No-Nonsense Guide to Sui
Sui is a next-generation blockchain network that launched in 2021 and has garnered a lot of positive attention due to it’s high transaction throughput, innovative Move language custom-built for blockchain interactions, $336 million in VC funding from top funders like a16z and Coinbase Ventures, and strong team that previously led Meta’s Libra and Diem projects before the projects shut down due to regulatory challenges. All that to say, it’s a promising network that is worth exploring, especially for folks on Solana who are familiar with highly performant integrated blockchains.
In this article, I want to provide a high level, no-nonsense guide to help more people do the following things:
- Set up a wallet on Sui
- Bridge from from Solana to Sui
- Highlight options to earn yield on Sui
Note: None of the information in this article should be considered financial advice. I’m sharing this for informational purposes only. I do hold a small position in SUI and use the protocols that are featured in this article.
Ethos Wallet
I’m not going to pretend to know everything about every Sui wallet. People I trust in this space have recommended Ethos Wallet for navigating Sui, and I’ve enjoyed my experience using it over the last four months, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on here.
Ethos is currently only available as a browser extension (not available via mobile, unfortunately). Here’s how to set up your Ethos wallet:
- Visit https://chromewebstore.google.com/
- Search for “Ethos Sui Wallet”
- Add the extension to your browser and then follow instructions (remember to write down your seed phrase on a piece of paper and store in a safe place; don’t store this on your connected devices)
If you are familiar with Phantom on Solana, this should feel very similar. Once your wallet is set up, you’re ready to move on to the next step of bridging assets from Solana to Sui.
Bridging to Sui (from Solana)
Bridging to Sui is not the most intuitive process, but if you have the right steps it’s pretty easy. Sui doesn’t play nice in the sandbox with Solana assets, so you need to convert some assets into Ethereum USDC before bridging. Here’s what you need to do:
- Swap whatever amount of assets you want to bridge to SUI into USDC (via Jupiter)
- Swap USDC into USDCet, which is USDC for Ethereum (see screenshot below).
Once you have USDCet, you can proceed with bridging by following these steps:
- Visit https://portalbridge.com/
- In the “From” Box, select Solana
- Connect your Solana wallet
- In the “Asset” Box, select USDC (Ethereum)
- Select the amount you want to bridge
- In the “To” Box, select Sui
- Connect your Ethos wallet
- Select either “Manual Bridge” via Wormhole or “Automatic Bridge” via xLabs (I prefer the Manual Bridge since it has lower fees and ensures Wormhole usage in case there is a future airdrop part two)
- Click approve and proceed with transaction
There are a few more steps to complete the bridge:
- Approve the transaction in your Solana wallet
- Click “Claim” once the Solana transaction is complete, which will allow you to approve of the transaction in your Ethos wallet
- Your USDCet should now be in your Ethos wallet!
Convert USDC to Sui
You’re going to want to swap your USDCet into SUI, the native asset on the Sui network. The best place to do that is on Aftermath Finance, which is the Jupiter of the Sui Network. Here are the steps:
- Visit Aftermath Finance
- Select USDCet as the top asset and Sui as the bottom asset
- Click “Trade”
You now have SUI and are ready to get down to business exploring the ecosystem. Below are some options worth exploring, in my opinion.
Aftermath Liquid Staking
One of my favorite places to park SUI is on Aftermath, which offers a boosted yield liquid staking pool for SUI and afSUI, their liquid staking token. This may be Solana bias, but I like the idea of building usage on the “Jupiter of Sui” and Aftermath absolutely serves in that function in the ecosystem currently. Here are the instructions to add SUI to this pool:
- Click on the “Earn” tab on Aftermath or visit the SUI-afSUI pool
- Click Deposit and select the amount of SUI you want to deposit (they offer single sided deposits and will swap into the correct balance of SUI-afSUI)
- Click “Deposit” and your SUI will convert into afSUI/SUI afLP, the Liquidity Pool token for this pool
You’re not quite done at this point. To actually earn yield, you’ll need to stake the afSUI/SUI afLP token. To do that, click on the “Stake Now” button on the top right of the liquidity pool page linked above. Then:
- Select the Max amount of afSUI/SUI afLP to stake
- Consider ramping up your Lock Duration to the maximum of 12 days to increase your APY to nearly 50% (in native SUI tokens)
- Click stake
Where does this yield come from? Because Sui is a relatively new network, the Sui Foundation is offering temporary liquidity mining rewards for people who use decentralized finance protocols on Sui. So these yields won’t last forever, but it’s an incredible opportunity in my opinion to earn a high quality asset through a relatively safe liquid staking pool strategy.
Higher Yield on Kriya Finance
You can earn even higher yield on liquid staking pools on Kriya Finance, which is the 5th largest Sui decentralized finance application by total value locked (TVL), and 2nd largest decentralized exchange. The liquid staking pool I prefer is the vSUI/SUI pool (vSUI is another liquid staking token called Volo Sui). To access this pool, visit https://www.app.kriya.finance/spot/liquidity and click +ADD, then:
- Select single sided liquidity (optional but way easier option)
- Select the amount of SUI you want to deposit
- Consider ramping up the lock period to up to 28 days to boost yield
- Click “Add Liquidity and Stake”
This pool is offering a staggering 68.67% APY in SUI rewards. I’ve been providing liquidity in this pool for almost four months and can confirm that it is paying out as advertised. Again, note that these rewards won’t last forever, and are very generous right now as a way to encourage users to explore Sui DeFi.
Explore Lending?
I’m not currently utilize lending platforms on Sui due to lower yield opportunities, but if you do explore lending I would recommend Navi Protocol, which is the largest platform by TVL on Sui. Visit https://app.naviprotocol.io/ to explore. You’ll notice that lending APY is also boosted and reaches up to 38.5% on vSUI (though these rewards are paid out in NAVI tokens, not SUI, so this rate is arguably less rewarding unless you really want to accumulate NAVI governance tokens).
Alternatives to NAVI are Scallop and soon to be Suilend (still in beta).
Explore NFTs?
The NFT market on SUI is pretty dead. The only collections that may be worth exploring, in my opinion, include:
- Fuddies, which was the first major collection on Sui
- Eggs, which is the NFT project for Aftermath Finance
If either of these interest you, you can buy/trade/sell NFTs on Tradeport.xyz. Personally, I hold one Egg because of the “imagine if Jupiter had an NFT” narrative. But there’s no confirmed benefit to holding currently aside from dubious speculation.
Buy $FUD?
Meme coin action is also less exciting on Sui, but if you’re looking to accumulate an OG memecoin, I’d suggest $FUD. Not much else to say here… not really a meme coin guy.
Parting Thoughts
There’s a lot to like about Sui. It’s very fast, has very low transaction fees, as closing in on the top 10 in terms of TVL for decentralized finance, and has one of the fastest growing developer communities in web3, per Electric Capital Developer Report.
Sui does have a large token unlock on the near term horizon that could lead to a sell off, though if we are headed into the bull market post-halving it’s also possible that Series A & B investors will hold their unlocked tokens. Just something to keep in mind before aping.
I hope this guide makes you more informed in terms of how to explore the Sui ecosystem. Let me know in the comments if there are other opportunities you think new Sui explorers should be aware of.
