Cetus Protocol, a Major Decentralized Exchange and Liquidity Hub on the Sui Blockchain, Has Reportedly Suffered a Devastating Exploit

The Cetus Protocol, a major decentralized exchange and liquidity hub on the Sui blockchain, has reportedly suffered a devastating exploit, triggering a system-wide liquidity drain and the near-total collapse of several tokens within its ecosystem.

Major decentralized exchange and liquidity hub on Sui, Cetus Protocol, reportedly suffered a devastating exploit.

The incident triggered a system-wide liquidity drain and the near-total collapse of several tokens within the Cetus ecosystem.

According to on-chain data and reports, attackers managed to remove critical liquidity from Cetus trading pools. This triggered a rapid decline in token prices, including USDC on Sui, which at one point fell to fractions of a cent. At the time of writing, Cetus liquidity for some pairs was as low as $143K.

“Liquidity providers are losing everything,” stated HodlFM. “Hackers are draining and dumping tokens, crashing SUI ecosystem coins by 70–90%.”

Key indicators suggest a coordinated removal and dump of assets, as trading activity fell to nearly zero and Cetus DEX functionality broke down. Token pairs across the platform lost value rapidly, with some showing 99.63% declines over the past 24 hours. Screenshots show buy and sell transactions reduced to a trickle and extreme price discrepancies emerging in real time.

While $SUI remains stable on centralized exchanges, the decentralized side of the ecosystem has entered crisis mode, with Cetus trading halted and users scrambling for information.

According to DeFI researcher The DeFi Researcher, USDC on Sui had completely depegged and was trading for less than $0.008. Cetus announced the halt of trading and urged patience as the team investigates the matter.

This incident follows a series of exploits that have hit decentralized protocols recently, highlighting the nascent stage of the DeFi space and the vulnerabilities that exist.

This exploit could have far-reaching consequences for the Sui DeFi ecosystem, as Cetus was a major player in providing liquidity and facilitating decentralized exchange on the blockchain.