space has since cooled down.