Can a decentralized chain just… freeze your funds

“Ok, why literally everyone and their mom currently talk about Sui?”

If it’s you – hey, you know we got you. We stayed in pain that they are not aware of:

Yesterday Sui Blockchain experienced the largest defic of 2025.

Hack Stole $ 223 million from CetusThe biggest Dex aggregate on Sui.

Fyi: This is approximately 94% of what the platform had in the total value locked (TVL) the day before. Well, a pretty big deal.

“But … how?” He told you, maybe.

As I said – don’t worry, we got you.

Attacker exploited Manu in Cetus’s smart contracts – And according to CTO -ALEX HORLAN, Resistant to HackenThis is how the whole thing fell:

Step 1. By making garbage token precious

The attacker made his own token – just a worthless coin called Bull.

Now, at most DexS, prices are set up how many coins sit in the pool. If there is a lot of bulls and just a little sui (legal token), the system assumes that the bulla must be really valuable – because he thinks it takes a lot of bull to buy just a little sui.

So the hacker threw tonnes of bulls into the pool and only added a little sui. Now the mathematics of the pool was deceived: she thought 1 Bull was worth a lot of sui when it really was garbage.

Step 2. Setting up a false pool of liquidity

Then the hacker used a bulla to create a new liquidity pool – this time, adding almost nothing to him, just enough to set it up.

When someone triggers a new pool of liquidity, they in turn receive LP tokens. These LP tokens are like a certificate that shows which percentage of the pool you own, and later you can trade them to get your share of the right tokens in the pool.

But the system still thinks that the false token is a super rally, so when the attacker adds a small little thing to the pool, it treats it as a huge bed. As a result, the hacker gets a huge number of LP tokens – much more than they really deserve.

Step 3. Cash

Now armed with a team of LP tokens, the hacker begins to remove liquidity – exchanging its LP tokens for real tokens from the pool.

Since the mathematics of the system is broken from an earlier trick, it allows them to continue drawing real money – over and over – although they barely put anything really at the beginning.

I know. Crazy things.

And the result was a mess:

Craaazy things.

Cetus scored to answer:

• Stopped all smart contracts to prevent more damage;

• United with sui fund and frozen about $ 162 million in hacker funds. Unfortunately, the hacker has already brought about $ 60 million through Ethereum;

• Offered a white hat – Up to $ 6 million – if the attacker returns the ether.

Which sounds like a pretty solid answer.

But many people went like, “Uhhh … break. Sui can freeze funds?”

Yes, if one can only stop transactions, it feels a lot like a traditional banking system. And for a network called decentralized, it’s a big red flag.

On the other hand, people love Crypto Sleuth Matteo pointed out That what happened was not centralized control – was decentralization in action.

According to his, Sui validators from all over the world are independently coordinated to stop the famous malicious wallet. No one gave orders, no one had to seek permission. They just decided to act.

This, he said, what a true decentralization looks like – is not powerless, but being able to react together as a network together.

And probably He was The right choice. If you can stop someone to steal, why not?

But even if it made sense, he left a crack in the idea that Sui was completely decentralized.

So yes. And that’s, friends, the reason why everyone is crying around Sui. Pain of unconsciousness has been published.

You are in knowledge now. But think about your friends – they probably have no idea. I wonder who could fix it … 😃🫵 Expand the word and be a hero you know you are!