Walrus ($WAL) is gradually becoming a key infrastructure in the decentralized storage sector amid the surge in storage demands during the AI era. Built on the Sui blockchain, this project demonstrates a new direction for Web3 storage through practical technological solutions and an expanding ecosystem of applications.

From a technical perspective, Walrus's architecture design is well-considered. It employs erasure coding technology to distribute large files across multiple nodes, with the Sui chain providing "proof of availability" to ensure data security—this solution not only addresses on-chain storage capacity and cost issues but also allows for setting storage lifecycle and supporting automatic renewal. This means that large files such as videos, AI datasets, and NFTs are no longer limited by on-chain space, giving developers greater freedom when building applications.

Furthermore, its privacy protection mechanism is notable. Walrus encrypts data using the Seal encryption layer and manages access permissions through Sui smart contracts. This provides flexible permission control for scenarios like subscription content, private DeFi, and identity credentials. Compared to traditional decentralized storage solutions like IPFS and Arweave, Walrus’s programmable features enable data to be dynamic rather than static, allowing interaction with smart contracts.

Significant breakthroughs have already been achieved in ecosystem applications. Aave has integrated Walrus storage into its ecosystem with a TVL of $59 billion, and Humanity Protocol has migrated identity credential data to this network. The integration of these leading applications is no coincidence—the high-speed capabilities of the Sui chain (transaction confirmation <500ms) combined with Walrus’s storage scale (hundreds of TB on mainnet) create an effective synergy, providing reliable infrastructure support for complex scenarios such as gaming, social applications, and AI workflows.

From a market perspective, Walrus is positioned at a favorable point. The decentralized storage sector continues to heat up, and the explosive growth in data set demands during the AI era is accelerating this trend. As the native storage layer of the Sui ecosystem, Walrus has the opportunity for sustained growth through ecosystem expansion—an increase in Sui’s TVL and user base directly drives storage demand. Currently, with over 1 billion WAL staked and node capacity approaching PB levels, infrastructure development is accelerating.

Regarding price expectations, based on current market data (from platforms like CoinMarketCap, Bitget, etc.), the short term (2026-2027) could see prices reaching around $0.15, while in the medium to long term, by 2030, the price range is expected to be between $0.75 and $1.8. These projections are based on progress in cross-chain expansion, privacy transaction integration, and other developments—areas that are also attracting institutional investors, including recent entrants like Grayscale Trust.

Of course, risks that need to be viewed objectively include the long-term stability of the economic model and the continuous growth of application demand. However, based on current trajectories, use cases are continuously expanding, and institutional capital inflows are sending positive signals. In the Web3 storage sector, Walrus is accumulating more and more chips.