Sui adds confidential transfers after 3 mainnet outages, Zcash flaw

Sui will integrate confidential transfers that separate amount privacy from supply enforcement, co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun said June 5.

"Range proofs confirm that a transferred amount is valid without revealing what it actually is," Abiodun, co-founder of Mysten Labs, said in a thread on X. "Nobody outside the transaction sees the number."

The design splits two functions typically combined in privacy systems. Range proofs hide transaction amounts while the protocol itself checks that no new tokens appear from nowhere. A Zcash Orchard counterfeiting bug showed the risk of combining both jobs in one proof — unauthorized minting went undetected. "When one proof has to handle both privacy and supply integrity at the same time, it creates a larger target for attackers," Abiodun said.

The upgrade helps Sui compete for institutional users who require transaction privacy without sacrificing auditability. No launch date has been provided, but the feature is in advanced stages.

Confidential transfers sit within a broader infrastructure push that Abiodun described as "heads down" building through the bear market. Sui has already shipped gasless stablecoin transfers, allowing users to send supported stablecoins without holding SUI tokens for fees. The network is also developing native payment intents that let multiple transactions execute atomically — a feature designed for AI agents that need to book flights, reserve hotels, and process payments as a single coordinated action. Walrus, Sui's decentralized storage network, is being positioned as the memory layer for those agents.

"Bear markets separate the teams who build from the teams who tweet," Abiodun said. "We chose building. Heads down, every day, on infrastructure most people won't appreciate until the moment they suddenly need it."

The announcement follows a difficult operational period. Sui recovered from three mainnet outages tied to upgrade bugs, and a prior episode in which network stalls sent the SUI token sharply lower. Delivering confidential transfers on schedule would show that the team's infrastructure-first approach can translate into shipped product.

Abiodun previously worked on Meta's abandoned Libra payments project. He has described Sui's goal as replacing traditional payment rails including SWIFT and CHIPS, with stablecoins as the native currency for AI agents. "The internet needs to work at the speed that agents need," he said.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.