From the Pokémon Scandal to Doubling Trading Volume, Unveiling the Logic Behind Sui's Recent Strong Rally

By: blockbeats|2025/04/28 18:20:23
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Original Article Title: "The Multiple Catalysts Behind Sui's Surge: From Pokémon Collaboration Rumors to DEX Trading Volume Spike"
Original Source: PANews

Recently, the Sui governance token and its ecosystem have experienced a notable surge, with the SUI token itself increasing by over 75% in a week, far outperforming the market during the same period. Behind this phenomenon lies a complex interweaving of driving factors, including speculative enthusiasm triggered by market rumors, significant changes in fund flows, and ongoing improvements in the ecosystem's fundamentals. In this article, PANews delves into the funding trends, key news catalysts, on-chain data performance, and potential risks behind SUI's recent surge, aiming to comprehensively interpret the logic behind this ecosystem frenzy.

Exchange Hot Money Influx, Contract Holdings Surge

Looking at the on-chain fund flows in recent months, the changes in Sui's funds are not significant. Over a three-month period, Sui has seen a net outflow of $32 million, which is not a high amount. However, taking a closer look at the changes in on-chain fund flows over the past month and week, Sui's fund flows have changed very little and have not even made it into the top twenty on the public chain.

Nevertheless, there has been a noticeable influx of funds from exchanges into the Sui ecosystem. According to Coinglass data, in the last seven days, SUI's spot funding inflow reached $62.86 million, ranking fourth among all currencies, only behind USDT, ETH, and FUSD. In the past seven days, several Sui network ecosystem tokens such as WAL, MEMEFI, and CETUS have also ranked in the top ten for contract funding inflows, further reflecting the ecosystem's funding activity.

From the Pokémon Scandal to Doubling Trading Volume, Unveiling the Logic Behind Sui's Recent Strong Rally

In terms of contract holdings data, the SUI token's holdings have experienced a sharp increase since April 21, doubling in just a week from $700 million to $1.419 billion, approaching the previous high of $1.5 billion.

In addition to SUI, most tokens in its ecosystem have also seen significant increases in the past week. Among the Sui ecosystem tokens listed on CoinGecko, 35 tokens have surged by over 100% in the past week, accounting for 20% of the Sui ecosystem projects. 37.5% of the tokens have surged by over 50%, indicating a widespread uptrend.

From a fund perspective, this surge represents a comprehensive collective rise across the Sui ecosystem. While most projects have not seen any actual positive developments, the price movements on the charts have been very apparent.

Multiple Catalysts Boost Market Sentiment

On April 21, almost all major tokens began a synchronous rebound, and Sui's initial rebound also started in line with the overall market trend, followed by a number of positive news releases. However, it is challenging to confirm whether these pieces of news were the true "engine" behind Sui's surge or just "smoke bombs" released to drive up the price.

On one hand, Sui saw several ecosystem partnership announcements. For example, the Pokémon collaboration rumor: This rumor originated on April 23, 2025, when the PokémonHOME app updated its privacy policy, listing "Parasol Technologies" as one of the authorized developers allowed to receive user data. Parasol Technologies is a blockchain gaming studio that was acquired by Sui's core development team Mysten Labs in March 2025. This direct connection quickly sparked the market's imagination, with crypto influencers and social media users speculating that Pokémon may be planning to integrate its IP into the Sui blockchain. The market narrative focused on potential NFT integration or blockchain-based collectibles, and it may even be related to the new "medal" feature launched on PokémonHOME.

It is worth noting that the official blog post from the Sui Foundation on April 23 about Parasol launching a trading card game on Sui did not mention Pokémon. However, some users claimed that an early version of this blog post did mention Pokémon NFTs but was later edited to remove the reference, further fueling market speculation.

Another example is the xMoney/xPortal collaboration: On April 24, Sui announced a partnership with the financial platform xMoney and the crypto super app xPortal. The core of this collaboration is to launch a Sui-branded virtual Mastercard in Europe, integrated within the xPortal app, which has 2.5 million users. Users can add this virtual card to ApplePay or GooglePay and use SUI and other cryptocurrencies to make payments at tens of thousands of merchants, similar to using cash. The physical card is planned to be released later in 2025.

