The highly anticipated release of the SUI token, the native token of layer1 blockchain Sui, will take place once the mainnet goes live on May 3 following token sales on crypto exchanges Bybit, OKX and Kucoin.

Each exchange offered 225 million tokens with a maximum allocation of 10,000 per user. Tokens were sold for $0.10 each and U.S. residents were forbidden from taking part.

Sui's blockchain was created by former Meta Platforms (META) employees using a programming language called Move, which is also the language behind the Aptos blockchain.

Developers behind Aptos were also involved in Meta's failed attempt at issuing a stablecoin called diem. Unlike Sui, Aptos issued its token in the form of an airdrop to users that interacted with a variety of testnets.

Despite consistently telling its community that Sui had no plans to issue an airdrop, users expressed their disappointment on Twitter after token distribution plans were released.

One of the first projects that will go live on the Sui mainnet will be Suiswap, a decentralized exchange and liquidity staking protocol that acts in a similar way to Uniswap on Ethereum.

Sui Network developer Mysten Labs signed an agreement with Alibaba Cloud last month in a deal under which Alibaba Group (BABA) will offer its node services and cloud infrastructure to improve user experience for Sui blockchain validators.

Mysten labs also entered into an agreement with FTX's bankruptcy estate to buy back the failed exchange's equity and token warrants worth $96.3 million in cash after FTX Ventures led Mysten Labs' $300 million Series B raise last August.