When looking at blockchain speed figures, first check which layer is being measured.

At Basecamp in Singapore, Sui tested off-chain channels and announced an on-site figure of 40,614,180 transactions per second. The final peak announced later was 40,682,328 transactions per second.

TPS (Transactions Per Second) is the number of transactions per second; this figure measures transactions within off-chain channels.

TPS is often used to compare the processing capacity of blockchains.

This test was accompanied by an independent third-party analysis report.

These transactions are executed off-chain; only opening the channel and final settlement are handled by the Sui mainnet.

The previous record was 6,086,766 TPS, also measured within a channel. This time, the figure rose from over 6 million to more than 40 million.

According to the official blog, this figure was achieved using Sui channels (tunnels).

You can think of a channel as a dedicated express lane: transactions are processed off-chain first, then settled on Sui.

During the event, AI agents made payments, played games, and chatted in channels. Everything ran off-chain, and the results were then sent back to Sui.

This also explains why the organizers chose “the agent economy” as the theme: AI agents need this kind of processing because they perform many actions very quickly.

Keep in mind that this was a test record. It is not the TPS on the Sui blockchain, nor does it reflect typical real-world network usage.

Next time you see news about “record-breaking TPS,” ask one more question: How was that figure measured?