NiftyNoon: The Great $220M Cetus Hack on SUI 📉🛡️💧
Cetus, the top decentralized exchange on the Sui L1, was hacked for $220M with funds ultimately frozen by validators in a move that ignited a debate over the network's decentralization (May 23, 2025)
Nifty Thought:
Cetus Protocol, the largest decentralized exchange on the Sui network, was hit by a massive exploit on May 22nd, with attackers draining approximately $220-$223 million in user funds through a suspected smart contract vulnerability. The attackers reportedly used spoof tokens to manipulate price curves and extract real assets, causing the CETUS token to plummet 40% and other Sui-based tokens to crash. In a swift response, the Cetus team paused its smart contracts and, working with the Sui Foundation and network validators, announced that $162 million of the stolen funds had been "frozen," with efforts underway to recover the remainder; at least $63 million was reportedly bridged to Ethereum by the hackers.
The coordinated effort by Sui validators to freeze the stolen funds by ignoring transactions from attacker addresses has drawn a mixed reaction from the crypto community. While seen as a positive step for victims, it also sparked significant debate about the Sui network's decentralization and censorship resistance, given that a relatively small number of validators could halt transactions. This major exploit, one of the largest in 2025, underscores the persistent cybersecurity challenges in the DeFi space and has led to broader repercussions, including other Sui-based protocols like Scallop temporarily halting services.
Highlighted News:
⏸️ Cetus smart contract was hacked this morning for approximately $223M and Cetus subsequently paused their smart contracts to prevent further theft:
https://x.com/suinetwork/status/1925572334054002774?s=46
🚨 Incident detected on @CetusProtocol protocol and smart contract has been paused temporarily for safety:
https://x.com/cetusprotocol/status/1925515662346404024?s=46
💦 Hyperliquid hit multiple all-time highs today, including:
https://x.com/hyperliquidx/status/1925417760710152675?s=46
🦑 @krakenfx announcing new partnership with @BackedFi for the launch of xStocks on @Solana:
https://x.com/krakenfx/status/1925578761212150007?s=46
🌏 World Foundation raised $135M from @a16z and @BainCapCrypto to accelerate scaling the real human network:
https://x.com/worldcoin/status/1925253926929997841
Project and Community News:
USD1 is now listed on Binance: https://x.com/worldlibertyfi/status/1925533090086101149?s=46
Some big movers on the Crypto AI board: https://x.com/tyler_did_it/status/1925605707354657035?s=46
Moo Deng $MOODENG and cat in a dog’s world $MEW are now available to trade on Robinhood: https://x.com/robinhoodapp/status/1925651095503675611?s=46
The "DAO Alliance with Huma Finance" vote is over with 86% of votes in favor of the proposal: https://x.com/jup_dao/status/1925575359749046303?s=46
@krakenfx confirms that it is building a native Bitcoin Runes integration that would theoretically support the listing of any Rune token: https://x.com/ord_io/status/1925595473928130911?s=46
@initia Stage 2 of VIP is complete: https://x.com/initia/status/1925505378638598544?s=46
The first Cookie Snaps campaign is officially live with @sparkdotfi: https://x.com/cookiedotfun/status/1925583691788542395?s=46
@JamesWynnReal provides update on $BTC long position: https://x.com/jameswynnreal/status/1925612213315727531?s=46
@PlasmaFDN announce a strategic investment from Founders Fund: https://x.com/plasmafdn/status/1925597168288559370?s=46
@distributeai announces a new partnership with Orb Energy to onboard 3,000 RTX 4090's to then distribute.ai network: https://x.com/distributeai/status/1925677081192444288?s=46
@PsyProtocol announcing the first PoW secured bridge connecting Dogecoin to Solana, crypto’s leading application platform: https://x.com/psyprotocol/status/1925673225142382727?s=46
@SuccinctLabs using Lean to formally verify SP1’s correctness in collaboration with @NethermindEth, experts in formal methods and ZK security: https://x.com/succinctlabs/status/1925250750927737291?s=46
@EB7 goes fully public with Splat as the founder: https://x.com/eb7/status/1925571549253234777?s=46
The Ledger Flex™ – @Solana Edition has landed: https://x.com/ledger/status/1925588627268280585?s=46
Quick Stats:
👾 Blur ETH Daily Volume: 461 ETH (▼ 29.05%)
🌊 OpenSea ETH Daily Volume: 751 ETH (▲ 2.59%)
🟠 BTC : $108,724.94 (▼ 2.41%)
🔷 ETH: $2,559.79 (▼ 3.45%)
🟣 Solana: $177.52 (▼ 0.37%)
🟪 Polygon: $0.24 (▼ 1.58%)
Top NFT Sales:
CryptoPunks #5864: 51.90 ETH
CryptoPunks #8751: 47.95 ETH
CryptoPunks #831: 49.88 ETH
NFT Daily Winners:
🐵 NodeMonkes: 0.04 BTC (▲ 1.91%)
🧙♂️ Taproot Wizards: 0.19 BTC (▲ 1.06%)
⛩ Azuki: 2.42 ETH (▲ 0.75%)
🏳🌈 Chromie Squiggles: 5.00 ETH (► 0.00%)
NFT Daily Losers:
😡 Mad Lads: 35.49 SOL (▼ 0.02%)
🐧 Pudgy Penguins: 9.46 ETH (▼ 0.21%)
🚬 CryptoPunks: 46.88 ETH (▼ 0.21%)
👩🏻 Milady Maker: 3.05 ETH (▼ 0.46%)
🦧 Bored Ape Yacht Club: 12.73 ETH (▼ 0.47%)
🐱 Quantum Cats: 0.03 BTC (▼ 0.59%)
🍭 Mocaverse: 1.59 ETH (▼ 0.68%)
💼 Ordinal Maxi Biz: 0.02 BTC (▼ 1.31%)
🧦 Bitcoin Puppets: 0.04 BTC (▼ 3.05%)
🏴☠ Captainz: 0.45 ETH (▼ 3.30%)
👾 Tensorians: 2.54 SOL (▼ 27.22%)
Notes:
If you find quick daily crypto updates helpful, please feel free to subscribe:
The content on this site is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
Managed by @AxuETH, @Miinted, @drethernik, @SpeedyGonzale87 and @SSPxLEO