Sui Network Faces $160M Security Breach—Decentralization Claims Under Fire

Sui’s ’trustless’ ethos takes a $160M gut punch as exploiters drain funds in a high-profile security breach. The Layer 1 chain—once hyped as an Ethereum killer—now faces existential questions about its validator decentralization.

Anatomy of a heist: How attackers bypassed Sui’s safeguards

The exploit targeted a vulnerability in Sui’s token bridge design, raising eyebrows about whether its 20-validator network offers enough decentralization to prevent collusion. Meanwhile, VC-backed ’decentralized’ chains keep proving they’re about as distributed as your average hedge fund’s boardroom.

Wake-up call or death knell? Sui’s next moves

With nine-figure losses now mirroring Solana’s 2022 bridge disaster, Sui’s team must choose: double down on decentralization theater or implement real structural reforms. Either way, crypto’s recurring security farces just got a fresh $160M plot twist.

Move is not a silver bullet

The incident also exposed broader risk beyond Cetus. According to security firm Verichains, three other major Sui protocols — Kriya, FlowX and TURBO Finance — were previously vulnerable to the same math flaw exploited from the latest attack. While Kriya and FlowX patched their contracts, Verichains warned that Turbo Finance still contains the vulnerable code, albeit not actively in use.

“Dead code is not SAFE code,” Verichains mused.

Verichains’ findings reinforce the idea that while Move-based smart contracts and VM offer stronger technical primitives, in practice, security still depends on shared libraries, developer diligence and tooling maturity.

Looking ahead, several developers and researchers have called for a formal, transparent policy on validator powers and emergency responses.

Aave governance lead Marc Zeller expressed the view that the centralized powers on display would make DeFi protocols wary, writing “[you] can be sure AAVE will never deploy on Sui.”

Sui may have preserved some value this time (the hacker still exfiltrated some $60 million), but its long-term reputation will depend on whether it can set clear limits — and build credible neutrality — into the system itself.

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