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Layer-1 blockchain network Sui, which aims to make smart contract deployment fast and seamless, halted block production on Nov. 21 due to an outage.
In an X post, Sui acknowledged the incident, confirming that the network was “not processing transactions,” describing the issue as an “outage.”
Roughly an hour later, the developers announced that the network was back up, adding that the outage was caused by a “scheduling logic” that led to validators crashing.
Major exchanges, including South Korea’s Upbit, responded by temporarily suspending SUI deposits and withdrawals due to network instability.
According to data from SuiVision, the network’s explorer, the outage occurred at 9:15 am UTC, after which no blocks were generated for a little over two hours.
The network downtime also had an immediate impact on SUI, the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency.
CoinGecko data indicated that the token had fallen roughly 11% after the news of the outage broke, but quickly started moving back up after the fix was announced.
When writing, the altcoin was selling for $3.56 per token and was down just 2% in the past 24 hours.
Launched in May 2023, Sui has garnered attention as a blockchain focused on simplifying smart contract deployment and enabling simultaneous transaction processing.
With a market cap of $9.7 billion, it ranks as the eighteenth-largest cryptocurrency.
The technical hiccup came as the Sui network continues to gain more exposure as a layer-1 blockchain that aims to compete with established players like Ethereum and Solana.
Last week, VanEck, a global asset management firm, launched an exchange-traded note (ETN) tied to the SUI token on Nov. 13.
Listed on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris, the ETN allows European investors to gain exposure to SUI without directly holding the asset.
Following the announcement, SUI reached an all-time high of $3.92 before its price declined amid the recent disruption.
A recurring theme in the industry
Sui’s outage adds to a series of downtimes experienced by other blockchain networks this year.
In September, Zilliqa halted block production twice due to a bug, just months after the network experienced slowdowns and transaction freezes.
Ethereum’s layer-2 solution Starknet faced a major outage in April, triggered by a rounding error bug that disrupted block reorganization.
Similarly, Canto, a general-purpose layer-1 blockchain, experienced a prolonged outage in August due to issues with its consensus mechanism after a network upgrade.
Even Solana, which Sui aims to rival, went down for roughly five hours in February. Despite its position as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency, Solana has also faced repeated criticisms for its vulnerability to network disruptions.
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