Sui Blockchain Faces Over an Hour of Downtime Amid Rapid Expansion Goals

On November 21, the Sui blockchain, a high-performance layer-1 network optimized for swift smart contract deployment, experienced a major disruption, ceasing block production for over an hour.

Data from SuiVision, the Sui Network’s blockchain explorer, indicates that the last recorded block occurred at 9:15 AM UTC, with no further blocks produced for more than an hour. This unexpected downtime has sparked reactions across the crypto community, especially given Sui’s reputation as a potential rival to Solana, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

The outage also affected Sui’s native cryptocurrency, SUI, which saw a sharp 11% decline during the disruption. Despite this, SUI remains resilient, trading at approximately $3.40 and maintaining a 75% gain over the past month.

The incident prompted immediate responses from major platforms. South Korean exchange Upbit announced a temporary suspension of SUI deposits and withdrawals, citing network reliability concerns.

As of now, the Sui Foundation has not issued an official explanation for the downtime. While Cointelegraph sought comment from the foundation, no response was available at the time of publication.

This event underscores the challenges faced by emerging blockchain projects aiming to disrupt established players like Solana, especially as they contend with both technical reliability and market expectations.