SUI rallies as Circle announces the launch of USDC on its network

• Circle announced plans to launch its USDC stablecoin and CCTP protocol on the Sui chain.
• Sui becomes the first move-based chain to have native USDC. 
• SUI is up over 14% in the past 24 hours, extending its monthly gains by more than 40%.

SUI is up 14% on Wednesday as Circle announced that its USDC stablecoin and Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) will launch on the Sui blockchain.

SUI surges following partnership with Circle

Layer-1 blockchain Sui has been gaining constant attention following big launches on its network, including the latest launch from USDC issuer Circle.

Circle announced its plans to launch its USDC stablecoin on the Sui blockchain on Tuesday. The announcement also included the integration of Circle's CCTP for cross-chain building among developers.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire mentioned that the USDC Sui testnet went live in the past few hours. The partnership marks Sui as the first blockchain-based on the Move programming language to support native USDC and CCTP. As a result, Ethereum-bridged USDC tokens on the block explorer will be renamed as wUSDC ahead of the launch of native USDC tokens on the network.

SUI has risen over 14% in the past 24 hours following Circle's announcement. The token has seen a significant rally over the past month, with monthly gains climbing over 40%.

The uptrend dates back to September 6, when SUI broke out from bearish pressures and outperformed most cryptocurrencies in the top 100 category.

Some reasons for Sui's remarkable rise include a notable upgrade to a Mysticeti consensus protocol, which enables faster transactions on its network, and the launch of a Grayscale Sui trust fund. DeFi activity on Sui has also grown in recent months, with its total value locked rising to $736 million, per DefiLlama data.