SUI is the native token of the Sui blockchain, a Layer-1 network built by Mysten Labs, a team founded by several former Meta engineers who worked on the Diem (formerly Libra) project before Meta shelved it. Sui launched its mainnet in May 2023 and is built around the Move programming language, originally developed for Diem, which treats digital assets as distinct “objects” rather than entries in a shared ledger. This object-centric design allows Sui to process many transactions in parallel rather than one after another, which the network’s backers argue gives it a real speed and scalability edge over older Layer-1 chains. SUI itself is used to pay gas fees, to stake with validators securing the network, and to vote on governance decisions. Since launch it has traded through the familiar boom-and-bust rhythm of most crypto assets, with a major run-up into late 2024, a second push higher in mid-2025, and a sharp correction into the back half of that year.
Reading the chart: volume tells the real story
Chart by stockcharts.com
Price alone only tells half the story on a weekly chart like this one. What matters just as much is how much buying or selling actually backed that price move — and that’s where comparing MACD against the Elder Force Index (EFI) becomes useful. Both indicators respond to price momentum, but EFI also factors in volume directly. When price and volume are moving together, the two lines should broadly agree. When they diverge, it’s a signal that the crowd’s conviction doesn’t match the price action.
Two clear examples show up on this chart. In late 2024, SUI’s blow-off top arrived on a final large green candle — but that candle came on unusually thin volume, and MACD and EFI pulled apart from each other right at the peak. Buyers had, in effect, stopped buying even as price pushed higher. Anyone reading that divergence had a genuine early warning to take profit, well ahead of the eventual drop. A near-identical pattern played out again in July 2025: a fresh rally, but weak underlying volume, flagged by the same MACD/EFI split.
The more interesting divergence, though, is the one that followed. From October to November 2025, SUI fell hard — from around $3.50 down to roughly $1.30 — but that decline also happened on surprisingly light volume, with MACD and EFI diverging again, this time on the way down. With Bitcoin itself in a broader bear phase at that point, there was little in the macro backdrop to lift SUI regardless of its own supply-demand picture. But thin volume on a large price decline generally means one thing: the majority of holders were not panic-selling. They sat through the drawdown rather than dumping.
That matters now because the EFI indicator has recently broken back above its zero line relative to MACD — a shift that, going by the earlier pattern, has tended to mark a change in underlying buying pressure. Combined with the fact that most holders appear to have stayed put through the collapse rather than distributing their coins at low prices, the available float looks tighter than the price alone would suggest. If demand returns with the next broader crypto upcycle, new buyers may find there simply isn’t as much cheap supply sitting around waiting to be sold — meaning they could be forced to pay up to accumulate a position.
This is chart-based analysis, not financial advice — always do your own research before trading or investing.