Key Takeaways
- Sui’s DeFi Suite, Suilend is the leading decentralized lending platform on the Sui blockchain, built by the team behind Solend, and has expanded into a full DeFi suite offering lending/borrowing, “infinite” liquid staking via SpringSui, and STEAMM
- Built by the Save team (formerly Solend), it lets users earn yield, stake SUI, and swap assets seamlessly. Launched in March 2024, it reached $450M TVL in 8 months and over $1B combined with SpringSui by early 2025.
- Its native token $SEND launched via a Dec 2024 airdrop; 65% of the 100M supply is community-owned.
Introduction
What if you could lend, stake, and swap crypto—all in one place, with near-zero fees?
Suilend is making this a reality as the flagship DeFi suite on the Sui blockchain. Created by the team behind Save (formerly Solend), Suilend brings together lending, “infinite” liquid staking via SpringSui, and a next-gen AMM called STEAMM, all designed to maximize capital efficiency and accessibility on Sui’s fast, low-cost network.
In this guide, we’ll break down what Suilend is, explore its key features and innovations, review its rapid growth and funding, look at its token and incentive programs
What is Suilend?
Suilend is a decentralized lending and borrowing protocol built on the high-performance Sui blockchain, designed to serve as a complete DeFi suite. Founded by the team behind Save (formerly known as Solend, one of the most widely used lending platforms on Solana), Suilend brings their proven expertise to Sui, leveraging its parallel execution engine and ultra-low fees to offer fast, efficient, and scalable financial services.
The platform’s core purpose is to democratize access to decentralized finance by allowing users to earn interest on deposits, borrow assets using crypto collateral, and maximize yield—all without intermediaries. Unlike traditional money markets, Suilend goes beyond basic lending by integrating a broader set of financial tools, including:
- SpringSui – a liquid staking solution for SUI that enables recursive or “infinite” staking strategies.
- STEAMM – a capital-efficient AMM where idle liquidity is auto-lent for extra yield, combining swapping and lending in one.
- Bridge – a cross-chain asset bridge to bring liquidity from other chains like Ethereum or Solana into the Sui ecosystem.
Together, these features position Suilend as Sui’s all-in-one DeFi platform—delivering lending, staking, swapping, and bridging under one user-friendly interface, while maintaining full user custody via smart contracts and wallets like Backpack.
Funding and Backing
Suilend has raised $6 million in funding from top crypto investors, led by Robot Ventures with participation from Delphi Ventures, Alliance DAO, Mechanism Capital, Mysten Labs, and others. This diverse investor group also includes Big Brain Holdings, Figment, Karatage, Comma3 Ventures, and Quantstamp, along with angel investors like Balaji Srinivasan. The strong financial and strategic backing reinforces confidence in Suilend’s vision to become Sui’s core DeFi suite—powering products like SpringSui and STEAMM, and aligning closely with the broader Sui blockchain roadmap.
Key Features and Benefits
- Lending & Borrowing:
Deposit assets to earn interest or borrow with collateral—powered by Sui’s fast, low-fee blockchain. Easily access via the Backpack Wallet.
- SpringSui (Liquid Staking):
Stake SUI and receive a liquid token to loop stake or borrow, enabling advanced yield strategies.
- STEAMM (Superfluid AMM):
Swap tokens and provide liquidity that earns both trading fees and lending interest—maximizing efficiency.
- Cross-Chain Bridge:
Easily bring assets from Ethereum, Solana, and others into Sui to use within Suilend.
- User-Friendly & Secure:
Clean interface, smart contract audits, and full transparency ensure safety and ease of use.
- All-in-One DeFi Suite:
Lend, stake, swap, and bridge—all in one non-custodial platform.
Incentive Programs & Point Systems
Suilend launched a multi-layered incentive strategy to reward early users and contributors ahead of its Token Generation Event (TGE). Users earn SEND Points by lending, borrowing, or staking assets on the platform. These points are distributed daily, tracked on-chain, and convert into $SEND tokens at the end of each season.
In addition, Suilend issues Capsule NFTs to top community contributors—such as content creators, educators, and builders. These NFTs also unlock token rewards and recognition.
The deposit incentives campaign through Sui Wallet also significantly enhanced user engagement. Early adopters also benefited from the “Mdrops” airdrop, which allocated 40% of the total $SEND supply to Suilend Points Leaderboard, early platform users, projects across Sui ecosystem including their companion NFT collection, Rootlets.
These programs helped Suilend rapidly grow its community and TVL, while promoting a fair, community-first token distribution. Monitor Suilend’s Twitter for updates and future opportunities.
