NAVI Prime: How the Largest Lending Protocol on Sui Innovates to Pave the Way for a $10 Billion Fund After $30 Billion in Loans Over Three Years?

Original Author: Alex, Defi Researcher

"When NAVI reaches $1 billion in TVL in September 2025, our largest single depositor will have provided over $30 million."

In an X Space prior to the launch of NAVI Prime, NAVI founder Elliscope recalled this milestone. For a lending protocol, $30 million not only signifies scale but also indicates a completely different set of questions beginning to arise.

"As we grew to that point, we started asking ourselves, if we want to further grow to $5 billion, $10 billion, or even $100 billion, large capital providers will first ask: Who is managing the risk? Where is my money being deployed?"

Users with a few tens of thousands of dollars might first compare APY; as the capital scale rises to tens of millions, the starting point of discussions often shifts to risk boundaries, asset destinations, and management responsibilities.

To address this issue, in August 2026, NAVI officially launched NAVI Prime, positioning it as the first modular capital market on Sui to introduce professional curators. Unlike the shared liquidity pools NAVI operated over the past three years, NAVI Prime separates different lending relationships into isolated markets, with professional curators responsible for asset due diligence, parameter design, and capital allocation.

This upgrade is not merely about adding a few more yield pools. It attempts to answer a more realistic question: When DeFi funds no longer only look at yields, how can protocols inform users where their returns come from, what risks they are taking, and who is managing them?

Three Years, From $0 to $1 Billion TVL: Beyond Scale, Sustainability Matters More

In the Sui ecosystem, NAVI is no longer a new project.

According to data provided by the project team, since its launch in 2023, NAVI has processed approximately $30 billion in loans and about $10 billion in deposits, serving over 1 million users; its TVL peaked over $1 billion, once accounting for more than 40% of Sui's total TVL, and has operated continuously for over 1,000 days.

In the past three years, the platform has issued over $60 million in incentives while generating nearly $30 million in protocol revenue. The statistical criteria for these two sets of numbers are not the same and cannot be simply understood as a direct comparison of input and return, but they collectively present NAVI's scale in the early DeFi market on Sui.

Amidst the backdrop of other projects ceasing operations, consolidating, or merging, NAVI has maintained its position as one of the core lending markets on Sui. Supporting this system is a team of about 20 people, headquartered in Palo Alto, with members distributed in San Francisco and New York, including core members from tech companies and financial institutions such as LinkedIn, Apple, and Bank of America, as well as the development team of the Sui ecosystem. In 2023, NAVI received joint investments from Hashed, OKX Ventures, and Dao5.

At the launch of NAVI Prime, Ryan Kim, founder of Hashed, South Korea's largest cryptocurrency investment firm and NAVI's earliest investor, summarized this experience as "long-term building through cycles."

"DeFi has experienced significant volatility since 2020, but NAVI's lending protocol has built a moat around Sui. Supporting long-term builders like Elliscope and the NAVI team who navigate market cycles is Hashed's core value. We are pleased to see them seize this opportunity to expand their institutional business landscape."

These data and endorsements indicate that NAVI has already been able to gather liquidity. However, for NAVI Prime, the next phase that truly needs to be proven is not just whether it can attract funds, but whether it can help funds understand why they should stay.

From Shared Pools to Curated Markets: Why Larger Scales Require Risk Segmentation?

Shared liquidity pools are one of the most important infrastructures in the early stages of DeFi lending. Users deposit assets into the protocol, and different lending demands share liquidity, allowing funds to be utilized more efficiently.

For Sui, which just started in 2023, this was a reasonable choice. At that time, the types of assets within the ecosystem were limited, and concentrating liquidity was far more efficient than establishing markets for each asset individually.

However, shared liquidity also means that multiple assets and lending behaviors are placed into the same system. Even if different assets can set different parameters, risks may still influence each other through shared liquidity and liquidation relationships. For ordinary users, this risk is often compressed into a simple APY; for large amounts of capital, the question of "Is the entire protocol safe?" is too vague.

Elliscope provided a clear dividing line in a recent X Space:

"If I ask someone to try a product with $100,000, their first question is usually about the yield. But if I ask an institution to deploy $10 million or $30 million, their first question must be about risk management: How does the platform manage risk, who are the participants, and how are responsibilities divided?"

Shaan Varia, head of on-chain finance at Mysten Labs, also shared a similar judgment in an interview. Before joining Mysten Labs, he led the product team at the DeFi risk management firm Gauntlet for five years. Compared to a general ecological or business perspective, this experience brought his judgment closer to the real issues institutions face when executing capital allocation.

