Sui Is Back Under $1 Despite a 35% Gain This Month. Is It a Better Buy Than XRP?
Sui just posted a 31% gain but still can't hold $1, while XRP has stayed relatively flat despite its ETF hype. The case for which coin wins the next leg up comes down to a tension between token supply pressure…
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Sui (CRYPTO: SUI) has slipped back below $1, even after an impressive 31% gain over the past 30 days as of October 17, 2026. This raises a key Sui vs. XRP question for investors: Is Sui a better buy than XRP?
As of October 18, Sui trades around $0.98, down 10.7% over the last week. Its price fluctuated significantly in September, climbing from a low of $0.67 to a high of $1.29.
On the other hand, XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) is currently priced at $1.30, down 6.9% for the week, and has remained relatively stable with only about a 1% change over the last 30 days. With Sui’s recent momentum cooling and XRP moving sideways, which cryptocurrency offers a better opportunity for investors going forward?
Sui’s $4 Billion Market Value Is a Fraction of XRP’s $82 Billion
Market value is calculated by multiplying a coin’s price by the total number of coins in circulation. As of October 18, Sui’s market value is about $4 billion, while XRP boasts a staggering $82 billion. This means XRP is about 20 times larger than Sui, and Sui needs far less new investment to move its price.
Sui has about 4.12 billion tokens currently circulating, so at a price of $1, its market value could reach approximately $4.12 billion. However, Sui trades about 82% below its all-time high of $5.35, set on January 4, 2025.
Additionally, Sui’s token supply continues to grow, with only about 41.2% of its 10 billion-token maximum supply currently in circulation. Its fully diluted market value, including all possible tokens at their current price, is about $9.8 billion. In contrast, about 63.1% of XRP’s 100 billion-token supply is already in circulation, giving it a fully diluted value of about $130 billion.
Sui’s DeFi Cash and XRP’s ETFs Are Pulling in Different Directions
Decentralized finance (DeFi) refers to financial services that operate on blockchain technology without the involvement of traditional banks. As of October 17, the total value locked in Sui’s DeFi applications was approximately $490 million, according to DeFiLlama. Meanwhile, Sui’s stablecoin market reached about $501 million, up 5.8% over the past week. Despite this uptick, Suilend, Sui’s leading lending platform, saw deposits drop 31.2% last week.
On October 12, the Sui Foundation announced a $30 million investment in the DATA Network, a protocol designed to provide AI training data that will run directly on Sui using the Sui-based storage platform, Walrus. However, this positive news did not prevent Sui’s decline, as it fell from $1.11 on October 10 to below $1 by October 17.
For XRP, continued interest has centered on its spot ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds), but demand has recently slowed. As of October 16, U.S. XRP spot ETFs held about $1.47 billion in net assets, after $1.8 billion in total net inflows.
However, after significant inflows in late September, recent sessions have seen outflows, including $105,000 on October 15 and $2.5 million on October 16, with several days with no inflows.
Token Unlocks and ETF Fatigue Hang Over Sui and XRP
Sui’s main risk is its supply dynamics. With around 5.88 billion tokens still out of circulation—more than the current circulating supply—upcoming token unlocks could add more sellers to the market. If demand doesn’t keep up with this increased supply, Sui’s recent 31% gain could diminish rapidly.
XRP faces its own set of challenges. Enthusiasm around ETF investments seems to be waning, and XRP fell 13.1% over the two weeks leading up to October 17. Furthermore, Ripple’s efforts to forge payment partnerships have not provided much upward momentum for prices in 2026. Year-to-date, XRP is down 29.1% and trades about 64% below its $3.65 high on July 17, 2025.
Is Sui a Better Buy Than XRP? The Sui vs. XRP Verdict
For investors, Sui appears to offer a stronger setup for those willing to handle more significant price swings. Its market value is a small fraction of XRP’s, stablecoin inflows are still coming in, and the $30 million DATA Network investment could boost its utility. In contrast, XRP’s primary growth driver—ETF investments—seems to have already peaked.
For Sui, a daily close above $1 could set the stage to break above its recent highs of $1.26 and $1.29 from October and September, respectively. However, a drop below its October low of $0.96 could push it back towards $0.67. For XRP, a resurgence in daily ETF inflows above $22.6 million could strengthen its position, while continued outflows could lead it back to the $1 mark that it reached on August 18.
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Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing
