Sui DEX Cetus Protocol Halts Trading After $200M Liquidity Drain In Hack

Cetus Protocol – the largest on-chain DEX on Sui Network – abruptly halted all trading on May 22, 2025, after roughly $200–260 million was drained from its liquidity pools.

The sudden outflow, first spotted in the early hours of Thursday, created panic across the market. On-chain trackers showed dozens of pools losing most of their reserves, and many Cetus liquidity pool tokens plunged up to 80% in minutes.

In tandem, the native token CETUS collapsed and Sui network swap activity froze. Officials say they are investigating the anomaly and have paused the protocol’s contracts “for safety” until the issue is resolved.

Timeline of the Drain

Early Thursday (May 22): Automated alerts and traders notice an unusual series of swaps on Cetus pools. Large amounts of SUI and stablecoins begin exiting pools, far beyond normal trading volume.

Hours later: On-chain analysts trace the cause: an attacker (or system glitch) exploited Cetus’s pricing oracles using spoof tokens (e.g. the memecoin BULLA) and near-zero liquidity adds to manipulate pool reserves. These trades effectively extract real assets like SUI and USDC while depositing worthless tokens.

Midday: Cetus issues an emergency alert on its official channels. In an X (Twitter) post, the team says it “paused [the] smart contract” and is investigating an “incident”. Trading functionality goes offline and all DEX operations cease.

Afternoon: By late Thursday, media reports detail the full scope: roughly $200–260M was removed from Cetus’ liquidity (up to 99% in some pools). Token prices respond: CETUS drops 40%, while on-chain memecoins like BULLA and MOJO crash 90%. (Notably, SUI’s price remained roughly stable on centralized exchanges, indicating the disruption was confined to on-chain liquidity.)

Cetus’ Emergency Response

The Cetus team moved quickly once the anomaly was detected. They paused the protocol’s smart contracts immediately “for safety,” halting all swaps and liquidity operations.

In a public statement on X, Cetus confirmed that it had “detected an incident” and was investigating. The team promised a detailed post-mortem once they understood the cause.

As information emerged, Cetus clarified that this appears to be an oracle glitch, not a breach. In its Discord channel (and later confirmed by analysts), the team said the system was “not attacked” and that a faulty price feed was to blame.

Users were urged to remain calm while developers worked on a fix. No official estimate of lost funds has been given beyond on-chain figures, but the team emphasizes this is a technical issue rather than malicious exploitation.

Many DeFi users reported sudden losses of most of their liquidity, with some claiming 70–80% of their funds vanished from Cetus pools.

Crypto commentator HodlFM warned that “liquidity providers are losing everything” as tokens crashed. Discussion forums showed panic as traders scrambled to withdraw any remaining assets.

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