WAL surges over 13% in a single day, why does Grayscale Trust favor this storage project

According to the latest news, as of January 9th, WAL (Walrus) is currently priced at $0.16, up 13.92% in the past 24 hours, with a trading volume of $58.7 million and a market capitalization of $245 million. Behind this surge are institutional recognition and market ongoing interest in the AI data storage sector.

Short-term Catalysts: Institutional Entry and Liquidity Enhancement

Institutional Signal from Grayscale Trust Product Launch

Grayscale has launched a WAL Sui protocol trust product, which is an important market signal. The launch of institutional-grade trust products indicates:

• Formal recognition of WAL project value by mainstream asset management institutions
• Providing compliant participation channels for professional investors
• Helping attract institutional capital inflows to support token price appreciation

Such trust products typically represent cautious selection by institutional investors, backed by in-depth fundamental research on the project.

Expansion of Trading Ecosystem Driving Liquidity

WAL is now tradable on 169 active markets, with a 24-hour trading volume of $58.7 million. This scale of trading volume reflects:

• Significant increase in market participation
• Improved liquidity providing ample space for price discovery
• Active involvement from various investor types (institutions, retail, traders)

Fundamental Support: Sector Outlook and Project Strength

Long-term Demand for AI Data Storage

Walrus positions itself as a data infrastructure for the AI era, with a clear sector logic:

• Explosive growth of AI applications driving massive unstructured data storage needs
• Traditional centralized storage faces cost, privacy, and reliability issues
• Decentralized storage becomes an inevitable trend

Market reactions generally suggest that the community believes storage infrastructure has a more solid technical foundation and practical application scenarios compared to purely DePIN mining projects.

Technical and Cost Advantages

According to relevant information, Walrus adopts erasure coding technology with core advantages:

Within less than a year of mainnet launch, the project has accumulated over 4,000 TB of storage capacity, indicating an operational ecosystem.

Funding Background and Ecosystem Collaborations

• $140 million in funding from Standard Crypto and a16z, both top-tier VC firms
• Collaborations with multiple ecosystem projects such as Decrypt, Talus, Itheum, Linera
• Application scenarios covering AI, data economy, DeFi, content, and media sectors

Market Position Evaluation

Comparison with Similar Projects

Although Walrus has a market cap of only $245 million, it still has significant valuation space compared to established storage projects like Filecoin and Arweave. Key differences include:

• WAL’s optimized technical solutions for the AI era
• Deep integration with Sui ecosystem (high-performance chain + storage layer combo)
• Lower storage costs and higher read/write performance

Tokenomics Design

The WAL token model includes multiple incentive dimensions:

• Governance rights: token holders participate in major platform decision votes
• Revenue rights: staking WAL yields annualized returns of 18%-25%
• Usage rights: paying for storage fees and participating in ecosystem services
• Deflationary mechanism: a portion of tokens is burned with each transaction

This design offers more sustainable appeal compared to purely mining-based tokens.

Future Outlook

Based on current information, Walrus may face several development directions:

• Rapid growth phase of AI applications, potentially further releasing storage demand
• Continued development of the Sui ecosystem could bring more integrated applications
• Institutional capital inflows may push valuation higher
• Caution is needed regarding overall market risks and token liquidity release impacts

Summary

WAL’s recent surge reflects a confluence of three supports: institutional recognition (Grayscale trust), liquidity improvement (trading volume increase), and sector outlook (AI data storage demand). Fundamentally, Walrus as a data infrastructure project for the AI era possesses real application scenarios and reliable technical solutions, making it fundamentally different from purely conceptual projects. However, markets are always volatile, and whether the current price can sustain depends on the ecosystem’s ability to meet market expectations. For investors interested in the storage sector, this project is worth in-depth research, but any decision should be based on individual risk tolerance.