Sui resumed its strong uptrend, soaring by almost 20%. At last check Saturday, its price hovered at around $5.13.

Sui (SUI), a popular layer-2 network, has been one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies, soaring by over 1,312% from its lowest level in 2023.

This performance has brought its market cap to over $15 billion, making it the 13th biggest cryptocurrency in the industry. 

Sui’s surge coincided with the continued ecosystem growth as the total value locked in its Decentralized Finance ecosystem soared to a record high of $1.96 billion.

The biggest players in its DeFi ecosystem are Suilend Protocol, NAVI Protocol, Cetus, Scallop Lend, and Aftermath Finance. 

Sui partnerships

Sui also grew after securing major partnerships with top companies like VanEck, Grayscale, and Franklin Templeton. For example, Grayscale launched the Sui Trust, which has accumulated over $14 million in assets. If the Securities and Exchange Commission changes its view on crypto ETFs under Paul Atkins, that could signal that the firm will apply for a spot Sui ETF in 2025. 

Sui has also had more successes that have propelled it to a record high. It has incorporated four stablecoins like USD Coin, AUSD, FDUSD, and USDY, which have a combined market cap of over $406 million. 

It also launched Deepbook V3, its native onchain order book, whose trading volume jumped to over $1 billion. Its DEEP token has gained a market value of over $375 million.

Meanwhile, Sui’s DEX ecosystem is booming, handling over $46 billion in volume since its inception. 

More data shows that Sui’s futures open interest soared to a record high of $963 million. This is a notable increase from this week’s low of $650 million and a sign that SUI’s token is gaining traction among investors.

Sui price forecast

The daily chart shows that the SUI token has been bullish this year, rising for four straight days and flipping the resistance at $5 into resistance. By doing that, the coin invalidated the risky double-top pattern whose neckline was at $4. A double-top is a popular reversal sign in the market. 

The price of Sui has been supported by the 50-day moving average, which it has failed to move below since September last year. It is also a cheap coin, as the Z-score of the Market Value to Realized Value has fallen to 2.7. A cryptocurrency is said to be highly expensive when it has a Z score of 3.8.

Therefore, technicals suggest that the SUI price will rise to the extreme overshoot of the Murrey Math Lines at $5.50. A move above that level will raise the odds of it moving to the next crucial level at $10.

Cardano’s price has remained sideways this month, but a rare chart pattern indicates a potential comeback in the coming weeks.

Cardano (ADA), the popular layer-1 cryptocurrency, is trading at $1.06, down nearly 20% from its highest level this year.

The pullback followed a rally that pushed the coin to a multi-year high of $1.327 in November during the crypto bull run. This decline mirrors the performance of other cryptocurrencies, like Avalanche (AVAX) and Binance Coin (BNB), which have also retreated from their year-to-date highs.

Cardano’s drop coincided with a decline in the total value locked (TVL) within its decentralized finance ecosystem. According to DeFi Llama, Cardano protocols now hold over $597 million in total assets, down from last month’s high of nearly $700 million. The largest protocols in its ecosystem include Liqwid, Minswap, Indigo, and Splash Protocol.

Whale activity for Cardano has also slowed, and the number of active addresses over the past 24 hours is below 43,000. Meanwhile, open interest in the futures market has continued to decline.

However, several catalysts may push Cardano’s price higher in the short term. For instance, rising crypto demand—highlighted by Bitcoin’s surge past $106,000—could support ADA. Additionally, Cardano may benefit from a potential spot ADA ETF listing as early as 2025.

In the near term, the coin could also experience a boost from the “Santa Claus rally,” a phenomenon where asset prices tend to rise ahead of Christmas Day.

Cardano price has formed a rare chart pattern

The daily chart shows that the ADA price staged a strong comeback in November after Donald Trump won the election. It has since slowly formed a bullish pennant chart pattern, consisting of a long vertical line and a symmetrical triangle. This pattern is nearing its confluence point, suggesting that a bullish breakout could occur.

Cardano has also formed a golden cross pattern, where the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages have made a bullish crossover.

As a result, Cardano is likely to see a strong bullish breakout in the coming days. If this happens, the coin could rise to $1.325, its highest point this year, representing a 23% increase from its current level. A drop below the support at $1.00, however, would invalidate the bullish outlook.

Crypto payments provider Alchemy Pay has announced plans to launch its own layer-1 blockchain, which the company says will target large-scale business applications.

Alchemy Pay (ACH) notes that the layer-1 blockchain will be dubbed Alchemy Chain and built on the Solana (SOL) Virtual Machine architecture. Per an announcement on Dec. 11, the new L1 will offer a payment system allowing users to transact with fiat and crypto.

The platform will also offer a user-friendly ecosystem bridging on-chain and off-chain processes, chain abstraction, a stablecoin revenue mechanism, and yield generation. Additionally, the blockchain network will integrate a layer-2 solution, as outlined in the company’s blog post.

Alchemy Chain is set to launch with a meme launchpad and a meme Telegram bot, aiming to tap into the growing popularity of meme-based projects.

The company revealed initial plans for the L1 blockchain in late October 2024, news that saw the price of ACH jump double-digits.

Latest details on the previously disclosed objective has also seen ACH price record a significant spike, with the token up 14%. However, as well as the project related news, its price was trading higher as Bitcoin (BTC) spiked to $100k amid fresh recovery by bulls.

In recent months, several platforms have looked to launch own layer-1 and layer-2 chains.

Coinbase unveiled the mainnet of Base in August 2023, while Chiliz revealed its own blockchain in February. World, formerly Worldcoin, partnered with Alchemy Pay to launch World Chain. Recently, crypto exchange Kraken disclosed plans to debut its L1 blockchain in 2025.