In this podcast episode, Elliscope, a core contributor to the NAVI Protocol project, provides a detailed overview of NAVI Protocol’s development journey, core business, and future plans. As the largest DeFi project in the Sui ecosystem, NAVI focuses on lending and liquid staking services and is actively expanding new collaborations and products.

The audio transcription was done by GPT and may contain errors. Please listen to the full podcast:

YouTube:

Please Introduce Yourself and the NAVI Project

Hi, I am Elliscope, one of the core contributors to the NAVI project. NAVI Protocol is currently the largest DeFi project on Sui, primarily focused on lending and liquid staking. Since the mainnet launch in mid-July last year, we have reached a TVL (Total Value Locked) of $200 million in the Sui ecosystem, with approximately 830,000 users, making us the top DeFi project in the Sui ecosystem.

This year marks the one-year anniversary of NAVI’s mainnet launch, and our main goal is to continue expanding our lending and liquid staking deposits, becoming the largest bank in the Sui ecosystem. We aim to support DeFi and gaming projects on Sui, enhance the utilization of funds and deposits, and become a pillar of the entire Sui ecosystem.

In addition, earlier this year, we launched our token NAVX, which has already successfully integrated with over 20 DeFi projects within the Sui ecosystem. We also plan to connect with 30 to 50 new Sui projects this year, building more DeFi solutions on top of NAVI.

NAVI’s Development Milestones Over the Past Year

Over the past year, NAVI has achieved several significant milestones. First, at the end of last year, we successfully raised around $2 million, with OKX Ventures, HASHED, and Dao5 leading the investment. These three funds are based in Asia, North America, and Dubai, respectively.

At the beginning of the year, our TVL reached approximately $50 million, and in February, we acquired the liquid staking company Volo in the Sui ecosystem. After two quarters of development, we made Volo the number one liquid staking company in the Sui ecosystem, with a TVL of approximately $50 million and over 40,000 staking users.

Additionally, in February of this year, we issued NAVI’s token NAVX and overraised by 150 times on the top DEX and Cetus LaunchPad in the Sui ecosystem. NAVX is currently traded on centralized exchanges like KuCoin, Gate.io, Huobi, LBank, and MEXC, and has a liquidity of $2–3 million on the decentralized exchange Cetus.

In the past two quarters, we have achieved nearly 50% growth in SUI-denominated TVL and recently released our Q2 financial report. Furthermore, we will soon announce several stablecoin partnerships, including Sui’s official FDUSD, Binance-supported stablecoins, and others.

Throughout our development, NAVI has worked closely with the Sui ecosystem and received incentives and subsidies from Sui, with monthly subsidy amounts reaching millions of dollars.

Why Choose the Sui Ecosystem for NAVI Instead of Other Ecosystems?

We chose the Sui ecosystem over Ethereum or other EVM chains, as well as another Move language-based blockchain, Aptos, for several reasons:

First, I believe that EVM is not a one-size-fits-all solution and was not designed to handle the needs of billions of users in the future. Technically, EVM does not consider how to achieve high TPS (transactions per second) and cannot meet the demand for smooth interactions for billions of people in the future. Moreover, the EVM ecosystem is overcrowded and highly competitive, focusing more on making the rich richer rather than building a more inclusive and robust ecosystem.

Second, from a technical perspective, the Move language provides higher security and durability for DeFi projects. So far, we have not seen any DeFi projects using the Move language suffer technical hacks, demonstrating its security. However, there is still room for improvement and strengthening in this area.

Lastly, we chose Sui over Aptos because our team has a strong engineering and technical background. The creator of the Move language supports the Sui project, allowing us to receive more technical support from the ecosystem in our development and progress. In the long term, we are very optimistic about the Sui ecosystem.

Factors Contributing to NAVI Becoming the Largest Application by TVL on the Sui Chain

Looking back over the past year, I believe several key factors have allowed NAVI to stand out:

First, we have optimized the user experience to the extreme. Specifically, we have leveraged the advantages of the Move language ecosystem, making operations like deposits, withdrawals, and loans feel very close to Web2 experiences, building on what we learned from AAVE.