On the other hand, the ETF narrative is also considered a key factor driving Sui's rise. Recently, news of 21Shares establishing the "SUI ETF" statutory trust entity circulated. This news is not actually new as, according to Delaware company registration information, the "21SHARES SUI ETF" statutory trust entity with registration number 10058451 was already established on January 7, 2025, with the registration type being a common law statutory trust. With this news being exposed recently, it also seems to have supported SUI's uptrend.

In addition, the Sui Network has also received a lot of positive news in the past month or two. For example, the Athens Stock Exchange Group announced on April 16 that they had completed the technical design of an on-chain fundraising platform on Sui; Nautilus launched a verifiable off-chain privacy solution for Sui on April 15; Canary Capital submitted an application for a SUI ETF, and so on.

Overall, the recent progress made by Sui in various areas such as Web3 games, privacy, and development environment has come together to form an overall positive outlook. At this point, it is different from the previous single news events that triggered spikes in the market.

Airdrop Event Drives DEX Trading Volume Surge, Facing Dual Pressure of Token Unlocking and Application Development

Since April, the DEX trading volume on the Sui Network has consistently remained at a high level, especially when it hit a historical peak of $9.98 billion on March 29, followed by several days of over $4 billion in daily trading volume. The ecosystem's leading DEX project, Cetus Protocol, drove the overall growth, with its trading volume growing by 84.5% in the past week, and the CETUS token almost doubling in a week.

Another significant contributor is Kriya, on the day when the Sui Network's trading volume broke the record on March 29, Kriya contributed $780 million, accounting for a significant share of the daily trading volume. This data represents a growth of over 100 times compared to the previous day's $7.28 million.

When combined, the surge in trading volume of these two DEXs on March 28 may have been primarily due to the spike in volume caused by Walrus's airdrop. On March 27, Walrus, a decentralized storage project that raised $140 million, conducted an airdrop, and the token's trading volume that day reached $380 million. This may have been a key factor in the recent increase in trading volume on the Sui Network.

Additionally, developer activity is also one of the underlying reasons for Sui Network's growth. On GitHub, the Sui Network's code commits have been relatively frequent recently. Starting from December 2024, the frequency of Sui Network's code commits reached a peak, mostly maintaining over 500 times per week, whereas this data used to be around 250 times. For comparison, Solana and Aptos' code commit frequency is mostly around 100.

However, during the collective market frenzy, there are several risk points that may be worth noting. On the one hand, SUI's token unlocking poses a persistent selling pressure, with millions of tokens being released almost every week, making it the largest supplier in the market. These unlocked tokens are always an untimely bomb in the SUI token's upward cycle.

On the other hand, the rising structure of the Sui ecosystem is currently mainly led by Dex or infrastructure projects, but MEME tokens or application/game projects have not yet shown outstanding performance. At the same time, tokens with a market cap of over 10 million are basically still early-stage projects. From this perspective, if Sui is likened to a city, in this city, a decentralized storage, DeFi, game-themed market has been built around projects such as Walrus, Deepbook, and Parasol. However, these markets currently lack some "internet-famous merchants" to further attract a large number of users to truly enter.

Therefore, the recent surge of the SUI token and its ecosystem is the result of the combined effect of market speculation, capital inflow, and contract market expectations, as well as solid fundamental progress. However, while paying attention to the eye-catching performance of the Sui price, it is also necessary to be vigilant about the continuous selling pressure brought about by token unlocking and to focus on whether its application ecosystem can further prosper and give birth to explosive applications that truly attract users. This will be the key to determining whether Sui can translate its current popularity into long-term value.

