Latest Walrus (WAL) News Update

By CMC AI
09 September 2025 02:22PM (UTC+0)

What is the latest news on WAL?

TLDR

Walrus rides institutional adoption and ecosystem growth – here are the latest moves:

  1. Grayscale Trust Launch (12 August 2025) – Institutional exposure via WAL-focused trust

  2. Alkimi Integration & Rebrand (19 August 2025) – Ad tech giant adopts Walrus for onchain ads

  3. Staking Milestone (6 September 2025) – 1B WAL staked signals strong holder conviction


Deep Dive

1. Grayscale Trust Launch (12 August 2025)

Overview
Grayscale expanded its Sui ecosystem offerings with the Grayscale Walrus Trust, enabling accredited investors to gain exposure to WAL without direct token ownership. This followed Walrus’ $140M raise in March 2025 and positions it alongside established infrastructure plays like DeepBook.

What this means
The trust legitimizes Walrus as institutional-grade infrastructure, potentially attracting conservative capital. However, WAL remains volatile (-17% YTD) with no secondary market yet for trust shares. (CoinMarketCap)


2. Alkimi Integration & Rebrand (19 August 2025)

Overview
Decentralized ad platform Alkimi migrated to Sui, rebranding its token to ALKIMI while leveraging Walrus for storing 25M+ daily ad impressions. Major clients like AWS and TikTok now use Walrus for encrypted ad data.

What this means
Real enterprise adoption could drive storage demand – Walrus processes ~7.5PB monthly (4PB stored since mainnet). The Kraken listing pipeline adds liquidity potential. (Crypto.News)


3. Staking Milestone (6 September 2025)

Overview
Nearly 1B WAL (20% of circulating supply) is now staked, offering 49.7% APY via Slush Wallet. This coincides with a 7.5% price rebound from August lows.

What this means
High staking participation reduces sell pressure (70% of VC/team tokens locked until 2026). However, 64% 24h volume remains concentrated on MEXC and KuCoin, posing liquidity risks.


Conclusion

Walrus is gaining traction through institutional pipelines (Grayscale), ad tech adoption, and sticky staking incentives – though exchange concentration and unproven storage economics remain hurdles. With Kraken listing rumors and ETF chatter, can Walrus evolve from infrastructure bet to Web3 data staple?

What are people saying about WAL?

TLDR

Walrus chatter blends bullish staking stats with cautious technical whispers. Here’s what’s trending:

  1. 1B WAL staked signals community conviction

  2. Tokenomics praised for locked VC/contributor supply

  3. Grayscale Trust launch fuels institutional optimism

Deep Dive

1. @renksieth: "Almost 1B $WAL staked" 🔥

"Almost 1 BILLION $WAL already staked! Early believers setting stage for something huge"
– @renksieth (12.3K followers · 28K impressions · 6 Sep 2025)
View original post
What this means: Bullish for WAL because heavy staking reduces liquid supply while demonstrating long-term holder commitment. Current staking APR of ~49.7% incentivizes participation.

2. @rexnotrekt: "Vesting cliffs protect price" 🚀

Highlights 350M WAL (7% supply) locked for VCs and 1B WAL (20%) for contributors until 2026-2029. Claims team pays contributors in USDC to avoid sell pressure.
– @rexnotrekt (8.6K followers · 15K impressions · 26 Aug 2025)
View original post
What this means: Bullish as delayed unlocks minimize near-term dilution risks. Protocol’s $140M funding from a16z/Electric Capital adds credibility.

3. @Grayscale: Institutional gateway via Trust 📈

Grayscale’s Walrus Trust (launched 12 Aug) caused 7% price surge to $0.4304. Trust holds $609M WAL, ranked #110 by market cap.
– Coverage via Crypto.News
What this means: Mixed implications – institutional validation vs. token volatility risks. Trusts aren’t ETF-approved yet, but signal growing Sui ecosystem demand.

Conclusion

The consensus on WAL is bullish, driven by staking momentum, controlled tokenomics, and Grayscale’s infrastructure bet. Watch the $0.44 resistance level – a breakout could validate technical targets of $0.70-0.78 (CMC analysis). Can programmable data storage outpace legacy competitors?

What is next on WAL’s roadmap?

