2025-05-23
On May 22, 2025, Cetus Protocol, the
largest decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity provider on the Sui network, has suffered a security breach resulting in the loss of about $223 million worth of
tokens.
The attacker exploited vulnerabilities
in Cetus Protocol's smart contracts, manipulating price curves and reserve
calculations using spoof tokens. This allowed them to extract real assets like
SUI and USDC without depositing equivalent value .
Cetus Protocol said on X that it could
pause $162 million of the stolen funds and efforts are underway to recover the
remaining assets.
The attacker has already bridged a
portion of the stolen funds to the Ethereum network, converting them into ETH.
The exploit has caused a lot of
disruptions within the Sui ecosystem, leading to a sharp decline in the value
of Sui-based tokens, including a 40% drop in the CETUS token.
Liquidity pools have been drained, and
user confidence has been affected, prompting discussions about the security and
decentralization of the Sui network.
As a result, Cetus Protocol has
paused its smart contracts to prevent further losses and is collaborating with
the Sui Foundation and other ecosystem participants to investigate the incident
and recover funds .
Cetus Protocol is working with the Sui
Foundation and other entities within the Sui ecosystem to recover the rest of
the funds.
The Sui Foundation has confirmed that
validators are ignoring transactions from addresses associated with the stolen
funds to mitigate further risks.
