Sui Network plans confidential transactions as privacy demand heats up across crypto

Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun just announced that the Sui blockchain will launch confidential transactions this year, adding privacy features to a network that has already processed more than $1 trillion in stablecoin volume since August 2025.

Abiodun announced the news on X, sharing that “the entire internet is about to get free payments with privacy, at scale,” and that the new feature is unique to Sui.

The announcement followed an interview with The Block at Consensus 2026, where he explained his vision for Sui to be “a default network for how you move money” through zero-fee stablecoin transfers and private payments.

Privacy tokens and infrastructure attract fresh capital

The new feature comes as privacy-focused assets and technology attract new attention from both traders and institutional investors. According to CoinGecko data, Zcash (ZEC) has surged from roughly $320 to above $570 in the past month, and that growth was mainly driven by short squeezes, growing shielded supply, and concerns about quantum computing threats to transparent blockchains.

At the same time, Digital Asset Holdings (the company behind the privacy-oriented Canton Network) is reportedly seeking to raise $300 million at a $2 billion valuation in the upcoming funding round led by a16z Crypto, according to reports.

Unlike other privacy projects that try to hide every transaction, Sui’s approach focuses on allowing users to choose when to keep their information private.

Abiodun argued that users shouldn’t have to use a blockchain where their “bank account looks like Twitter,” meaning everyone can see their spending. Sui’s new system will allow users to encrypt their data, which could eventually help fix mistakes and stop fraud if AI agents make a wrong payment on the user’s behalf.

Sui cracks $1 trillion stablecoin milestone

Sui’s privacy features are built on a very busy network that has processed over $1 trillion in stablecoin transactions since August 2025. Currently, the network holds about $643.03 million in total value locked (TVL) across its DeFi protocols, with a stablecoin market cap of around $571 million, per DeFiLlama.

Sui Network holds about $571 million in stablecoin volume. Source: DeFiLlama.

Abiodun also explained that Sui’s goal was to finish what the Libra and Diem projects at Meta had started, as several members of the team had worked there before. He also pointed out that current banking systems are outdated and way too expensive, noting that sending $100 to Nigeria can cost as much as $35 in fees.

Technical issues, token performance and the future of Sui blockchain

The privacy announcement arrives during a period of technical issues for Sui. The network stopped working for several hours in January 2026 because of a divergence in validator consensus processing. That incident followed another three-hour outage in November 2024 caused by a bug in transaction scheduling logic.

SUI price has staged a strong rally over the last week. Source: CoinMarketCap.

While the current price of approximately $1.27 is significantly below its January 2025 record high of $5.35, the token has also recovered well this May. Since starting the month at roughly $0.91, SUI has enjoyed close to two weeks of consistent growth, climbing over 37% last week alone.

The upward trend was reflected by today’s rally, which was mostly driven by the launch of SUI futures on regulated exchanges and the confidential transactions announcement. While the long-term price is still recovering, this recent momentum marks a surge of interest in the project, alongside developer activity skyrocketing to 200%.

Abiodun attributed the figures to “capabilities competitors can’t match,” including onchain market-making and atomic multi-transaction submits. He also told The Block that Sui is currently testing post-quantum cryptographic signatures on its testnet, targeting deployment ahead of anticipated EU quantum-resistance mandates expected by 2030.

It must be noted, however, that Sui has not disclosed a specific launch date for confidential transactions beyond “this year.” The implementation details, including which transaction types will support privacy and whether the feature will apply to all tokens or only stablecoins, remain unspecified.

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