TLDR

Walrus’ roadmap focuses on scaling real-world adoption through key technical and ecosystem expansions.

  1. ZK-Verified Explorer (Q4 2025) – Real-time dashboard for storage analytics.

  2. AI Data Layer Expansion (2026) – Enhanced support for verifiable AI/DePIN use cases.

  3. Cross-Chain Interoperability (2026) – Ethereum/Solana integrations for multi-chain storage.

Deep Dive

1. ZK-Verified Explorer (Q4 2025)

Overview: Partnering with Space and TimeDB, Walrus will launch Walrus Explorer, a zero-knowledge-verified dashboard for tracking blob activity, node reliability, and storage performance. This tool targets developers needing transparent, audit-ready data for compliance-sensitive sectors like enterprise DeFi and regulated NFT platforms.

What this means: Bullish for WAL because it enhances trust in Walrus’ infrastructure, attracting institutional users. Risks include delayed adoption if Sui’s ecosystem growth slows.

2. AI Data Layer Expansion (2026)

Overview: Following its integration with Swarm Network for decentralized AI attestations (source), Walrus plans to store agent communication logs and reasoning artifacts. This aligns with its goal to become the default storage layer for auditable AI systems.

What this means: Neutral-to-bullish. While AI/DePIN adoption could drive storage demand, success depends on Walrus maintaining cost advantages (80–100x cheaper than competitors).

3. Cross-Chain Interoperability (2026)

Overview: Walrus aims to extend beyond Sui, targeting Ethereum and Solana compatibility per its technical roadmap. This would let dApps on other chains use Walrus for scalable media storage while paying fees in WAL.

What this means: Bullish long-term, as cross-chain functionality could 2–3x addressable market share. Execution risks include delayed SDK updates and competition from Arweave/Filecoin.

Conclusion

Walrus is prioritizing infrastructure scalability (Explorer), high-value verticals (AI), and ecosystem breadth (cross-chain). With 869+ TB stored since mainnet and Grayscale’s institutional backing, these milestones could solidify its niche in programmable storage. How quickly will Sui’s developer activity translate into Walrus adoption?

What is the latest update in WAL’s codebase?

TLDR

Walrus Protocol's latest codebase enhancements focus on developer tools and decentralized storage infrastructure.

  1. TypeScript SDK Upgrades (30 July 2025) – Added Upload Relay and Quilt for faster, resilient file management.

  2. Explorer Integration (20 August 2025) – Launched ZK-verified dashboard with Space and Time for onchain analytics.


Deep Dive

1. TypeScript SDK Upgrades (30 July 2025)

Overview:
The Walrus TypeScript SDK introduced two major features: Upload Relay for reliable uploads in low-connectivity environments and Native Quilt support for efficient bundling of small files.

Developers building wallet-based storage apps (e.g., NFT platforms, decentralized social networks) can now handle uploads 40% faster and reduce failed transactions by 25%, according to Walrus’ internal benchmarks. The SDK targets apps where users pay for storage directly from wallets, aligning with Web3’s self-custody ethos.

What this means:
This is bullish for WAL because smoother developer experiences could accelerate app adoption on Walrus, increasing demand for decentralized storage and staking. Enhanced file bundling also reduces costs for projects storing small assets like NFT metadata.

(Walrus Protocol)


2. Explorer Integration (20 August 2025)

Overview:
Walrus partnered with Space and Time to launch Walrus Explorer, a real-time dashboard using zero-knowledge proofs to verify storage node performance and blob activity.

The tool lets users monitor data reliability metrics (e.g., node uptime, retrieval speeds) and audit storage proofs without trusting centralized intermediaries. It’s part of Walrus’ push to become the default data layer for AI and DePIN projects requiring verifiable onchain storage.

What this means:
This is neutral-to-bullish for WAL. While it doesn’t directly alter the protocol, improved transparency could attract institutional users seeking auditable storage solutions, indirectly boosting network usage.

(Walrus Protocol)


Conclusion

Walrus continues prioritizing developer infrastructure and verifiable data use cases, solidifying its role in AI and DePIN ecosystems. While recent updates are incremental, they reinforce its technical edge in programmable storage. How might Walrus’ focus on ZK-powered tooling impact its competitiveness against centralized cloud providers?

CMC AI can make mistakes. Not financial advice.