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China's Central Bank and Eight Other Departments' Latest Regulatory Focus: Key Attention to RWA Tokenized Asset Risk


Foreword: Today, the People's Bank of China's website published the "Notice of the People's Bank of China, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration for Market Regulation, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Further Preventing and Dealing with Risks Related to Virtual Currency and Others (Yinfa [2026] No. 42)", the latest regulatory requirements from the eight departments including the central bank, which are basically consistent with the regulatory requirements of recent years. The main focus of the regulation is on speculative activities such as virtual currency trading, exchanges, ICOs, overseas platform services, and this time, regulatory oversight of RWA has been added, explicitly prohibiting RWA tokenization, stablecoins (especially those pegged to the RMB). The following is the full text:


To the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:


  Recently, there have been speculative activities related to virtual currency and Real-World Assets (RWA) tokenization, disrupting the economic and financial order and jeopardizing the property security of the people. In order to further prevent and address the risks related to virtual currency and Real-World Assets tokenization, effectively safeguard national security and social stability, in accordance with the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the People's Bank of China," "Law of the People's Republic of China on Commercial Banks," "Securities Law of the People's Republic of China," "Law of the People's Republic of China on Securities Investment Funds," "Law of the People's Republic of China on Futures and Derivatives," "Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China," "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Administration of Renminbi," "Regulations on Prevention and Disposal of Illegal Fundraising," "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Foreign Exchange Administration," "Telecommunications Regulations of the People's Republic of China," and other provisions, after reaching consensus with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and with the approval of the State Council, the relevant matters are notified as follows:


  I. Clarify the essential attributes of virtual currency, Real-World Assets tokenization, and related business activities


  (I) Virtual currency does not possess the legal status equivalent to fiat currency. Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, etc., have the main characteristics of being issued by non-monetary authorities, using encryption technology and distributed ledger or similar technology, existing in digital form, etc. They do not have legal tender status, should not and cannot be circulated and used as currency in the market.


  The business activities related to virtual currency are classified as illegal financial activities. The exchange of fiat currency and virtual currency within the territory, exchange of virtual currencies, acting as a central counterparty in buying and selling virtual currencies, providing information intermediary and pricing services for virtual currency transactions, token issuance financing, and trading of virtual currency-related financial products, etc., fall under illegal financial activities, such as suspected illegal issuance of token vouchers, unauthorized public issuance of securities, illegal operation of securities and futures business, illegal fundraising, etc., are strictly prohibited across the board and resolutely banned in accordance with the law. Overseas entities and individuals are not allowed to provide virtual currency-related services to domestic entities in any form.


  A stablecoin pegged to a fiat currency indirectly fulfills some functions of the fiat currency in circulation. Without the consent of relevant authorities in accordance with the law and regulations, any domestic or foreign entity or individual is not allowed to issue a RMB-pegged stablecoin overseas.


(II)Tokenization of Real-World Assets refers to the use of encryption technology and distributed ledger or similar technologies to transform ownership rights, income rights, etc., of assets into tokens (tokens) or other interests or bond certificates with token (token) characteristics, and carry out issuance and trading activities.


  Engaging in the tokenization of real-world assets domestically, as well as providing related intermediary, information technology services, etc., which are suspected of illegal issuance of token vouchers, unauthorized public offering of securities, illegal operation of securities and futures business, illegal fundraising, and other illegal financial activities, shall be prohibited; except for relevant business activities carried out with the approval of the competent authorities in accordance with the law and regulations and relying on specific financial infrastructures. Overseas entities and individuals are not allowed to illegally provide services related to the tokenization of real-world assets to domestic entities in any form.


  II. Sound Work Mechanism


  (III) Inter-agency Coordination. The People's Bank of China, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and other departments, will improve the work mechanism, strengthen coordination with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, coordinate efforts, and overall guide regions to carry out risk prevention and disposal of virtual currency-related illegal financial activities.


  The China Securities Regulatory Commission, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and other departments, will improve the work mechanism, strengthen coordination with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, coordinate efforts, and overall guide regions to carry out risk prevention and disposal of illegal financial activities related to the tokenization of real-world assets.


  (IV) Strengthening Local Implementation. The people's governments at the provincial level are overall responsible for the prevention and disposal of risks related to virtual currencies and the tokenization of real-world assets in their respective administrative regions. The specific leading department is the local financial regulatory department, with participation from branches and dispatched institutions of the State Council's financial regulatory department, telecommunications regulators, public security, market supervision, and other departments, in coordination with cyberspace departments, courts, and procuratorates, to improve the normalization of the work mechanism, effectively connect with the relevant work mechanisms of central departments, form a cooperative and coordinated working pattern between central and local governments, effectively prevent and properly handle risks related to virtual currencies and the tokenization of real-world assets, and maintain economic and financial order and social stability.


