Cetus Protocol, SUI Network's Largest DEX and Liquidity Provider, Has Been Hacked for $260M

Cetus Protocol, SUI network's largest decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity provider, has suffered a massive $260 million hack.

Cetus Protocol, a major decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity provider on the SUI network, has been hit by a massive hack, with estimates placing the stolen funds at a staggering $260 million.

As the crypto hack unfolded, the SUI price dropped nearly 15%. At the time of writing, the token is changing hands at $3.90. Amidst this chaos, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) offered his support for the blockchain network.

As revealed by Lookonchain, the Cetus DEX was exploited by a hacker, whose wallet address is identified as “0xe28b50.” The attacker is said to have 12.9 million SUI, which amounts to about $54 million.

Further analysis by Lookonchain showed that the hacker is laundering the stolen funds by converting them to USDC. Afterwards, they transferred around $60 million in USDC to the Ethereum blockchain, where it’s being exchanged for ETH. Analyst Ted also confirmed that the hacker has already bought $60 million in ETH tokens.

After the incident, the Cetus team confirmed that they have now paused their smart contracts and are actively investigating the exploit.

According to preliminary findings, the attacker used fake tokens, such as BULLA, to manipulate price curves and reserve calculations. Minimal liquidity was added to distort internal LP states and drain real assets like SUI and USDC. The team confirmed that the contract has been paused “for safety.”

The development team was informed of the Cetus incident at 3:52 AM PT and promised to probe into the matter further and take the necessary action. They wrote,

“We have been informed of an incident affecting Cetus. The Cetus team has our full support in this ongoing investigation. We will provide further updates as soon as they become available.”

In response to the crypto hack, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao took to X to share that they are offering full support to the platform. He wrote on X, “We are doing what we can to help SUI. Not a pleasant situation. Hope everyone stay SAFU!”

As the crypto hack unfolded, the SUI token plummeted but is still trading in the green zone on the day. Earlier today, the token touched a weekly high following reports that OKX launched xBTC, a 1:1 wrapped Bitcoin token, on the platform.

However, the bullish trend was short-lived as the token dipped and is now trading at $3.65 at the time of writing. While the SUI price went down by a marginal 0.39% over the past 24 hours, it has seen a notable plummet of nearly 15% over the past four hours. Initial reports suggested a massive outflow of $200 million in funds, which triggered panic across the community.

In addition to SUI’s plummet, other Sui-based tokens on Cetus, like LBTC and AXOL, saw a huge downturn, nearly losing their whole value. Other assets like LOFI, HIPPO, and SQUIRT dropped by about 80% over the past six hours.