Sui Back Online After Six-Hour Network Outage

While Sui’s recovery was quick and market reaction somewhat muted, the incident shed some light on the ongoing reliability challenges for fast-growing layer-1 networks. In contrast, real-world asset-focused blockchain Mantra is facing a deeper reckoning after announcing job cuts and a strategic restructuring after its OM token collapsed sharply from early 2025 highs.

Sui Network Restored After Outage

The layer-1 Sui blockchain has returned to normal operations after a nearly six-hour network outage temporarily halted transactions and disrupted activity across the network. The interruption was attributed to a consensus-related issue. It effectively froze more than $1 billion in value on-chain and left users unable to transact during the downtime.

The Sui Foundation confirmed the outage on Wednesday afternoon by informing its followers on X that core developers were actively working to diagnose and resolve the issue. According to the foundation, the problem was first identified at 2:52 pm UTC, and public confirmation followed shortly after at 3:24 pm UTC. Network functionality was fully restored at 8:44 pm UTC, bringing the total downtime to approximately five hours and 52 minutes.

After service resumed, the foundation said transactions were once again flowing normally and advised users still encountering problems to refresh their applications or browser sessions. However, the organization has not yet provided a detailed explanation of what caused the consensus failure, leaving some questions unanswered around the technical root of the disruption and whether more safeguards will be introduced.

This incident is the second major outage for Sui since the network launched in May of 2023. The blockchain previously experienced a big disruption in November of 2024. While outages are not uncommon in early-stage blockchain ecosystems, repeated incidents can test user confidence, particularly as decentralized finance and on-chain applications grow more capital-intensive.

Comparisons quickly emerged with Solana, another high-throughput blockchain that has faced its own history of network outages. However, Solana has not experienced a full network halt in the past 18 months, after a series of improvements to validator coordination and emergency response mechanisms. As recently as last week, the Solana Status X account urged validators to upgrade to a new release containing critical patches.

Despite the operational disruption, market reaction to the outage was quite muted. Sui’s native token, SUI, briefly jumped about 4% after confirmation of the incident before retracing its gains and stabilizing close to previous levels. However, at press time, SUI was down by more than 4% to trade hands at $1.78.

SUI’s price action over the past 24 hours (Source: CoinCodex)

Mantra Restructures After Brutal Year

While the Sui Foundation was able to quickly recover after the outage, other projects are not as lucky with regards to their own setbacks. Mantra, a blockchain project focused on real-world assets, is restructuring its operations after a year its leadership described as the most challenging in the company’s history, following a sharp collapse in its native token and sustained market pressure. 

In a statement that was shared on Wednesday, John Patrick Mullin, the CEO of Mantra, announced that the company will shift to a leaner and more capital-efficient structure. The changes include job cuts across multiple teams and a streamlining of operations after a period of expansion. Mullin said the decision followed deep internal reflection and acknowledged the personal impact on employees affected by the downsizing.

Mullin took responsibility for the path that led to the restructuring, and described the situation as difficult for staff and their families. He explained however, that the move was not solely about cutting costs, but rather part of a strategic reset aimed at improving execution and aligning resources with what Mantra sees as its strongest long-term opportunities. 

According to Mullin, Mantra is doubling down on its foundational priorities, including its layer-1 blockchain, mantraUSD, and Mantra Finance. He said the company believes these areas offer the clearest path forward despite the ongoing volatility in the wider crypto market, and that the restructuring is intended to sharpen focus rather than retreat from ambition.

The operational changes follow a dramatic decline in Mantra’s OM token, which began earlier last year. Data from CoinCodex shows that OM reached an all-time high of $9.01 in late February 2025 before plunging to $0.59 by mid-April. The token is still roughly 90% below its pre-collapse peak.

OM price action over the past year (Source: CoinCodex)

Mantra previously attributed the crash to aggressive leverage policies on centralized exchanges, and warned that forced liquidations and cascading margin calls can create systemic risks for crypto projects. At the time, Mullin argued that the issue extended beyond Mantra itself and called on exchanges to rethink how leverage is applied to native tokens.

In response to the crash, the project introduced several governance and transparency initiatives, including efforts to further decentralize validators, the rollout of a real-time tokenomics dashboard, and the burning of 150 million staked OM tokens to reduce supply. Despite these steps, the prolonged market slump continued to strain Mantra’s finances.