Nexa, a widely recognized trading terminal in the crypto industry and a former subsidiary of decentralized exchange Bluefin, has announced its decision to terminate operations. This unfortunate turn of events occurred despite an acquisition a year earlier, and is attributed to markedly low trading volumes on the Sui blockchain.
Nexa’s Announcement
In a post on February 10, 2026, Nexa’s team shed some light on the circumstances leading to this drastic measure. They noted that only 2-3 coins on the Sui blockchain registered decent activity, thus depriving traders of viable opportunities. Considering that Nexa was specifically designed for facilitating fast trades amidst active markets, this lack of activity did not align with the platform’s foundational premise.
This brought about a notable disappointment among the Nexa crew, who shared, “There’s a real sense of sadness in shutting down Nexa because we succeeded in building a product that was actually the most-used trading suite on Sui at one time. Unfortunately, the market it was built for never truly materialized.”
Previous Efforts and Subsequent Slowdown
Prior to announcing this closure, Nexa had been persistently promoting various engagement campaigns, including ones revolving around points-based rewards. However, these initiatives gradually lost steam and ultimately ceased.
Nexa’s decision to close shop also underscores broader concerns lingering within the Sui’s DeFi ecosystem. According to data from DefiLlama, as of February 12, 2026, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Sui stood at approximately $561 million. This represents a severe drop of around 78% from a record-high $2.6 billion observed back in October 2025.
Falling DEX Volumes and SUI Tokens
Similar plunges were also seen in Decentralized Exchange (DEX) volumes, which took a nosedive of almost 70%—from $22.3 billion in October 2025 to hardly $6.8 billion in January 2026. Accordingly, Sui’s native token—SUI—concurrently experienced a 50% decline over the preceding month, and it was recently trading at a value of $0.93 according to data from CoinGecko.
Technical Issues Plaguing Sui
Unfortunately, the struggles for Sui were not limited to economic metrics. On a more technical front, the Sui blockchain endured a significant, six-hour long outage at the beginning of 2026. This incident disrupted the blockchain’s block production process. The team pinned this issue on a bug within the network’s consensus system, which led to inconsistencies in validator data and subsequently resulted in a temporary freeze on transactions.
Challenging Times for Other Networks
The yielding pressures of lacking liquidity are not exclusive to Sui, with comparable narratives unfolding across other competitive chains such as Aptos. For instance, earlier in February, Merkle Trade—which is the largest perpetual Decentralized Exchange (DEX) on Aptos in terms of volume—made public its resolution to discontinue operations. This verdict was rendered in spite of the fact that it managed to handle nearly $30 billion in cumulative trades. The TVL within Aptos’ network has also been worsening in sync.