At Gauntlet, risk management is not about labeling a protocol as "safe" or "dangerous," but rather about placing on-chain market data, borrower positions, asset liquidity, and smart contract mechanisms into a simulated environment, repeatedly stress-testing parameters such as LTV, liquidation thresholds, asset caps, and interest rates. Shaan explained in Gauntlet's methodological articles that their system runs thousands of simulations daily, seeking better parameter combinations between protocol repayment risks and capital efficiency; Gauntlet's related frameworks have also long been used for risk management in mainstream lending protocols like Aave and Compound.

"For institutions, the core issue is risk management. When they enter the on-chain world, they are typically looking for two things: a broader market that their existing capital base cannot reach, and new structured products with specific risk, return, and liquidity characteristics."

Therefore, when Shaan breaks down economic risk, oracle risk, smart contract risk, liquidity risk, and solvency risk layer by layer in X Space, he is not just discussing whether "Sui can attract institutions," but a more specific question: Does this chain already have the capability to allow institutions to choose assets according to their own risk policies, control exposures, and continuously monitor allocations?

This is precisely the problem NAVI Prime aims to solve: no longer requiring all funds to accept a set of blended risks, but allowing funds to choose the portion of risk they are willing to bear.

NAVI Prime is not simply about "splitting pools" but about redefining responsibilities.

The structure of NAVI Prime can be summarized in three keywords: isolated markets, professional curation, and modularity.

Isolated markets mean that different collateral types and lending relationships are placed in relatively independent markets. Each market has its own interest rate model, collateral ratio, liquidation parameters, and risk boundaries. When a particular type of collateral encounters issues, the potential impact is first limited to the corresponding market, rather than naturally spreading to all liquidity.

Professional curation means that markets are no longer entirely managed uniformly by the protocol. Curators need to research assets, conduct due diligence, set risk parameters, choose configurable markets, and continuously monitor capital utilization and risk changes.

Modularity means that these markets and curation strategies can be further integrated by vaults, structured products, or other DeFi protocols without having to build a lending protocol from scratch.

In this structure, the responsibilities of three types of participants are clearly distinguished:

• Liquidity providers choose specific markets or curation strategies, deposit stablecoins or other assets, and earn corresponding lending yields;

• Curators are responsible for asset due diligence, risk parameters, capital allocation, and continuous monitoring;

• NAVI provides isolated markets, permission systems, and underlying lending infrastructure.

For users, the significance of this change is: deposit decisions are no longer just about "whether to enter NAVI," but further evolve into "which market to enter, what collateral risk to accept, and which curator to choose."

In other words, users are no longer passively inheriting a blended risk packaged in a shared pool but can actively choose their risk profile.

For capital providers, what matters more than the highest APY is that the returns can be explained.

NAVI Prime does not promise that all markets are safer, nor does it mean that all isolated markets can provide higher yields. It addresses another issue: allowing different risks to be priced without being roughly estimated by the same set of generic parameters.

NAVI co-founder Charles used SUI and vSUI as an example in Space.

Imagine two markets: one where users borrow USDC against SUI as collateral; the other where users borrow vSUI against SUI as collateral for leveraged liquidity staking strategies. The former involves price changes between volatile assets and stablecoins, while the latter's two assets are highly correlated, thus requiring different collateral ratios and liquidation parameters.

In a shared pool, protocols must accommodate multiple lending relationships simultaneously; in isolated markets, two strategies can utilize parameters that are more suited to their specific risk characteristics. According to the example given by Charles in an interview, the LTV for SUI collateralized borrowing of USDC is approximately 70% to 80%, while in the highly correlated SUI and vSUI markets, the LTV can support around 92% to 95%.

"Various mechanisms have been attempted in the shared pool to reconcile these differences, but isolated markets provide a clearer solution. NAVI Prime can create two independent markets, each tailored with parameters for its specific use case."

A higher LTV does not inherently equate to greater safety, nor does it necessarily yield higher returns. What this example truly illustrates is that when different lending relationships are separated, funds can be allocated more precisely based on the correlation and liquidation risks between specific assets.

For capital providers, the most significant change is not the addition of a few yield numbers on the page, but the ability to answer four questions before entering:

1. Which market will my funds enter?

2. What assets are borrowers using as collateral?

3. What market and liquidity risks correspond to the current yields?

4. Who is responsible for setting parameters, monitoring the market, and adjusting configurations?

When yields can be explained, users find it easier to determine if they are suitable for themselves; and when risks can be chosen, large amounts of capital are more likely to turn a trial into a long-term allocation.