Second, we are a team that places a high emphasis on security. Over the past year, we have not only showcased the tip of the iceberg of our product but also established a robust monitoring system in the background, strictly monitoring the safety of every asset and user and maintaining high standards.

Additionally, our team members from around the world are available 24/7, promptly addressing community questions and concerns about the product and security. Recently, we upgraded our oracle system, introduced dual oracle support, and built a multi-oracle architecture to enhance security further.

Lastly, the substantial support from the Sui ecosystem has been one of the key factors in our success. Sui is the first public chain to provide large-scale subsidies to projects, which has greatly helped our development.

What Makes NAVI Pro, the Upcoming Product, Different?

NAVI Pro is our latest product, officially launched in early July. We can compare NAVI to Tesla, while NAVI Pro is akin to the Tesla Model X. Building on the first version of NAVI, we constantly reflected on creating a more diverse and highly engaging product with higher brand value.

NAVI Pro is designed to be more user-friendly, especially for large users, offering advanced features for efficiently monitoring and managing assets. We provide features like liquidation price alerts, yield farming management, and customized services. When users’ assets approach the liquidation line, we notify them via Web2 methods such as email or SMS, allowing them to adjust their positions in time to avoid liquidation risks.

Additionally, we launched the Ecosystem Fund in Q1 and made the NAVI Pro SDK more developer-friendly to attract developers to join. This year, we also sponsored developer summits in Chengdu and other regions in Asia, aiming to build a vibrant developer community and jointly enhance the project’s security.

NAVI’s Collaboration with Ondo and Exploration in the RWA Field

Our current collaboration with Ondo is very efficient, focusing on two main areas. First, we will support Ondo’s USDY as collateral on the platform, helping more users access this interest-bearing stablecoin asset. Moreover, we are learning from Ondo’s experience in the RWA field, whether in branding or future collaborations, we have more plans.

We hope that through these collaborations, NAVI will gradually expand in the RWA track, growing from the current valuation of $100 million to $200 million to become a billion-dollar or even multi-billion-dollar company. This is our future goal and vision, worth looking forward to.

Expectations for the Development Trend of DeFi in the Sui Ecosystem and NAVI’s Response Strategy

I am personally very optimistic about the development of Sui and the overall Move ecosystem in the future. NAVI has grown from a small project to a pillar in the Sui ecosystem. Our positioning of NAVI has two aspects: first, as a “big brother” role, helping more projects understand the Sui ecosystem, guiding them to find their strengths and development experience in a flourishing DeFi environment. We support the ecosystem’s development through the Ecosystem Fund and collaboration with Sui’s official team, searching for outstanding developers.

Second, we constantly share the community and technology. We believe the key to the community lies in developers, who are the backbone of the ecosystem’s growth. We hope that NAVI can become an important driving force in the future development of Web3.

In the coming year, NAVI aims to achieve significant growth in TVL and further expand its influence in the Sui ecosystem. We plan to enhance security and user experience through NAVI Pro and new monitoring systems, preparing for a TVL capacity of $500 million to $1 billion. Additionally, we are exploring opportunities in the RWA (Real World Assets) field, particularly in lending needs for AI and BPO startups.

As for NAVI’s token NAVX, it is already being used in various DeFi projects within the Sui ecosystem, including deposit yields, staking and lending, and purchasing flight tickets and hotels. We are also developing an innovative tokenomics model, planning to launch it when the market warms up to provide more efficient deposit and lending services.

Does NAVI Plan to Expand to Other Move Ecosystem Public Chains?

We are currently still deeply rooted in the Sui ecosystem, as Sui is the largest of all Move ecosystems. Our goal is to become the AAVE on Sui and the AAVE in the Move ecosystem. We will support more developers and builders and hope to support more Move public chains on our infrastructure. In the short term, we do not have immediate plans to expand to other public chains.

Follow us
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain
Telegram: https://t.me/wublockchainenglish