A "Bug" or a Blatant Exploit?
Cetus, the largest liquidity provider on the Sui blockchain, has reportedly suffered a massive hack resulting in the loss of over $223 million in digital assets. Although the team publicly called it a “bug,” onchain activity and market movements strongly point to an exploit. Web3 researcher COMDARE3 broke the news on X, highlighting the rapid drop in token values and suspicious transactions on DEX Screener. Meanwhile, Extractor, a monitoring tool by Hacken, confirmed that $63 million had already been bridged to Ethereum, with 20,000 ETH funneled to a fresh wallet in one shot.
🚨Alert Announcement 🚨
— Cetus🐳 (@CetusProtocol) May 22, 2025
There was an incident detected on our protocol and our smart contract has been paused temporarily for safety. The team is investigating the incident at the moment. A further investigation statement will be made soon. We are grateful for your patience.
🚨Alert Announcement 🚨
— Cetus🐳 (@CetusProtocol) May 22, 2025
There was an incident detected on our protocol and our smart contract has been paused temporarily for safety. The team is investigating the incident at the moment. A further investigation statement will be made soon. We are grateful for your patience.
$2.9B in Activity and a Trail of Burned Tokens
Cetus’ pool data showed $2.9 billion in transactions on May 22, a staggering leap from $320 million just the day before. That kind of spike almost certainly points to automated fund drainage. Tokens like LBTC and AXOL tanked, with the top 15 tokens on Cetus losing over 75% of their value. LBTC has seen a slight rebound outside the protocol, but others like AXOL remain almost entirely wrecked—dropping nearly 99.5%.
Smart Contracts Frozen, Collateral Damage Spreads
Cetus responded by pausing its smart contracts, stating on X that an investigation is ongoing. But the damage is already spreading. Scallop, a Sui-based money market, halted all borrowing activity, stating it will reassess once the dust settles.
At the time of writing, the exploit wallet contains a mixed bag of stolen assets, including:
- $52M in SUI
- $19.5M in USDT
- $4.9M in HASUI
- $19.5M in Toilet (TOILET)
and many more obscure tokens.
Questions Around Transparency
While the Cetus team insists this is a ‘bug’, onchain analysts aren’t buying it. The timing, the urgency of transfers, and the scope of the exploit are leading many to believe this is a calculated attack rather than a coding mishap.
The event is now among the biggest DeFi exploits of 2025, and with Sui’s ecosystem reeling, all eyes are on the Cetus team and the Sui Foundation for clarity—and possibly restitution.
