SUI beats AVAX, NEAR, HYPE in volume, yet traders exit: What’s going on?

Key Takeaways

SUI’s monthly trading volume beat AVAX, HYPE, and NEAR combined, hitting $44.59B. The volume surge coincided with BTCfi’s launch on DeepBook and record TVL growth.

At press time, Sui [SUI] was down 4% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. The decline mirrored broader crypto market sentiment following a brief rally earlier in the week.

SUI had surged to a local high of $4.40, but despite the pullback, on-chain volume remained strong. Data from CoinGecko showed SUI’s trading volume continued to rise.

SUI winning the competition 

Analytically, the volume of SUI token was more than the combined value for Avalanche [AVAX], Hyperliquid [HYPE] and Near Protocol [NEAR].

SUI’s volume for July was at $44.59 billion, which was $8B more than what its competitors had. The volume included all swaps for CEXes and DEXes, affirming the wider acceptance of the altcoin.

Source: Torero Romero/X

The volume increase was driven by a combination of evolving protocols like Cetus and the newly launched BTCfi, which unlocked new liquidity avenues for the network.

What’s driving the surge?

One of the main drivers of SUI volume was its DeFi protocols, which were now accommodating Bitcoin [BTC]. This was a new milestone, considering how it is hard to scale with BTC tokens.

BTCfi would allow using Bitcoin on SUI’s DeepBook to provide liquidity on pools, trading perps and options, leveraging, lending and borrowing.

This would introduce a whole new liquidity on the L1 blockchain, as stated on X (formerly Twitter).

Source: DeFiLlama

The Total Value Locked on SUI grew by over 480% since January, reaching $2.295 billion by late July.

When factoring in liquid staking, borrowings, and double-counted funds, the aggregate TVL hit $3.48 billion—an all-time high.

Stablecoin activity also remained robust, with the market cap at $1.036 billion and daily inflows at $2.36 million, signaling steady capital deployment across protocols.

SUI flips Ichimoku Cloud resistance 

As the altcoin won on the volume front, price was on the other hand trying to stay above the Ichimoku cloud. The price action had flipped the level, which was coinciding with a descending trendline.

SUI was trading at $3.82 and the price seemed to have retested the $3.61 zone.

The Awesome Oscillator showed modest bullish momentum, but sellers dominated the volume profile.

The Money Flow Index (MFI) dropped to 36.47, suggesting money was exiting the asset despite positive structural growth.

Source: TradingView

Despite price weakness, derivatives data showed a cautiously optimistic outlook. The OI-Weighted Funding Rate remained positive, indicating that long traders were still paying shorts.

Meanwhile, Open Interest dropped from $2.66 billion to $2.41 billion, but crucially stayed above the $2 billion threshold.

This resilience hinted that institutional or whale interest hadn’t fully dried up, even amid broader market corrections.