Sui Network DEX Cetus Protocol Loses Over $220M to Security Breach

Cetus Protocol, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) operating on the Sui Network, has suffered a security breach. This incident led to the loss of more than $220 million. 

Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain revealed that the attacker converted the stolen funds into USDC and bridged them to Ethereum. Then, the funds were exchanged for ETH. As of the latest update, the exploiter had spent over $58 million to acquire 21,938 ETH, averaging $2,658 per ETH.

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

Cetus Protocol Freezes $162M Compromised Funds 

In an X post, Cetus Protocol confirmed the exploit. The protocol has paused its smart contract as a precautionary measure following the detection of an anomaly in the protocol. According to the team, $162 million of the compromised funds have been successfully paused.

The funds will be returned to Cetus’s liquidity providers (LPs). The platform and Sui developers are working to recover the remaining funds. The protocol highlighted that the Sui network was unaffected by the exploit.

“We are working with the Sui Foundation and other ecosystem members right now on next-step solutions, with the goal of recovering the remaining stolen funds. The majority of impacted funds are paused and we are actively pursuing paths to recover the remainder. We have no higher priority and will provide further updates as they become available through this channel. A full incident report will be disclosed later,” the platform stated. 

Sui Ecosystem Reacts 

Following this incident, Cetus Protocol’s native token, CETUS, plunged over 24% to $0.15. At press time, the asset had recovered slightly to trade at $0.18. Similarly, Sui Network’s native token also fell sharply by around 7% following the incident. 

The exploit also triggered a broader selloff in the Sui ecosystem, with seven out of 11 Sui-based tokens registering a significant drop in value. Sui-based DEXs Bluefin and Momentum also announced temporary suspensions of activities, stating they would resume once the ecosystem stabilizes.

Despite the unfortunate incident, the project has received support from the broader crypto community. Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao noted that his team has reached out to help Cetus resolve the situation.

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