Sui posts 40.6 million TPS, aiming for off-chain speed at AI-agent payments

During a live stress test on Wednesday in Singapore, Sui achieved 40,614,180 transactions per second (TPS), breaking its own record from July of 6.09 million TPS by more than six times.

However, the record was set because of the incredible involvement of over 10,000 off-chain tunnels rather than the actual transactions taking place on the Sui mainnet itself, which is an important distinction as the system plans to focus on AI-driven payments.

Why the 40 million number is not native throughput

Sui’s programmable tunnels function similarly to Lightning Network payment channels. Transactions take place off-chain, but the opening and closing states are settled on-chain.

The tunnels are capable of processing payments, messaging, games, and other activities. Each closed tunnel is co-signed and verified on-chain.

However, the provided number of 40.6 million does not represent the actual capacity of the native blockchain, which is covered independently by Chainspect.

CertiK confirmed the results of the presented event independently and the relevant proof is expected to be provided later. Yuannan Yang, the security engineering director of the company, stated the following in Sui’s announcement:

“Transparent and independently verifiable performance measurements will become increasingly important.”

As reported earlier by Cryptopolitan, CertiK will check the records of how the execution took place, the proof of the operation being successful, and the supporting documents.

The payments prize Sui is chasing

Adeniyi Abiodun, Mysten Labs’ co-founder and chief product officer, believes autonomous AI agents could make use of that capacity.

He explained in the Sui Foundation’s statement:

“No market in the world needs 6 million transactions per second, let alone 40 million: people just don’t move that fast. Agents do.”

Cost plays a crucial role in his argument. Every tunnel uses no more than two on-chain transactions. This means that thousands of intermediate exchanges can take place at a very low cost.

The potential is enormous. According to McKinsey, the payment industry earns about $2.6 trillion every year, while agentic AI can put at risk approximately $75 billion in revenues by 2030.

Where it meets the real-world settlement gap

Processing millions of transactions in a test is different from moving money across borders.

The Financial Stability Board’s targets call for 75% of cross-border retail payments to arrive within an hour, with average costs falling to 1% or less by 2027.

Yet its 2025 progress report found little improvement globally and warned that the targets are unlikely to be met.

Banks are also exploring faster settlement. Lloyds and Visa tested round-the-clock stablecoin settlement, while Swift is developing blockchain-based payment infrastructure.

At the same time, the Bank for International Settlements highlights the significance of trust and settlement finality during transactions, especially when speed is concerned. 

A technical milestone that still has to prove itself

Sui has illustrated the level of traffic its offchain tunnels can accommodate. Now it’s time to see whether this speed can lower payment costs, speed up cross-border transfers, and ultimately drive consistent business adoption.

At present, the 40.6 million TPS mark represents a technical achievement. Time will tell whether it can impact everyday payments.

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