- Sui’s top DEX Cetus was exploited for $200M, causing massive crashes in tokens like LOFI, HIPPO, and SQUIRT.
- Attackers used spoof tokens to manipulate oracles and drain multiple liquidity pools, then bridged funds to Ethereum.
- Despite the chaos, SUI’s price oddly rose 2.2%, while Circle and Tether faced criticism for slow response times.
Well, this one hit hard. The Sui ecosystem just got rocked by a brutal exploit targeting its largest DEX—Cetus—and yeah, it’s a mess. An estimated $200 million was drained straight outta liquidity pools, sending shockwaves through the network and absolutely nuking a bunch of Sui-based meme coins.
LOFI dropped 76%. HIPPO? Down 80%. And Squirtle (yep, that’s a real one) cratered a stunning 97%… all in under an hour. Even the native Cetus token wasn’t spared—plunging 53% in the same stretch. According to DEX Screener, 46 Sui tokens have suffered double-digit losses in the last 24 hours alone.
How It Happened: Spoof Tokens & Oracle Tricks
Deddy Lavid, the CEO over at Cyvers, broke it down. The attacker apparently used spoof tokens to mess with the protocol’s price curves and reserve data. That let them yank real assets out of multiple pools—including the major SUI/USDC one—and then bridge the funds out. “Oracle manipulation attack,” he called it. A crafty one, at that.
PeckShield estimates about $200M in assets were drained. At last check, the attacker’s still sitting on $164M in a Sui wallet, and already bridged $61.5M in USDC over to Ethereum. That’s… fast.
Cetus responded by halting its smart contracts and tossing up a post on X, calling it an “incident” and asking for patience. Standard playbook stuff. No official comments from the Sui team either—just a link to public updates on social.
Community’s Not Buying It, Circles Backlash, and Tether’s Usual Drama
Leaked Discord chats hint that the Cetus team suspects the bug lies in their oracle system, though social media’s not totally convinced. Cyvers backed the idea, saying spoof tokens made it easy for the attacker to mess with prices and sneak out the funds.
USDC was the getaway vehicle of choice. Circle, once again, got dragged online—on-chain detective ZachXBT pointed out the firm’s sluggish response to previous hacks, like the Bybit exploit, where they took over five hours to freeze anything. Tether hasn’t exactly been faster, either.
“We’ve sent real-time alerts for stuff like this before,” Lavid added, “but most of these issuers don’t do squat until days later. That delay? It’s just as bad as doing nothing.”
Community Reacts & Sui Somehow Holds Steady
One meme summed it up perfectly—“How Circle sleeps during a 9-figure hack.” Not wrong.
Even CZ chimed in from his post-Binance perch, saying his team’s trying to help where they can. “Not a pleasant situation,” he posted. “Hope everyone stay SAFU!”
Here’s the weird part: despite the chaos, SUI’s price has actually ticked up—2.2% in the green, according to CoinGecko. Go figure.
This story’s still developing, but one thing’s clear: it’s another brutal reminder that even the most promising ecosystems can get blindsided… fast.
