Lido Alternatives on Sui: Liquid Staking Options in 2026
Lido has no Sui deployment. How Sui's liquid staking tokens (sSUI, haSUI, vSUI, afSUI) compare with stETH on fees, exits, validators and size.
Lido does not run on Sui, so the Lido alternatives there are Sui's own liquid staking tokens: SpringSui's sSUI, Haedal's haSUI, Volo's vSUI and Aftermath's afSUI. Together, the liquid staking protocols DefiLlama lists on Sui held about $120 million on 31 October 2026. Lido held about $21.8 billion the same day, almost all of it on Ethereum, per DefiLlama.
The gap in size is only part of the story. Sui staking works differently from Ethereum staking, so the problem a liquid staking token solves is smaller on Sui, and the designs differ to match.
How Lido works
You deposit ETH with Lido and receive stETH. Lido routes the ETH to validators run by node operators that the Lido DAO approves, and LDO token holders govern the protocol. Our stETH explainer covers the background.
A few design choices define Lido, and each one has a Sui counterpart worth comparing:
- Rebasing token. stETH balances rebase daily when the Lido oracle reports the validators' balance. wstETH wraps it into a non-rebasing token whose value in stETH rises instead, per Lido's token integration guide.
- A 10% fee. Lido takes 10% of staking rewards and splits it between node operators and the DAO treasury. The DAO can change it by vote.
- A withdrawal queue. To exit through Lido, you lock stETH in a first-in, first-out queue and receive a transferable NFT for your place. There is no fixed wait; the request is finalized when ETH becomes available.
- Many operators. Stake is spread across a set of operators the DAO selects. Since 30 January 2026 Lido V3 has also offered stVaults, which let stakers open vaults with a chosen node operator, as The Block reported on launch.
Lido's DefiLlama page records a stETH depeg in June 2022 and the activation of ETH withdrawals in May 2023. Before withdrawals existed, the only way out of stETH was to sell it on the market, which is how it traded below ETH in 2022. Lido's TVL peaked at about $42.5 billion on 23 August 2025.
Why Sui staking is a different problem
On Ethereum, running your own validator takes 32 ETH. On Sui, anyone can delegate SUI to a validator directly from a wallet. The Sui docs describe 24-hour epochs, with rewards that accrue only for epochs where your stake was active the whole time. Unstaking returns principal plus rewards, and Suilend's FAQ puts the wait at about one day.
Sui's docs also describe no slashing of principal. A validator that performs badly loses its rewards for the epoch under the tallying rule, and its delegators lose that epoch's rewards with it.
So a Sui LST mostly buys you two things. You can use staked SUI in DeFi while it earns, and you can skip the roughly one-day exit. On Ethereum, stETH also offered a way out before the network allowed withdrawals at all, which Lido only enabled in May 2023.
Two Sui framework changes shaped the local LSTs. Aftermath authored SIP-6, which allowed liquid staking without centralized components. SIP-33, proposed by Suilend, allows inactive StakedSui objects to be redeemed immediately, which is what lets several Sui LSTs offer instant unstaking.
The Sui liquid staking tokens
sSUI (SpringSui)
sSUI is the largest Sui LST, at about $57.5 million on 31 October 2026. Suilend's team built it on the SpringSui standard, which lets any team issue its own LST. You can redeem the whole supply for SUI in one transaction. The on-chain configuration we read on 31 October 2026 showed a 0.02% redeem fee and no fee on staking rewards. All its stake sat with one validator, named Suilend. Our SpringSui explainer has the details.
haSUI (Haedal)
haSUI held about $35.5 million. Haedal takes 6% of staking rewards, per its value-accrual docs. You can let an algorithm spread your stake across validators or pick them yourself. A regular unstake is free and takes one to two epochs; an instant unstake costs 0.02%. See what is haSUI.
vSUI (Volo)
vSUI held about $22.9 million. DefiLlama groups Volo under NAVI Protocol, which announced it had acquired Volo in January 2024. Volo's FAQ says it takes 10% of staking rewards and that unstaking is instant because Volo adopted SIP-33. See what is vSUI.
afSUI (Aftermath)
afSUI held about $2.7 million, down from a peak of about $90.9 million in December 2024. It is the one Sui LST where you choose the validator, and Aftermath says it does not delegate to its own. The regular unstake pays out at the end of the epoch and charges 5% of the rewards you earned. An instant unstake costs 0.1% to 1%, depending on how full Aftermath's reserve is.
stSUI (AlphaFi) and the smaller ones
AlphaFi's stSUI held about $0.7 million, down from about $50.3 million in July 2025. It is no longer a current option. Sui Network said on 25 September 2026 that a misconfigured ALPHA oracle had created bad debt, that AlphaFi is winding down, and that the Sui Foundation would keep the protocol solvent. Withdrawals are open, but new deposits and borrows have stopped, so check stSUI's redemption status in the AlphaFi app. Momentum's xSUI held about $0.19 million. The SpringSui Ecosystem group, which covers other tokens built on SpringSui, held about $0.6 million.
