Share this article
Sui's Biggest Liquidity Provider Hacked for $223M, Causing Sui-Based Tokens to Plummet
Cetus is Sui’s biggest liquidity provider and decentralized exchange.
Updated May 22, 2025, 4:16 p.m. Published May 22, 2025, 11:54 a.m.
What to know:
- Cetus Protocol, the largest DEX on the Sui network, was exploited, leading to a halt in trading and drained liquidity pools.
- The attacker used spoof tokens to exploit price curves and reserve calculations, manipulating liquidity to extract real assets.
- Cetus has paused its smart contracts for safety and plans to release a detailed statement, while its token CETUS has dropped 40%.
Cetus Protocol, the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity provider on the Sui network, has been drained of $223 million worth of tokens in an apparent hack, according to Cetus Protocol on X.
The protocol added that $162 million of the stolen funds had been "paused" and it is working with the Sui Foundation to recover the remainder of the funds.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
The wallet tied to the Cetus Protocol exploit — 0xe28b50 — currently holds over 12.9 million SUI, valued at approximately $54 million at current prices.
On-chain data shows the address has a net worth exceeding 32.9 million SUI (approximately $137 million), suggesting the attacker may have already bridged or swapped funds through multiple paths.
The wallet remains active at the time of publishing and is likely in the process of obfuscating funds. This confirms the scale of the exploit and further pressures Sui's DeFi infrastructure, as major token pools and pairs remain drained.
The Cetus team has paused the smart contracts and is actively investigating, it said in an X post. According to early analysis, the attacker used spoof tokens like BULLA to exploit broken price curves and reserve calculations.
They then added near-zero liquidity to manipulate internal LP state and repeatedly removed real assets like SUI and USDC without depositing anything meaningful.
Loading...
Cetus confirmed the incident on X, saying the contract has been paused “for safety” and that a detailed statement will follow.
Binance founder CZ said the exchange's team has reached out to Sui to offer help,.
CETUS is down 40% in the past few hours, while Sui-based memecoins like BULLA and MOJO have dropped over 90%.
UPDATE (May 22, 12:00 UTC): Updates headline and story with additional details.
UPDATE (May 22, 12:13 UTC): Adds further details and CZ tweet.
UPDATE (May 22, 16:40 UTC): Adds response from Cetus Network and updates headline to reflect $223 million figure.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin Rebounds to $93K From Post-Fed Lows, but Altcoins Remain Under Pressure
Downward pressure on bitcoin is losing steam, with the market stabilizing but not yet out of the woods, said one analyst.
What to know:
- Bitcoin rebounded from a sharp early selloff on Thursday to trade above $93,000 shortly after the close of U.S. stocks.
- The late-day gain in bitcoin came alongside a rebound in the Nasdaq from big morning losses; the tech index closed with just a 0.25% loss.
- Downward pressure on bitcoin is losing steam, said one analyst, but the market is not yet out of the woods.
Top Stories