Three-Tier Security Architecture: Safety is Not the Absence of Risk, but Rather Risk Being More Visible and Controllable

In DeFi, "safety" cannot be established solely by a promise. Smart contracts, oracles, liquidity, collateral prices, and management permissions can all become sources of risk.

Charles broke down the risk management framework of NAVI Prime into three layers during the Space.

The first layer is smart contract security. According to the project team, the underlying isolated market contracts of NAVI Prime are built on the lending infrastructure that NAVI has been operating since 2023, having undergone audits from five auditing firms and over ten audits; the curator layer has additionally completed two audits.

The second layer is collateral risk isolation. If a market only accepts specific assets as collateral, capital providers can more clearly understand whether they are bearing the risks of Bitcoin, SUI, stablecoins, or other assets. When a particular collateral exhibits anomalies, the isolation design can minimize the potential impact.

The third layer is curator accountability and permission separation. NAVI Prime separates roles such as administrators, curators, and fund allocators. Curators can update markets and parameters within their authorized scope, while allocators can only move funds between pre-approved markets; mechanisms like time locks provide additional buffers for critical changes.

"These three layers are designed together to make NAVI Prime as safe as possible," Charles stated.

"As safe as possible" does not equate to zero risk. More accurately, NAVI Prime aims to transform the vague safety judgments into a set of questions that can be checked item by item: Are the contracts audited? What collateral is accepted? Who holds the permissions? How do parameters change? And what range might a risk event affect?

This is also one of the core attractions of NAVI Prime for capital: it does not require users to simply trust the platform but rather aims to help users understand what they are trusting in.

For curators, risk management capabilities can now directly become products.

NAVI Prime's other growth line does not come from more collateral but from more professional managers.

In traditional models, risk institutions typically provide parameter advice to protocols in an advisory capacity; in curator-style markets, curators can establish markets around their understanding of assets and strategies, set risk boundaries, allocate funds, and continuously manage performance.

This means that a curator's asset research, risk models, and fund allocation capabilities can be packaged into an on-chain product that users can directly choose.

A curator skilled in stablecoin strategies can establish a conservatively biased market; teams that understand Bitcoin liquidity, RWA, Sui ecosystem assets, or structured strategies can also design independent risk-return schemes around corresponding assets. Ultimately, users are not just choosing a set of assets but also the judgment and management capabilities of the curators.

For potential partners, the value provided by NAVI Prime is not just a market creation tool. Curators can utilize NAVI's underlying infrastructure without having to redevelop lending contracts, liquidation systems, and permission frameworks, and can access its existing user base and liquidity entry points.

Elliscope clearly stated in the Space that NAVI hopes to collaborate with professional curators who understand specific markets and possess risk management capabilities, and to establish a more collaborative ecosystem through revenue sharing.

"NAVI Prime is more accessible to institutions capable of deploying hundreds of millions in liquidity because it offers risk isolation and manageable configuration options. It also welcomes professional curators who understand specific markets and can manage risks. We hope to share revenue and attract a broader range of skills and capital into Sui."

For NAVI, this means the platform no longer decides all markets alone; for curators, professional capabilities have the opportunity to form products, brands, and revenue; for users, this means they can choose between different managers and different risk-return schemes.

Why Sui: From Retail-Driven to Coexistence of Institutions and Retail

The relationship between NAVI and Sui can be traced back to 2023. At that time, the Sui ecosystem was still in the early stages of infrastructure development, with bridging, liquidity, and lending markets needing to be built from scratch.

Over the past three years, Sui has helped early DeFi projects grow through incentives, technical support, and ecosystem resources; NAVI once contributed over 40% of the total TVL across the Sui network. The relationship between the two has gradually shifted from early ecosystem building to how to accommodate larger and more complex capital needs.

Shaan, from the perspective of Mysten Labs, sees NAVI Prime as a new type of infrastructure capable of supporting structured products:

"NAVI Prime allows teams to leverage Sui's performance and scalability, as well as the latest innovations in DeFi market design to reach institutions. Users gain more choices, institutions gain more precise control over allocations, and more capital can enter the Sui ecosystem."

This is not merely a forward-looking judgment. Over the past year, Sui has gradually introduced various on-chain assets and financial products with institutional attributes: Figure deployed SEC-registered income securities YLDS to Sui; Matrixdock brought redeemable tokenized gold XAUm into the ecosystem; R25 launched rcUSD and yield-bearing rcUSDp backed by real-world financial assets; on August 18, 2026, Securitize and Neuberger launched a tokenized high-yield fixed income fund HINC on Sui. Meanwhile, Hashi is attempting to bring native Bitcoin into on-chain credit and is clearly opening related financial services to both institutions and retail participants.

