The Cetus Protocol, recognized as the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity provider on the Sui network, has been the victim of a significant hack, resulting in a staggering loss of approximately $260 million worth of tokens. This alarming news comes via crypto investigative platform Lookonchain, which has been closely tracking the movement of funds and on-chain activities related to the exploit.
The wallet associated with the Cetus Protocol breach, identified as 0xe28b50, currently possesses over 12.9 million SUI tokens, equating to around $54 million at prevailing market rates. Furthermore, on-chain data indicates that this wallet has a net worth surpassing 32.9 million SUI, valued at approximately $137 million, raising concerns that the attacker has likely bridged or swapped these assets through various channels.
At the time of this writing, the exploited wallet remains active, hinting at ongoing efforts to obfuscate the stolen funds. The scale of this exploit poses severe challenges to the Sui DeFi infrastructure, particularly as major token pools and trading pairs continue to feel the adverse effects of the incident.
In response to the alarming situation, the Cetus team has paused all smart contracts while they conduct a thorough investigation. In a post on X, they indicated that preliminary analyses suggest the attacker utilized spoof tokens like BULLA to exploit faulty price curves and reserve calculations. This approach allowed the attacker to introduce minimal liquidity, thus manipulating the internal liquidity pool state and extracting genuine assets such as SUI and USDC without providing any significant deposits in return.
The confirmation of the incident was reiterated by Cetus on X, highlighting that the smart contract had been paused “for safety” and promising a detailed statement will be forthcoming. In an effort to address the crisis, Binance founder CZ announced that their team has reached out to Sui to extend assistance.
In the wake of the news, the price of CETUS has plummeted by 40%, while Sui-based memecoins such as BULLA and MOJO have seen declines exceeding 90%. The ramifications of this hack are likely to ripple through the Sui ecosystem as market participants seek answers and security in their investments.
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.
