Sui built gasless stablecoin payments into the protocol. The mainnet allow-list is empty, and that's the catch.
Protocol version 125 turns on stablecoin gas fees across the whole chain. But someone still has to fill the list of approved tokens.
CryptoVibe Desk · sui · protocol · gasless
- →Mysten Labs published Sui devnet-v1.72.0 today, where protocol version 125 will enable gasless stablecoin payments, address balances, and coin reservations on mainnet.
- →Version 125 completes the gasless mechanism, but the mainnet token allow-list is empty, so the feature can't be used yet.
- →Watch for PR 26417 merging to mainnet configuration, which populates the stablecoin allow-list and activates gasless transactions before the end of May 2026.
- protocol version → A number that tells every Sui node which set of rules to follow; all nodes must match the same version to stay in sync.
- gasless transaction → A transaction where the user pays the network fee in a stablecoin instead of the chain's native token, so you don't need to hold SUI to use Sui.
- allow-list → A list of approved tokens the protocol will accept for gas payment; if the list is empty, the feature is built in code but cannot be used.
- devnet → A test network where Mysten ships new code before it goes live on mainnet, so developers can test against it without real money at stake.
Mysten Labs published Sui devnet-v1.72.0 today. It's a pre-release at protocol version 124, per the release notes, with mainnet still running version 123.
Version 125 is where the real work lives. It enables address balances, gasless transactions, coin reservations, and the accumulator/withdraw stack on mainnet. Those are protocol-layer primitives, not wallet-layer wrappers. Once they land at the protocol level, every app on Sui inherits them without changes to the app.
The gasless piece is the most user-facing change. It lets a user pay gas fees in a stablecoin instead of SUI. The devnet release names seven tokens for the mainnet allow-list: USDC, USDSUI, SUI_USDE, USDY, FDUSD, AUSD, and USDB. Minimum transfer is $0.01 per stable, according to the release. Seven tokens is a reasonable starting set, but the list is the whole game here.
And that's the catch. The mainnet allow-list is currently empty. Version 125 builds the mechanism. A separate configuration step has to populate the list before gasless UX goes live on mainnet. Think of it as a feature flag: the code ships, but the config hasn't been set.
Sui devs building gasless flows aren't blocked on the version. You're blocked on that config. PR 26417 is the change that adds the mainnet allow-list, per the release notes. Track that merge, not the version bump.
One more thing in this release: a gas-meter accounting fix. The release describes it as internal accounting correctness with no user-visible change to successful transactions. Worth knowing it exists; move on.
One tradeoff worth naming. Moving the token allow-list to the protocol layer gives Mysten control over which stablecoins get native gasless UX. Adding or removing a token from that list is now a protocol-level decision, not a product decision. The engineers know this. Read the PR diff, not the announcement.
Mysten built the allow-list into the protocol layer, not the app layer, and that's not a neutral engineering choice. Any team can implement token-based fee payment at the app layer. Only a protocol upgrade can touch the native allow-list. The PR diff doesn't include a governance process for adding or removing tokens. Mysten owns this chokepoint, and the announcement is quiet about it.
PR 26417 merging to mainnet configuration and activating the stablecoin allow-list with USDC and the six named tokens, before the end of May 2026.
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