Nemo Protocol Loses $2.4M USDC in Sui Blockchain Exploit

Nemo Protocol, a decentralized finance (DeFi) yield trading platform built on the Sui blockchain, suffered a $2.4 million exploit due to a price oracle manipulation and vulnerabilities in its smart contracts. The attacker stole mostly USDC stablecoins, which were then moved across multiple blockchains—from Sui to Arbitrum and finally Ethereum—using cross-chain bridges to obscure the trail. This exploit significantly reduced Nemo's total value locked from over $6 million to $1.53 million and forced the protocol to suspend all smart contract activities while investigating the incident. The breach highlights ongoing security challenges within the Sui ecosystem and the broader DeFi sector, where vulnerabilities in oracles and smart contracts continue to be exploited, contributing to over $2.17 billion in crypto losses in 2025. The incident follows a series of recent high-profile DeFi attacks, including breaches at Venus Protocol and Bunni DEX, underscoring persistent risks despite increasing institutional adoption. This latest hack raises concerns about user trust, reputational damage, and the need for stronger security measures within the Sui network and DeFi projects overall.