The search term stsui trips people up. stSUI is AlphaFi's token, not a Lido product, and Lido has no Sui deployment.
Lido vs Sui LSTs side by side
TVL is DefiLlama's, from 31 October 2026. Fees and exit routes come from each protocol's docs, or for sSUI its on-chain configuration on the same date.
| Token | TVL | Fee on rewards | Exit to native coin | Who picks validators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stETH (Lido) | about $21.8B | 10% | Withdrawal queue with a transferable NFT; no fixed wait | Lido DAO-approved operators, or stVaults |
| sSUI (SpringSui) | about $57.5M | 0% | Instant, 0.02% | The issuer; one validator on 31 Oct 2026 |
| haSUI (Haedal) | about $35.5M | 6% | Free in 1 to 2 epochs, or instant for 0.02% | Haedal's algorithm, or you |
| vSUI (Volo) | about $22.9M | 10% | Instant | Volo |
| afSUI (Aftermath) | about $2.7M | 5% of rewards, on regular unstake | At epoch end, or instant for 0.1% to 1% | You |
| stSUI (AlphaFi, winding down) | about $0.7M | Not checked | Withdrawals only; check the app | Not checked |
Our Sui liquid staking comparison goes through haSUI, vSUI, afSUI and JWLSUI in more depth, including measured yields from September 2026.
Which Sui LST fits which user
If you want the deepest liquidity and the fastest exit, sSUI is the largest token and redeems instantly for 0.02%. You accept that its stake depended on a single validator when we checked.
If you care about validator choice, afSUI and haSUI's manual mode let you pick. That is the nearest Sui equivalent to choosing an operator through a Lido stVault, without the institutional setup.
If you plan to borrow against your LST, check which lenders list it and at what loan-to-value. sSUI is the LST behind Suilend's one-click looping Strategies, and NAVI is part of the same group as Volo. Our Sui lending comparison covers the lenders.
If you only want staking rewards and no DeFi, native staking is simple on Sui and has no LST contract risk. See liquid staking vs native staking and our guide to staking SUI.
Risks to weigh
Every LST adds smart contract risk on top of staking. A bug in the LST contract can freeze or drain deposits, even when the validators behave. Admin keys are a related risk, because the issuer can usually change fees and validators.
Depeg risk is lower when redemption is instant and covers the full supply, because arbitrage can close any gap. It does not vanish. If redemptions are paused or a contract fails, the market price can drop below the backing, as stETH did in 2022.
Liquidity has thinned across Sui. Total DeFi TVL on the chain was about $462 million on 31 October 2026, against a peak of about $2.64 billion on 9 October 2025, per DefiLlama's Sui page. Thin DEX pools make it costlier to sell a smaller LST quickly, so the protocol's own redemption route matters more. Our Sui TVL breakdown shows where the remaining money sits.
For a fuller checklist, read is liquid staking safe?
Where JewelSwap fits
JewelSwap designed a Sui LST that borrows two ideas Lido users will recognize. JWLSUI and SJWLSUI use two tokens: JWLSUI is backed 1:1 by SUI, and staking it gives SJWLSUI, whose value rises with rewards. Exiting through the protocol takes a 10-day unbonding period, and your place is held by a transferable claim NFT, much like Lido's withdrawal NFT. Holders vote in a Gauge on how stake is split across validators, a governance role that Lido's DAO plays for its operators. Deposits are not open at the time of writing, so treat this as a design description.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lido available on Sui?
No. Lido has no Sui deployment. The liquid staking tokens on Sui come from SpringSui, Haedal, Volo, Aftermath and other Sui teams. AlphaFi's stSUI is winding down.
What is the largest liquid staking token on Sui?
SpringSui's sSUI, at about $57.5 million on 31 October 2026 per DefiLlama. Haedal's haSUI was second at about $35.5 million.
Is stSUI a Lido token?
No. stSUI is AlphaFi's liquid staking token on Sui, and AlphaFi has been winding down since September 2026. Lido's tokens are stETH and wstETH on Ethereum.
Does Sui have slashing like Ethereum?
Sui's docs describe no slashing of staked principal. A validator that performs poorly loses its staking rewards for that epoch, and so do its delegators.
Why is Sui liquid staking so much smaller than Lido?
Native SUI staking already exits in about a day, so an LST adds less on Sui than stETH did on Ethereum. Sui's DeFi TVL is also far smaller, at about $462 million on 31 October 2026.
Educational only, not financial advice. Figures from DefiLlama, protocol docs and the sSUI contract on Sui mainnet, checked 31 October 2026. DeFi carries smart-contract and market risk.
