Hey everyone, what a start to the year for $SUI! We've seen a beautiful pump, with the token surging over 15-18% in a single day on January 6th, hitting close to $1.97 before settling around $1.92 today (January 7, 2026). That's a solid 30-38% gain so far in January, outperforming majors like BTC and ETH amid renewed market liquidity.
The big catalyst? Fresh research and roadmap signals from Mysten Labs on advanced privacy features for the Sui blockchain. Their latest paper explores integrating zero-knowledge proofs and homomorphic encryption to enable confidential transactions – without the drawbacks of old-school privacy coins like Zcash or Monero.
Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun confirmed late last year: native private transactions are coming to Sui in 2026, built right into the protocol level. This means default privacy for payments, better regulatory compliance, and massive appeal for institutional and everyday users who want confidentiality without sacrificing speed or scalability.
How could this impact price and adoption?
Short-term: The hype around privacy tech has already driven huge volume and TVL crossing $1B. More institutional interest (like recent ETF filings) could push us toward $2.3–$3+ if momentum holds.
Long-term: Privacy is the missing piece for mainstream on-chain payments and DeFi. Combined with Sui's blazing throughput and low fees, this positions $SUI as a top contender against ETH and SOL. Analysts are eyeing $5–$8 targets in a full bull run.
The rally feels strong – we've absorbed recent unlocks without crashing, and on-chain activity is heating up.
What do you all think? Bullish on Sui's privacy pivot? How high can $SUI go in 2026?
I'd love to hear your thoughts or any questions – drop them below, and thanks so much for reading! 🙏💧
