Sui Mainnet stalls again due to reliability issues
The Sui blockchain experienced another mainnet disruption on Thursday, freezing transactions on the network and raising new doubts about its reliability. The outage halted transfers, DeFi activity, exchanges, gaming operations, and wallet interactions on what had been one of crypto’s fastest-growing Layer 1 chains.
The Sui team confirmed the issue on X, stating that the mainnet was experiencing a network blockage. The developers are actively investigating the cause and plan to release a full crash report at a later date. Meanwhile, merchants and developers are reassessing network reliability during a critical growth phase.
Another breakdown in rapid succession
This disruption comes just days after Sui restored operations following a previous five-hour outage linked to a software bug. This earlier incident was due to a crash bug in the gas loading logic introduced in version 1.72. While validators have patched the system and resumed operations, the latest blockage has once again highlighted the ongoing risks related to scalability and coordination of validators.
The status page classified validators as majorly down, while public RPC nodes continued to operate normally. However, this difference can be misleading, as RPC services can still display older blockchain data during validator outages. Validators cannot confirm or finalize new transactions until consensus has resumed on the network.
For users, the impact is immediate and perceptible. Transfers may fail, DeFi positions may crash, and gaming apps or stablecoin payments may stop working. Unlike normal congestion, a network blockage completely stops the blockchain’s progress, even while users continue to pay transaction fees.
Stablecoin expansion faces new pressure
The outage comes at a critical expansion phase for Sui’s ecosystem. The network recently introduced gasless stablecoin transfers covering seven tokens, including USDC and FDUSD. The feature waives transaction fees for eligible transfers and aims to simplify blockchain payments for businesses and users.
Additionally, CME Group launched regulated SUI futures alongside Avalanche products. The move expands institutional access through cash-settled derivatives linked to official CME reference rates.
Past incidents highlight technical risks
Sui had already faced a major disruption in January 2026 after validators reached conflicting consensuses. The incident interrupted checkpoint certification for nearly six hours. However, the developers said that user funds remained safe and no transaction cancellations had taken place.
The latest outage adds to broader security concerns across the Move ecosystem. Researchers recently identified a TrapDoor malware campaign targeting the development environments of Sui, Aptos and Solana.
Meanwhile, the pressure of SUI tokens has decreased during recent trading. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the token is now trading at $0.9256, up 1% in the last 24 hours and around 83% below its January 2025 high.
