SUI Shorts Getting Squeezed? Why $4 Could Be the Next Breakout

Short sellers are piling into SUI—but this could backfire spectacularly. Here's why the token might be primed to surge past $4.

The Short Trap

Market data reveals mounting bearish bets against SUI. But with liquidity thinning and funding rates turning hostile, these positions look increasingly fragile.

Technical Tailwinds

The $4 level isn't just psychological resistance—it's where a cascade of liquidations could trigger. Perpetual swaps traders might soon learn the hard way that fighting momentum is expensive.

The Bigger Picture

While degens chase shorts, smart money watches for the inevitable squeeze. After all, nothing makes crypto traders happier than watching overleveraged bears get wrecked—except maybe tax-free gains.

SUI is one of the few L1 tokens aiming to rival Solana. The recent SUI expansion follows the overall interest in L1 tokens, a narrative with the biggest strength for the past months. 

SUI short positions signal a move above $4

The peak open interest of SUI comes with a predominance of long positions, at over 77% of open interest. On Hyperliquid, however, whales are mostly balanced, with 10 whales going long and 11 shorting SUI. 

Due to the predominance of long positions, SUI is currently bound in a range, as traders attack and liquidate the longs. In the past 24 hours, SUI saw $2.2M in long liquidations. 

However, the token has also accrued over $16M liquidity around the $4.10 level. In the past week, SUI already touched this price range, liquidating a part of the short position, but traders rebuilt their liquidity, hoping for a downward price move. However, SUI remains driven by Optimism and may attempt to attack the short positions once again.

For now, the token has not seen a short squeeze, but a breakout can attack that level. SUI achieved its all-time peak at $5.24 in January, and bulls expected a new record above $6. 

SUI grows on lending expansion

SUI already carries $2.19B in total value locked, near an all-time high. The value expanded rapidly in July, charting a series of records, riding the general trend of DeFi recovery. SUI is one of the slower-growing networks due to its inability to be EVM-compatible and its attempt to build an independent ecosystem similar to Solana.

All DeFi protocols expanded their value locked by close to 50%. The recently hacked Cetus DEX restarted on June 8 and expanded its liquidity by 55% in the past month. 

Suilend remains the main driver of activity on the chain, as demand for lending spreads to new chains. Suilend held over $738M, expanding its liquidity by 48.79% in the past 30 days. The protocol also grew its value to a new all-time peak. 

SUI currently carries over $977M in stablecoin liquidity, still lagging behind larger L1 chains. Despite this, stablecoin usage on SUI has been extremely active. Despite the small supply, SUI caught up with solana in terms of daily stablecoin transfers. 

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