  III. Strengthened Risk Monitoring, Prevention, and Disposal


  (5) Enhanced Risk Monitoring. The People's Bank of China, China Securities Regulatory Commission, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Cyberspace Administration of China, and other departments continue to improve monitoring techniques and system support, enhance cross-departmental data analysis and sharing, establish sound information sharing and cross-validation mechanisms, promptly grasp the risk situation of activities related to virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization. Local governments at all levels give full play to the role of local monitoring and early warning mechanisms. Local financial regulatory authorities, together with branches and agencies of the State Council's financial regulatory authorities, as well as departments of cyberspace and public security, ensure effective connection between online monitoring, offline investigation, and fund tracking, efficiently and accurately identify activities related to virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization, promptly share risk information, improve early warning information dissemination, verification, and rapid response mechanisms.


  (6) Strengthened Oversight of Financial Institutions, Intermediaries, and Technology Service Providers. Financial institutions (including non-bank payment institutions) are prohibited from providing account opening, fund transfer, and clearing services for virtual currency-related business activities, issuing and selling financial products related to virtual currency, including virtual currency and related financial products in the scope of collateral, conducting insurance business related to virtual currency, or including virtual currency in the scope of insurance liability. Financial institutions (including non-bank payment institutions) are prohibited from providing custody, clearing, and settlement services for unauthorized real-world asset tokenization-related business and related financial products. Relevant intermediary institutions and information technology service providers are prohibited from providing intermediary, technical, or other services for unauthorized real-world asset tokenization-related businesses and related financial products.


  (7) Enhanced Management of Internet Information Content and Access. Internet enterprises are prohibited from providing online business venues, commercial displays, marketing, advertising, or paid traffic diversion services for virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization-related business activities. Upon discovering clues of illegal activities, they should promptly report to relevant departments and provide technical support and assistance for related investigations and inquiries. Based on the clues transferred by the financial regulatory authorities, the cyberspace administration, telecommunications authorities, and public security departments should promptly close and deal with websites, mobile applications (including mini-programs), and public accounts engaged in virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization-related business activities in accordance with the law.


  (8) Strengthened Entity Registration and Advertisement Management. Market supervision departments strengthen entity registration and management, and enterprise and individual business registrations must not contain terms such as "virtual currency," "virtual asset," "cryptocurrency," "crypto asset," "stablecoin," "real-world asset tokenization," or "RWA" in their names or business scopes. Market supervision departments, together with financial regulatory authorities, legally enhance the supervision of advertisements related to virtual currency and real-world asset tokenization, promptly investigating and handling relevant illegal advertisements.


  (IX) Continued Rectification of Virtual Currency Mining Activities. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, strictly controls virtual currency mining activities, continuously promotes the rectification of virtual currency mining activities. The people's governments of various provinces take overall responsibility for the rectification of "mining" within their respective administrative regions. In accordance with the requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments in the "Notice on the Rectification of Virtual Currency Mining Activities" (NDRC Energy-saving Building [2021] No. 1283) and the provisions of the "Guidance Catalog for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2024 Edition)," a comprehensive review, investigation, and closure of existing virtual currency mining projects are conducted, new mining projects are strictly prohibited, and mining machine production enterprises are strictly prohibited from providing mining machine sales and other services within the country.


  (X) Severe Crackdown on Related Illegal Financial Activities. Upon discovering clues to illegal financial activities related to virtual currency and the tokenization of real-world assets, local financial regulatory authorities, branches of the State Council's financial regulatory authorities, and other relevant departments promptly investigate, determine, and properly handle the issues in accordance with the law, and seriously hold the relevant entities and individuals legally responsible. Those suspected of crimes are transferred to the judicial authorities for processing according to the law.


 (XI) Severe Crackdown on Related Illegal and Criminal Activities. The Ministry of Public Security, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, as well as judicial and procuratorial organs, in accordance with their respective responsibilities, rigorously crack down on illegal and criminal activities related to virtual currency, the tokenization of real-world assets, such as fraud, money laundering, illegal business operations, pyramid schemes, illegal fundraising, and other illegal and criminal activities carried out under the guise of virtual currency, the tokenization of real-world assets, etc.


