On June 26, 2026, Bluewater announced and completed the acquisition of the Sui ecological lending protocol Suilend. The scope of the deal not only covered the protocol itself but also included its two core ecological products, STEAMM and SpringSui. However, in the same agreement, the SEND token was explicitly excluded from the acquired assets, and the control of the protocol and the rights related to the token were thus separated into two independent narrative threads. After the acquisition, Bluefin founder Zabi took over as CEO of Suilend, and the project will continue to operate as an independent platform, retaining its original brand, product direction, and community structure. According to public statements, Zabi subsequently defined Suilend's medium to long-term goal directly as the "capital center" on the Sui public chain and plans to fill this positioning in the coming months by introducing institutional capital, advancing RWA integration, and strengthening liquidity and retail lending products. Under the framework of the deliberate separation of the protocol and the token, Suilend is highly likely to no longer be viewed merely as a traditional lending protocol but to begin transforming into a narrative of being a "capital center" within the Sui ecosystem that supports more complex capital flows and asset structures.
Protocol sold, but token untouched
From the scope of the transaction, this is a typical case of "protocol selling" rather than "overall project acquisition." The official information clearly states that this acquisition covers the Suilend protocol itself and the ecological products like STEAMM and SpringSui built around it, essentially transferring the operational rights and development direction of the entire lending and asset management product line to Bluewater. In other words, who can decide how the product iterates, how risks are priced, and which direction to expand in the future, is no longer led by the original team, but has shifted to this new holding party whose background has not yet been fully disclosed.
In stark contrast to this substantive control of the protocol, the SEND token was explicitly named in the announcement as excluded from the transaction. SEND does not participate in the acquisition and is written as an "exception," which means that the legal status, governance rights, and subsequent arrangements of the token itself have temporarily been left in a suspended neutral zone. For token holders, while the control of the protocol has been transferred, the carrier representing "participation" and "voting rights" remains in place, and whether the governance rights are still tied to SEND or will be redesigned currently has no public details. In the absence of disclosed acquisition amounts, valuations, payment methods, or specific legal structures, this deliberate separation of control rights and token rights provides the new owner with greater operational space on one hand, while also sowing potential tension for token holders' expectations and the community's recognition of new governance on the other. This mismatched control structure will inevitably continue to undergo scrutiny from the market and community in the time to come.
Zabi takes over Suilend
After the deliberate separation of control rights and token rights, the choice of who takes over the protocol's operations also reflects a strong personal touch—after the acquisition, Zabi, known as the founder of Bluefin, was appointed as the CEO of Suilend. The specific equity or business relationship between Bluewater as the acquirer and Bluefin has not been disclosed, but at least on the project level, it can be established that the same core individual is now connecting both Bluefin and Suilend, which naturally enhances the synergy potential of the two product lines: whether it is the rhythm of product iteration or the narratives aimed at the same type of users and capital providers, both have the opportunity to resonate under his personal judgment.
From the public statements, Zabi does not view Suilend merely as a passive new asset but has set a clear medium-term blueprint for it: in the coming months, by introducing institutional capital through Suilend, advancing RWA integration, while providing deeper liquidity and a new generation of retail lending products, and positioning it as the "capital center" on the Sui public chain. This means that Suilend's role is elevated to the narrative height of being an overall funding hub on the chain. Zabi's dual identity connecting Bluefin and Suilend is also seen by the market as an important signal that he intends to place transaction scenarios and lending scenarios, institutional needs and retail products under the same planning. This dual-platform structure linked by the same core individual will become a key reference point for the market's understanding of Suilend's new phase.
Rearrangement of the Sui lending map
Before the acquisition, Suilend was a lending protocol deployed on the Sui public chain, providing the most basic collateral and lending channels for on-chain users for a long time, with additional ecological products like STEAMM and SpringSui built around the protocol, forming a relatively closed but clear product combination. The Bluewater acquisition brought this entire suite of assets under the same control, and coupled with Zabi's management structure as CEO, it essentially shifted the protocol, originally centered on single lending, into a larger narrative framework. In the new structure, Suilend is no longer just "a lending protocol on Sui," but is viewed as a foundation that can support more business layers and more types of capital, with the original protocol and ecological products being reconnected to become an organic whole for future capital deployment.
This rearrangement's direction is summarized by Zabi in his public statements as the "capital distribution center on the Sui chain": in the coming months, he plans to introduce institutional capital around Suilend, advance RWA integration, and attempt to provide deeper liquidity and a new generation of retail lending products, elevating the lending protocol to become the starting point of the entire public chain's funding story. This upgrade from "single lending" to "capital center" does structurally change Suilend's position in the ecological narrative; however, current public information does not provide its market share, on-chain scale, or user count in the Sui lending market, and it lacks any quantifiable metrics to measure the changes in the competitive landscape. In the absence of data on lending scale, active addresses, and other supporting figures, the so-called "rearrangement of the Sui lending map" appears more like a set of unfolding governance and vision narratives rather than a fact that has already been validated by on-chain actions and specific numbers.
Potential entry of institutional capital and RWA
In his public statements after the acquisition, Zabi focused on the roadmap of "bringing institutional capital to Sui," placing RWA integration, deeper liquidity, and "new generation retail lending products" within the same planning. If this route is genuinely implemented, the asset side of Suilend is likely to evolve away from being just a collateral pool of on-chain native assets towards a more complex asset structure: assets of various origins and risk levels will be managed in layers, while collateral discounts, liquidation thresholds, and risk control models need to transition from the current single on-chain logic to a framework that simultaneously assesses on-chain actions and off-chain credit.
Narratively, this plan points towards a more "institutionalized" lending platform: one side attempts to connect institutions and RWA, while the other aims to launch new products for retail users, layering two sets of demands within the same protocol. This means that if there are indeed institutional addresses and RWA assets accessed in the future, Suilend will need to make distinctions at levels such as permissions control, risk isolation, and information disclosure, otherwise it would be difficult to balance potential compliance requirements with ordinary user experiences. However, to date, specifics about "multiple institutional collaborations in progress," the types and terms of RWA projects have not been disclosed, nor has any timeline or scale for compliance pathways been revealed; these are more a set of direction signals explicitly stated rather than a tangible structure already validated through cooperation agreements or on-chain actions.
SEND holders and subsequent observations
The artificial separation of control rights and token assets is the core contradiction left for all participants by this acquisition: Suilend and its STEAMM and SpringSui have been taken over by Bluewater and are now under Zabi's leadership, but the SEND token is explicitly detached from the transaction, neither included in the price nor redefined in any official documents regarding its position in governance or revenue distribution. After the acquisition, Suilend will continue to operate as an independent brand, while the new governance structure, the boundary of Bluewater’s rights and responsibilities within it, and its specific relationship with Bluefin have not been disclosed. SEND holders, users with loans in Suilend, and the broader Sui ecosystem participants can only rely on currently public statements and structural facts that have occurred. What needs to be closely monitored next is whether there will be adjustments to the governance contracts, whether there will be on-chain proposals, or if revenue paths are visibly migrated to new power entities, and whether SEND is granted, weakened, or completely stripped of governance and economic rights in any official documents. Because these key pieces of information have not yet been clearly disclosed, conclusions regarding the price performance or future utility of SEND at this stage are inevitably distorted. What is truly worth tracking are the on-chain actions and governance arrangements that unfold over time, as they will determine whether this acquisition represents a rewriting of rights for SEND holders or a passive suspension.
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