Okay, let’s talk about SUI. Everyone's screaming about its recent price surge, the Grayscale trust, the xPortal partnership, and a DeFi ecosystem that's supposedly "booming." SUI up, sure, but up, up, or up, tricky magician at work here? I'm seeing echoes of the 2021 NFT frenzy, and frankly, it's giving me anxiety.

SUI NFTs: Real Art or Hype?

Let's be brutally honest. And just how many NFT projects on any chain are truly revolutionary works of art, anyway? Out of all of these, how many aren’t entirely obvious money grabs, powered by pixelated primates and off-brand Punks?

I've seen some SUI NFTs. Some are fine. Some are laughably bad. Are they culturally significant? Are they meaningful? I'm not convinced. Without the right guidance, it can seem like a digital gold rush, and most prospectors walk away with especially fool’s gold.

Remember Beanie Babies? Well, that’s exactly what a well designed NFT project is.

Photo of a Beanie Baby next to a pixelated NFT monkey

The more important question you need to ask though, is who’s winning because of this. Just like the previous one — where artists really are empowered, or where VCs and early adopters are the only ones who truly profit-rich. The art world was never devoid of unfair advantages. Now, it feels like NFTs are just recreating those same inequalities and power dynamics all over again, with the decentralized insurrectionary twist of a blockchain.

Gaming Tournaments and NFT Trading

Consider those massively popular esports tournaments that have hundreds of millions of dollars in prizes at stake. Yes, there’s definitely some skill there, but what’s just as important is the large amount of luck that was involved. A critical hit, a lag spike at exactly the wrong second… it all takes on a far different feeling when the stakes are real.

NFT trading feels similar. You can compare charts and follow trends to help you make decisions. One tweet from a whale can tank the market in an instant. It’s a competitive and high-stakes game, but is it a level playing field?

Let's not forget the bots. They’re like the aimbots of the NFT world, granting an unfair advantage to the rich and wealthy NFT collectors.

Cheat (Image of a bot trading furiously on a computer screen, overlaid with the word CHEAT

SUI's rising DEX volumes and TVL are impressive, but they don't tell the whole story. Are these numbers a product of true community interest, or are they pumped up through wash trading and bot manipulation? I’m not suggesting that it’s taking place, but we have to be audacious enough to ask the hard questions if so.

Pro-Artist or Pro-Profit?

Grayscale introducing a SUI trust? Wonderful news. xPortal integrating SUI for payments? Okay, cool. What about the artists? What about the actual creators, the artists that are creating the content that should be leading this whole ecosystem.

I’m always a little bit skeptical when big corporations and VCs swoop in to “disrupt” art. Second, because they are tendentiously anti-artist, rarely putting artists’ interests first. They don’t see human life, they see dollar signs, and they’re willing to smear creativity to profit off them.

I want SUI to be different. What I dream of is an artists’ haven, an oasis that treasures artists and celebrates creativity. Above all, I care about living in a member-focused community.

(Image of a sad pepe the frog wearing an artist's beret)

The analyst predicting $11.50 SUI? Good for them. But remember, those are predictions. Crypto is volatile. Don’t bet on the come moonshotting up your rent money.

We need to demand better from SUI. Now we just have to make sure we hold them to their promises. If we’re not careful, this won’t be one of the first art movements that turns out to be a pump and dump scheme.

The future of NFTs depends on it. And quite frankly, so does my faith in humanity. So, before you ape into SUI NFTs, ask yourself: are you supporting art, or are you just feeding the machine?

The future of NFTs depends on it. And frankly, my faith in humanity kinda does too. So, before you ape into SUI NFTs, ask yourself: are you supporting art, or are you just feeding the machine?