  (XII) Strengthen Industry Self-discipline. Relevant industry associations should enhance membership management and policy advocacy, based on their own responsibilities, advocate and urge member units to resist illegal financial activities related to virtual currency and the tokenization of real-world assets. Member units that violate regulatory policies and industry self-discipline rules are to be disciplined in accordance with relevant self-regulatory management regulations. By leveraging various industry infrastructure, conduct risk monitoring related to virtual currency, the tokenization of real-world assets, and promptly transfer issue clues to relevant departments.


  IV. Strict Supervision of Domestic Entities Engaging in Overseas Business Activities


(XIII) Without the approval of relevant departments in accordance with the law and regulations, domestic entities and foreign entities controlled by them may not issue virtual currency overseas.


  (XIV) Domestic entities engaging directly or indirectly in overseas external debt-based tokenization of real-world assets, or conducting asset securitization activities abroad based on domestic ownership rights, income rights, etc. (hereinafter referred to as domestic equity), should be strictly regulated in accordance with the principles of "same business, same risk, same rules." The National Development and Reform Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and other relevant departments regulate it according to their respective responsibilities. For other forms of overseas real-world asset tokenization activities based on domestic equity by domestic entities, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, together with relevant departments, supervise according to their division of responsibilities. Without the consent and filing of relevant departments, no unit or individual may engage in the above-mentioned business.


  (15) Overseas subsidiaries and branches of domestic financial institutions providing Real World Asset Tokenization-related services overseas shall do so legally and prudently. They shall have professional personnel and systems in place to effectively mitigate business risks, strictly implement customer onboarding, suitability management, anti-money laundering requirements, and incorporate them into the domestic financial institutions' compliance and risk management system. Intermediaries and information technology service providers offering Real World Asset Tokenization services abroad based on domestic equity or conducting Real World Asset Tokenization business in the form of overseas debt for domestic entities directly or indirectly venturing abroad must strictly comply with relevant laws and regulations. They should establish and improve relevant compliance and internal control systems in accordance with relevant normative requirements, strengthen business and risk control, and report the business developments to the relevant regulatory authorities for approval or filing.


  V. Strengthen Organizational Implementation


  (16) Strengthen organizational leadership and overall coordination. All departments and regions should attach great importance to the prevention of risks related to virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization, strengthen organizational leadership, clarify work responsibilities, form a long-term effective working mechanism with centralized coordination, local implementation, and shared responsibilities, maintain high pressure, dynamically monitor risks, effectively prevent and mitigate risks in an orderly and efficient manner, legally protect the property security of the people, and make every effort to maintain economic and financial order and social stability.


  (17) Widely carry out publicity and education. All departments, regions, and industry associations should make full use of various media and other communication channels to disseminate information through legal and policy interpretation, analysis of typical cases, and education on investment risks, etc. They should promote the illegality and harm of virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization-related businesses and their manifestations, fully alert to potential risks and hidden dangers, and enhance public awareness and identification capabilities for risk prevention.


  VI. Legal Responsibility


  (18) Engaging in illegal financial activities related to virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization in violation of this notice, as well as providing services for virtual currencies and Real World Asset Tokenization-related businesses, shall be punished in accordance with relevant regulations. If it constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be pursued according to the law. For domestic entities and individuals who knowingly or should have known that overseas entities illegally provided virtual currency or Real World Asset Tokenization-related services to domestic entities and still assisted them, relevant responsibilities shall be pursued according to the law. If it constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be pursued according to the law.


  (19) If any unit or individual invests in virtual currencies, Real World Asset Tokens, and related financial products against public order and good customs, the relevant civil legal actions shall be invalid, and any resulting losses shall be borne by them. If there are suspicions of disrupting financial order and jeopardizing financial security, the relevant departments shall deal with them according to the law.


  This notice shall enter into force upon the date of its issuance. The People's Bank of China and ten other departments' "Notice on Further Preventing and Dealing with the Risks of Virtual Currency Trading Speculation" (Yinfa [2021] No. 237) is hereby repealed.


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