I’ve seen a lot of confusion around what WAL actually represents, so it’s worth slowing down and looking at Walrus Protocol for what it truly is not a buzzword DeFi token, but infrastructure.
WAL is the native token that powers the Walrus protocol, which is built around a very specific problem: how to store large amounts of data in a decentralized, private, and censorship-resistant way without breaking costs or usability. Instead of pretending everything belongs on-chain, Walrus takes a more realistic approach. Execution stays on Sui, while heavy data is handled through blob storage and erasure coding across a decentralized network.
That design choice matters. As dApps evolve, they’re no longer just moving tokens. They’re storing game assets, media, AI data, and application state. Traditional cloud services can do this cheaply, but they come with trust assumptions. Walrus is trying to remove that dependency without sacrificing performance.
WAL’s role ties directly into this system supporting storage operations, network participation, and governance as the protocol matures. It’s less about speculation and more about keeping the engine running.
This feels like one of those projects that won’t trend every week, but quietly becomes part of the stack. And in crypto, that’s often where the real staying power lives.