Cetus Protocol on Sui Network Hacked and Prices Tank: Everything You Need To Know

Cetus Protocol, a leading DEX on the Sui Network, has been hacked, losing at least $200 million. CETUS, SUI, and Sui network meme coins crashed as a result. Here’s everything you need to know about the Cetus Protocol hack.

There’s always a first for everything. Ethereum faced a hard fork barely a year after launching. While not a hack, the damage and controversy impacted Ethereum, causing splits in blockchain ideology.

Cetus Protocol Hacked

Launched in May 2023, the Sui Network enjoyed a smooth run until today, when the Cetus Protocol fell victim to hackers.

Cetus(@CetusProtocol) on #SUI was hacked and lost more than $260M!

The hacker is converting the stolen funds into $USDC and cross-chaining to #Ethereum to exchange for $ETH, with ~60M $USDC already cross-chained.https://t.co/b0uGu8icXrhttps://t.co/0BpKSaygmr pic.twitter.com/txfxLoImOd

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 22, 2025

The protocol lost between $220 and $230 million in an incident that sent shockwaves through the crypto and DeFi communities.

Hacks not only result in the loss of valuables, data, and funds but also have severe side effects, sometimes even forcing sell-offs in some of the best cryptos to buy.

The Cetus Protocol hack triggered a sell-off, causing CETUS to plummet by over 40% and trail some of the best Solana meme coins.

(CETUSUSDT)

What is Cetus Protocol?

So, what happened? The Cetus Protocol is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Sui Network.

It utilizes the concentrated liquidity market maker (CLMM) model pioneered by Uniswap and incorporates features from Trader Joe’s CLMM design.

Beyond token swapping, Cetus is one of the largest liquidity providers on Sui.

Within the Sui ecosystem, users primarily use Cetus to swap SUI/USDC, but as a DEX, it supports hundreds of liquidity pools for various tokens minted on the network.

Over time, Cetus became a hub for trading meme coins on the scalable platform.

What Happened?

As a core DEX on Sui, Cetus was (as expected) a prime target for hackers.

On May 22, they exploited multiple liquidity pools, draining $11 million from the SUI/USDC pool and wiping out funds from various meme coin pools, causing token prices to crash.

(Source)

The Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) pool was among the hardest hit, nearly wiped out entirely.

How did this Cetus Protocol hack happen?

Analysts report that hackers gained control of all SUI-denominated liquidity pools.

They then minted or deposited near-zero-value spoof tokens to manipulate CLMM price curves and reserves, extracting real assets without depositing equivalent value.

Seems like all @CetusProtocol LP were drained

Looking into tx, the likely exploit path was:
1. Swap in spoof token (e.g. BULLA → SUI), taking advantage of miscalculated price curve or broken reserve math.

2. Add liquidity with a near-zero amount, to manipulate internal LP… pic.twitter.com/FtpYRSpwWW

— sashko (@d0rsky) May 22, 2025

This was possible due to a rounding bug in the liquidity pool logic.

How @CetusProtocol was hacked

A hacker abused a rounding bug in the liquidity pool logic.

The bug?
Cetus miscalculated LP share:
If you added 1 token, it sometimes gave you the share as if you added 2.
Sounds stupid, but it worked.

The exploit:
Flashloan… pic.twitter.com/Ibj3uf8KJG

— Sui Corner (@SuiCorner) May 22, 2025

Although the Oracle was expected to detect this, Cetus attributed the exploit to a pricing Oracle malfunction.

By then, hackers had stolen tokens worth over $200 million.

Approximately $60 million in USDC was quickly bridged to Ethereum and swapped for ETH within an hour.

But there is good news: Around $160 million has reportedly been frozen and will be returned to Cetus pools.

ANNOUNCEMENT

As of earlier today, we have confirmed that an attacker has stolen approximately $223M from Cetus Protocol. We have took immediate action to lock our contract preventing further theft of funds.

$162M of the compromised funds have been successfully paused. We are…

— Cetus (@CetusProtocol) May 22, 2025

Damage Control Underway at SUI

As token prices plummeted, Cetus Protocol froze its contracts to halt further losses.

It also promised a thorough investigation.

Sui Network developers have pledged support.

We’ve learned that a Cetus smart contract was hacked this morning for approximately $223M and Cetus subsequently paused their smart contracts to prevent further theft.

Cetus worked together with the other DeFi protocols, the Sui Foundation, and the Sui validators to… https://t.co/Y1iw2sNnPW

— Sui (@SuiNetwork) May 22, 2025

Amid the chaos, Changpeng Zhao, the Binance co-founder, said they would “do everything” to assist Sui, noting that the hack is “not a pleasant situation.”

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