Sui tunnels hit 40.6M TPS in AI-agent stress test

Sui’s programmable offchain tunnels reached a peak of 40,614,180 transactions per second during a live stress test held Wednesday at Sui Basecamp in Singapore. The test simulated high-frequency activity between AI agents.

The result exceeded the roughly 6.1 million transactions per second recorded in a similar test in July. More than 10,000 tunnels were opened on Sui mainnet during the demonstration, with activity linked to payments, games and chat applications.

The transactions were processed offchain through Sui tunnels, which are programmable channels that settle transactions on the Sui blockchain when they close. The system is designed to handle frequent activity without sending every transaction directly to the blockchain.

Sui has identified interactions between AI agents as one potential use case for the tunnels. Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder and chief product officer at Mysten Labs, the original contributor to Sui, described the intended activity in the test: “Sui is built for the moment when millions of AI agents are transacting every day. No market in the world needs 6 million transactions per second, let alone 40 million: people just don’t move that fast. Agents do.”

Blockchain security firm CertiK served as an independent auditor during the demonstration and is reviewing the test data. A report is expected in the coming days.

Sui is a layer-1 blockchain developed by Mysten Labs. Its tunnel system allows activity to take place offchain while using the Sui network to settle transactions when a channel closes.