Cetus Protocol, a Sui-Based Decentralized Exchange, Suffers a $260 Million Exploit

Sui-based decentralized exchange Cetus suffered a $260 million hack after a malicious actor compromised its liquidity pools. The attack affected multiple assets, including SUI and USDC

A major exploit has hit decentralized exchange Cetus, resulting in losses of over $260 million in SUI and USDC. The protocol’s liquidity pools were compromised by a malicious actor who exploited a flaw in Cetus’s pricing curve.

According to on-chain data and analytics firm Lookonchain, the exploiter used spoof tokens such as BULLA to manipulate liquidity states and execute transactions that allowed large amounts of real assets to be withdrawn.

The attacker focused on Cetus’s liquidity mechanism, which was designed to handle varying token valuations. However, the exploiter abused this system by adding assets with no external worth, such as a memecoin, to the pool while extracting genuine funds.

Early stages of the exploit saw the exploiter acquiring $75 million in SUI and USDC. Afterward, Cetus suspended its smart contracts to halt any further outflows and began investigating the breach.

The incident began with a small-cap token, known as BULLA, displaying abnormal price activity. Despite starting the day with a $66 million market cap, BULLA dropped by 60% after being used in the Cetus exploit.

The attack's impact also reached other tokens on the Sui chain, such as SLOVE, Uni, and MEMEFI, leading to significant declines. SLOVE decreased by 93%, Uni fell by 77%, and MEMEFI dropped 51% within a few hours.

The native token of Cetus, denoted as CETUS, declined by 34% after the confirmed hack and manipulation of liquidity pools. Market sentiment across the Sui ecosystem soured, but SUI remained relatively stable, losing just 2.37%.

The manipulated assets were quickly converted to USDC and bridged to Ethereum. Lookonchain confirmed that the attacker had already transferred $60 million to Ethereum smart contracts.

Security experts are now tracking these cross-chain movements to recover stolen assets linked to Sui-based tokens. The incident has brought a renewed focus on protocol security and cross-chain cooperation in response to major exploits.