SUI price gains 300% as TVL spikes 2,000% in 90 days — What’s behind the move?

An uptick in protocol fundamentals appears to back the 300% rally in SUI price.

SUI, the native token of the Sui layer 1 smart contract platform is making waves in the DeFi sector after posting a 300% move in three months.

SUI price and traders’ attention fell to the wayside in October 2023 amid allegations of supply manipulation from South Korean regulators, but recent technical and on-chain data suggest that SUI’s recent price reversal is based on improving fundamentals.

Protocol TVL jumps 2,000%

A rising tide lifts all ships and it is clear that SUI has benefited from the recent bullish momentum seen across the wider crypto market. What’s more important is to pinpoint any changes in metrics that reflect the health, growth and sustainability of the project’s ecosystem.

SUI’s trading volume surpassed $950 million on Jan. 13 after rising approximately 2,200% in three months, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Data from DeFi data aggregator DefiLlama reveals that SUI’s total value locked (TVL) has also been increasing over the last three months, rising more than 828% from $54.39 million at the beginning of October. 2023 to the current value of $319.23 million.

Acknowledging the growth in TVL on SUI, Managing Director of the Sui Foundation Greg Siourounis said, “$300 million in TVL is a significant milestone,” marking a more than 2,000% increase since August 2023.

The protocols behind SUI’s rising TVL are Cetus, a decentralized exchange (DEX) with $62 million locked; Navi Protocol, which has a $60 million TVL that is up 485% over the last 90 days; Scallop Lend at $54 million, DeepBook ($33 million), and FlowX Finance ($31 million).

A few months after the launch of its mainnet, Sui also managed to attract a number of new projects and Solend, a major lending protocol on Solana, just announced plans to expand to Sui.

SUI’s Relative Liquidity Ratio shows traders’ interest

SUI’s triple-digit price rally continues to attract traders and crypto market analyst Cryptolaxy pointed out that SUI’s relative liquidity ratio (RLR) reflects this growing interest. The RLR is a 24-hour trading volume to market cap ratio which suggests that the higher the ratio, the higher traders’ interest in the token and token liquidity.

SUI approaches key levels in the short-term

After finding support from the $0.36 price zone, the SUI price rose approximately 300% to set a swing high at $1.4486 on Jan. 15.

All the major moving averages are still pointing upward and the relative strength index (RSI) is positioned at 68, suggesting that the market conditions still favor bullish traders.

The barrier at $1.40 and $1.44 swing high are key levels to watch on the upside. Other roadblocks may arise from the $1.60 and $1.70 psychological levels.

Currently, the RSI shows SUI is massively overbought and the ongoing correction could continue over the next few days as sellers book profits.

The first line of defense may emerge from the 23.6% retracement level at $1.92. Additional support areas could be found at $1.0, and the 61.8% retracement level at $0.80.