Beyond assets, Sui is also beginning to fill in the infrastructure for regulated markets. On August 25, tZERO announced the expansion of digital securities infrastructure, including issuance, custody, transfer agency, trading, and settlement to Sui. This means that the institutionalization of Sui is no longer just reflected as "one more tokenized asset" but is starting to cover the complete lifecycle of assets from issuance, holding to trading and settlement.

The entry of these assets and infrastructures into Sui has only completed the first step. Tokenizing assets does not mean that a complete on-chain financial market has formed. It still needs to be priced, used as collateral, gain liquidity, generate borrowing demand, and further enter leverage, yield, and structured products.

This is precisely the role of lending infrastructure: turning "there is an asset on-chain" into "this asset can be continuously used by capital."

Charles directly explained the relationship between RWA and lending in the Space:

"Once on-chain, RWA can also be used for lending, leverage strategies, short positions, and other structured products. This opens up significant product innovation space. Lending will be foundational because many of these products require using RWA as collateral."

However, institutional assets and retail assets cannot simply be mixed together. Some RWA have investor qualifications, KYC, regional restrictions, and redemption rules; Bitcoin, gold, income securities, and Sui ecosystem tokens also have completely different pricing, liquidity, and liquidation characteristics. Isolated markets allow each asset to have its own access conditions, oracles, LTV, supply limits, and curators, without requiring all users to bear its risks.

Therefore, the significance of NAVI Prime to Sui is not to replace retail with institutions but to provide an executable structure for the coexistence of the two types of capital:

• The shared pool continues to serve open, standardized, and highly liquid retail lending;

• Prime can provide independent risk boundaries for institutions, large funds, professional curator strategies, and restricted RWA;

• The curator treasury aimed at ordinary users can package complex market research and allocation processes into more easily understandable products while still retaining on-chain transparency regarding fund direction and risk parameters.

Institutions may bring larger-scale assets and funds, while retail users provide broad distribution, liquidity, and real usage demand. The two do not necessarily have to enter the same market but can find their suitable positions within the same infrastructure.

In a recent discussion with the DeFi head of the Mysten ecosystem in X Space, Elliscope used a building to describe the significance of lending to an ecosystem:

"The trading volume of DEX and perpetual contracts indicates how fast this building is growing; but lending determines how high this DeFi skyscraper can ultimately reach."

Trading activities can fluctuate rapidly with market sentiment, while lending supports longer-term capital allocation, leverage, and financial products. NAVI Prime aims to ensure that as this structure continues to grow, it not only has more funds but also a clearer risk structure, allowing different types of capital to enter Sui without sacrificing each other's risk preferences.

Next Phase: Finding Liquidity for Institutional Assets and Providing Choices for Retail Funds

The launch of NAVI Prime does not mean that shared pools are outdated. For standardized, large-scale borrowing needs, shared liquidity still holds significant value. The curated isolation market addresses a different set of issues: differentiated assets, specific risk preferences, institutional allocations, RWA, and specialized strategies.

With a borrowing volume of $30 billion over three years, over 1 million users, a peak TVL of $1 billion, and more than 40% of Sui's total TVL, NAVI has proven its ability to attract funds.

What NAVI Prime now needs to prove is whether it can transform this scale into a two-sided market: on one side, allowing institutional assets, Bitcoin, and RWA to find controllable on-chain liquidity and lending scenarios; on the other side, enabling ordinary users to choose risk-return schemes managed by professional curators without needing to research every underlying market themselves, all within transparent boundaries.

For users, what is truly attractive is not just a statement of "safe and high yield," but the ability to see where funds are going, the boundaries of risk, and the sources of returns, allowing them to choose markets and managers based on their own risk preferences.

For institutions, the core is not just obtaining a higher APY, but maintaining sufficient control over custody, access, collateral, parameters, and permissions, gradually expanding a trial allocation into long-term capital.

For curators, what is truly worth collaborating on is not a one-time brand partnership, but whether they can leverage NAVI's market infrastructure, users, and liquidity access to transform professional capabilities into a product that can continuously attract funds, accumulate on-chain performance, and generate income.

This is also the greater significance of NAVI Prime for Sui: it does not directly switch the ecosystem from the "retail era" to the "institutional era," but rather adds an institutional capital track on top of the existing retail liquidity. Shared pools and Prime, open markets and restricted markets, ordinary users and professional allocators can coexist within different risk boundaries.

From shared pools to curated markets, what NAVI Prime aims to achieve is precisely this step: ensuring that funds are not only attracted in but also understand why they stay; ensuring that assets are not only issued on-chain but truly enter a financial system that is lendable, allocatable, and combinable.

This article is contributed and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.