Why Crypto Investors Were Shunning Sui Today

Touted by proponents as an effective, lightning-fast alternative to rival blockchains, Sui (CRYPTO: SUI) wasn't having a good Friday. As of this writing the Sui token was trading down by more than 5% in value from 4 p.m. ET, due mainly to a hack suffered by a decentralized exchange (DEX).

An investor would have been better served sticking with equities than buying Sui, as the S&P 500 index dipped by a relatively modest 0.4% during the stock trading day.

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Hack attack

That DEX, Cetus Protocol, is built mainly on the Sui and Aptos chains. That morning, Cetus announced in a posting on its official X (formerly Twitter) account that it was attacked by a hacker. This perpetrator apparently stole assets worth roughly $223 million.

Image source: Getty Images.

The DEX said that it had successfully paused $162 million of those funds, but that leaves $61 million lost. It added that it was working with developer the Sui Foundation and others to determine follow-up moves.

According to crypto news site The Daily Hodl, Cetus has identified the Ethereum wallet controlled by the alleged thief, and was negotiating to obtain the remainder of the stolen monies.

Cetus is the largest DEX and liquidity protocol on the Sui chain, so a security breach is deeply concerning for anyone that holds the cryptocurrency.

A hit to reputation it didn't need

When a hack occurs in the crypto world, it can often be challenging for even the best blockchains to cope with the loss to their reputation, never mind the financial fallout from such incidents. Sui has a great many users and supporters, largely because transactions on the chain are quick and the system generally seems reliable. Hopefully it won't lose too much trust because of the attack.

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Eric Volkman has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Aptos, Ethereum, and Sui. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.