Layer 1 Blockchain Sui Raises $300M At $2B Valuation

Series B Was Led By FTX Ventures

Mysten Labs, the developer of the Sui layer-1 blockchain, has raised $300 million in a Series B funding round that values the company in excess of $2B.

The round was led by FTX Ventures with participation from Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, a16z crypto, Jump Crypto, Circle Ventures, and other prominent VC heavyweights.

Mysten Labs launched in 2021 and comprises former Meta employees who have previously worked at Novi research, the Diem blockchain, and the Move programming language. The company’s inaugural product will be Sui, a Proof-of-Stake based blockchain which will cater to developers and creators regardless of their background.

 “Sui marries the safe asset-centric features of Move with a new object-centric data model. This pairing enables new approaches to several blockchain scaling challenges and unlocks a more direct, accessible programming style for the next generation of smart contract developers,” said Sam Blackshear, Mysten’s co-founder.

The firm says it will use the proceeds to develop and accelerate the Sui ecosystem. Additionally, it plans to expand its team, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Stiff Competition

Sui faces competition predominantly from Aptos and Solana.

Aptos raised $150M in July and has managed to raise a staggering $350 million overall in 2022.

There are many similarities between Mysten Labs and Aptos Labs. They both consist of ex-Meta employees who worked on the company’s blockchain projects. Both use the Rust-based Move programming language developed at Facebook. And finally, both projects have common VCs backing them, including FTX Ventures, Jump Crypto, and Franklin Templeton. 

In July, Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko praised the design of Move, while also saying that it is a more secure way to build smart contracts. Interestingly, Solana implemented the Move virtual machine back in 2019 when the Libra project was still in active development. More recently, however, Solana Labs has lost key personnel to Aptos.