Sui’s Cetus Decentralized Exchange Hacked as Bitcoin Hits New All-Time High
Even as Bitcoin rallies past $112K, a $223M DeFi hack on Sui’s Cetus shows that crypto’s security battle is far from over.
One question that keeps coming up in crypto is this: when will blockchains finally be secure enough to stop getting hacked? Sure, some will argue that even the most trusted traditional financial systems get breached now and then. But in a space built on code, decentralization, and trustless systems, you'd think the tech would hold up better. The thing is, it’s not just that blockchains still get hacked—it’s that as they grow, they also seem to open up new holes. The assumption that “more adoption = more security” isn’t aging well. Take this week, for example. While Bitcoin shot past its previous all-time high, smashing through $110,000 and pulling the rest of the market into a green frenzy, Sui’s decentralized exchange, Cetus, got drained for $223 million. A brutal reminder that even in bull markets, DeFi doesn’t get a break.
Here’s what went down
Initially, Cetus’s sudden liquidity drain looked like a simple bug. But digging deeper, blockchain security firm Dedaub confirmed it was no accident. Instead, hackers exploited a loophole in Cetus’s automated market maker (AMM) code, specifically, a manipulation of liquidity parameters that slipped past the usual “overflow” checks.
Simply put, the exploit let hackers create massive liquidity positions by inputting just a single token. This trick let them suck out hundreds of millions from the pools, turning what should’ve been a tiny move into a catastrophic drain. Of the $223 million stolen, $163 million has been frozen by validators and partners in the Sui network, but the damage is done. Confidence shook hard. For a blockchain like Sui, often hailed as a Solana competitor with a market cap worth of $12 billion, this was a serious blow to user trust and confidence. The price plunged nearly 15% after the news broke, and tokens tied to the ecosystem lost over 70% of their value within hours.
Cetus itself had seen massive growth leading up to the hack, processing $2.9 billion in transactions on May 22, a massive jump from $320 million the day before. The pressure on the network and its code was real, and unfortunately, so were the cracks.
This isn’t an isolated incident either
Just last week, Coinbase revealed it had been hacked via a bribed customer support staff who leaked user data over several months. The hackers demanded a $20 million ransom to delete stolen information, including names, addresses, government IDs, and more. Between these two events, the message is loud and clear: crypto’s security challenges aren’t slowing down, even as the market heats up. Blockchain projects will have to rethink security from the ground up, not just patch code, but rethink incentives, monitoring, and crisis response. And as users, we have to stay sharp, knowing that behind every bull run lurks the risk of the next hack. The dream of a secure, hack-proof blockchain is still alive, but this week was a stark reminder that it’s nowhere near guaranteed.
David Adubiina