Token Generation Event (TGE) & Airdrop Timeline
Suilend launched its native token $SEND in December 2024 via a Token Generation Event (TGE), using a unique “Mdrop” (maturing airdrop) mechanism. Instead of distributing tokens instantly, users received mSEND, a redeemable placeholder token with a flexible vesting system. Redeeming mSEND early incurred a time-based SUI penalty, while waiting through the vesting period allowed for full conversion to SEND with no fee. This experimental airdrop mechanism has since been adopted by a number of projects in Sui.
$SEND serves as Suilend’s utility token, allowing holders to potentially earn a share of future protocol revenues. It is native to the Sui blockchain and is the token for Suilend, SpringSui, and STEAMM.
Tokenomics Overview:
- Ticker: $SEND
- Total Supply: 100 million
- Community Allocation: 40%
- 20% to Suilend users (via points)
- 15% to Solend (SLND) holders via a SLND → SAVE → mSEND bridge
- 5% for NFTs, capsule holders, and ecosystem campaigns
- 20% to Suilend users (via points)
Exchange Listings & Liquidity:
$SEND was listed on Bybit and supported across Sui-native DEXes including STEAMM, Cetus, and Turbos, ensuring broad access and early liquidity.
The Mdrop model promoted long-term engagement and reduced post-airdrop dumping, while creating a strong bridge between Solana and Sui communities. Ongoing user rewards (e.g., Suilend Points) continue to offer new ways to earn $SEND through platform activity.
Track future $SEND utility updates and reward campaigns via docs.suilend.fi.
Tokens & Tokenomics
$SEND Token Overview
$SEND is the native utility of the Suilend ecosystem, built with community-first distribution and long-term alignment in mind. It powers platform incentives, protocol governance (future), and features a novel vesting model via Mdrops.
Token Use Cases:
- mSEND Token (via Mdrops): A time-locked derivative of SEND used during the claim process.
- Governance (future): Community involvement in key decisions.
- Incentives: Distributed through Mdrops and SAVE-based reward structures.
Token Allocation:
- Community: 65%
- 20% to points holders and early users
- 5% to ecosystem partners (e.g., Rootlets NFT, Capsules)
- 15% to SAVE holders (on Solana)
- 25% reserved for future community use
- 20% to points holders and early users
- Investors: 20% (vesting over 2 years)
- Team: 15% (vesting over 4 years)
Mdrops Mechanism:
Mdrops are a novel token distribution model where users first receive mSEND and then unlock actual $SEND over time:
- Penalty for early claim: Paid in SUI, encouraging demand for the Sui token.
- Penalty duration:
- 3 months for Points & Ecosystem
- 6 months for Team & Investors
- 12 months for SAVE allocations
- 3 months for Points & Ecosystem
- On maturity: Full $SEND can be claimed with no penalty.
This mechanism enables a high float at launch without overwhelming sell pressure, while rewarding long-term participation.
Unlocks:
- Mdrops (mSEND): Unlocked Day 1, claimable based on schedule
- Investors: Linear vesting over 2 years
- Team: Linear vesting over 4 years
How to Get Started with Suilend using Backpack wallet?
Download Backpack:
Install the Backpack Wallet, which now supports the Sui network. If you're already using Backpack for Solana, simply add SUI to your wallet.
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Fund Your Wallet:
Buy SUI on exchanges like Backpack Exchange, Binance, or Bybit, and transfer it to your Backpack Wallet. You’ll need SUI for gas fees and to interact with Suilend.
Visit Suilend.fi:
Go to the Suilend and click “Connect Wallet”. Backpack will prompt you to approve the connection.
Lend, Borrow, or Stake:
- Lend: Supply assets like SUI or USDC to earn interest.
- Borrow: Deposit collateral and borrow other supported assets.
- Stake via SpringSui: Stake SUI and receive liquid staking tokens that can be reused in the platform.
- Swap via STEAMM: Swap tokens directly in Suilend using its superfluid AMM.
Use the Bridge (Optional):
Bring in assets from other chains like Ethereum or Solana using Suilend’s built-in bridge.
Track Rewards:
Check your Points and Capsule NFTs to see how you’re earning $SEND tokens as part of Suilend’s ongoing incentive programs.
Future Prospects
Suilend is set to be the backbone of DeFi on Sui, growing much beyond lending into a complete-stack financial platform. With the STEAMM mainnet launch in March 2025, Suilend is creating an integrated suite of products for lending, staking, and swapping—all in one place.
Long-term, Suilend’s roadmap positions it to rival top DeFi platforms like Aave or dYdX—while being uniquely tailored to Sui’s high-performance infrastructure.
As the Sui ecosystem grows, Suilend stands to benefit from increasing capital, user adoption, and new integrations. With its community-first token model, early adoption of new primitives, and focus on user experience, Suilend is well-positioned to lead Sui’s DeFi future.
Ready to explore Suilend? Download Backpack Wallet, connect to the Sui network, and start earning, borrowing, and staking today.
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