The native SUI token of the Sui layer 1 blockchain surged more than 14% in the last 24 hours, vastly outperforming bitcoin and ether when traders seized on speculation that the Layer 1 blockchain could one day support privacy-preserving transactions.
The move stood out in an otherwise depressed market. Bitcoin rose about 1% over the same period, while Ethereum gained about 1.2%, leaving SUI as the day’s largest capitalization. This divergence points to a token-specific catalyst rather than a broad risk move.
Research-driven demonstration
Sui’s rally is likely due to research, not a product launch. A recent paper co-authored by Mysten Labs, which is the creator and lead developer of the Sui blockchain, described how modern blockchains can incorporate privacy features without fully adopting the design of legacy privacy coins.
The paper, structured as a systematization of knowledge (an academic study of existing work), established a formal framework for comparing privacy models across blockchains, categorizing privacy into different levels ranging from basic confidentiality, where transaction amounts are hidden, to k-anonymity and complete anonymity, which progressively obscure the identities of senders and receivers rather than proposing a new single protocol.
It places Sui firmly within the account-based model, along with Ethereum and Solana, and explores how such systems could implement confidential balances, limited anonymity sets, or sender-receiver decoupling using cryptographic primitives such as homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs.
Crucially, the document emphasizes trade-offs. Strong privacy guarantees tend to increase computational overhead, complicate support for some clients designed to run in resource-poor environments, and raise regulatory concerns.
Rotation towards digital cash
Throughout 2025, investors were increasingly on the hunt for “countercyclical value.” During the second half of 2025, privacy currencies like Zcash and Monero far outperformed the broader crypto markets, even as bitcoin and ether struggled amid macro pressure and dollar strength.
Analysts have framed the move as a rotation toward digital cash, assets designed for use rather than performance, where zero-knowledge proofs enable confidentiality without sacrificing settlement speed or selective compliance. The rally has been interpreted less as speculative excess and more as a sign that demand for financial privacy is re-emerging as a central market theme.
While the document does not present a timeline for launching a privacy token for blockchain, nor introduce new technology, investors hope it is a sign of what is to come.
