The decentralized exchange Cetus on the Sui blockchain has suffered a major exploit, with estimated losses ranging from $220 million to $230 million. According to Sui’s CPO, @EmanAbio, around $150–160 million of the stolen assets have been frozen and will soon be returned to Cetus pools. The root cause has been initially identified as a vulnerability in a smart contract.

On-chain data from security firm Hacken shows that at least $63 million has been bridged to Ethereum, including a major transaction involving 20,000 ETH. Cetus’ trading volume unexpectedly surged to $2.9 billion on May 22, likely due to the hacker rapidly draining assets.

The Sui ecosystem has been hit hard, with many tokens plummeting over 75%—some, like AXOL, crashing nearly 99.5%. Lending protocol Scallop has temporarily halted all borrowing activities to manage risk. Cetus has paused its smart contracts and is currently working with relevant parties to investigate the incident.