The Sui Foundation has linked three network outages last week to two separate bugs introduced in its v1.72 software upgrade, according to an incident review published Sunday. The problems halted block production on Thursday and twice on Friday, disrupting on-chain activity and triggering forced liquidations.
Timeline of outages
The first outage began around 10:00 a.m. ET on Thursday and lasted until about 4:30 p.m., a pause of roughly six and a half hours. A second disruption occurred early Friday and was resolved later that morning. The third halt started around 4:30 p.m. Friday and ended near 10:20 p.m.
All three incidents stopped the blockchain from processing transactions, preventing users from managing positions and interacting with applications.
Bug in new address balances feature
The foundation said the first two halts were caused by a flaw in a newly introduced “address balances” feature.
Under specific conditions, a transaction that failed for insufficient funds could still consume gas, creating a negative balance. Once that occurred, validators could no longer process activity correctly, leading the network to halt.
Engineers deployed a temporary patch on Thursday to restore operations, while acknowledging it carried a low-probability risk of another stoppage. That risk materialized on Friday when a related condition again triggered a network halt.
Hidden randomness error exposed during restart
The third outage stemmed from a different bug that surfaced when validators restarted to install the updated fix.
During the restart, a long-standing error in how the system tracked randomness configuration between sessions was exposed. Too few validators completed the setup for the random number generator, causing the network to disable randomness as expected.
However, a separate issue prevented that decision from being recorded correctly. As a result, the chain froze at the close of the epoch instead of progressing to the next one.
Fixes, new tools and impact on user balances
The foundation said both the gas accounting error and the randomness bug have now been permanently fixed. It reported that no user balances were altered and no confirmed transactions were reversed.
Engineers also introduced a new tool that can force the closure of stalled epochs. This mechanism was used once during the repair work to advance the chain out of the frozen state.
Use of automated and ai-based diagnostics
According to the review, automated agents were used to analyze validator logs and aggregate performance metrics throughout the incidents. The foundation said artificial intelligence tools with direct access to production data helped identify failure points more quickly and improved the quality of the post-mortem analysis.
New features created unexpected gas risks
The bugs were linked to recent software additions meant to simplify how the network handles transactions, including the address balances feature and gasless stablecoin transfers.
These features were designed to refine Sui’s transaction model and improve usability. However, they introduced new paths for gas payment errors that were not caught before deployment.
Looking ahead, the foundation said future changes will be designed so that if a similar bug occurs, the affected transaction will be dropped, rather than causing a network-wide interruption.
Pattern of upgrade-related disruptions
The latest incidents extend a pattern of upgrade-linked reliability problems for Sui. The network had already experienced a roughly six-hour pause in January and another halt in late 2024 tied to validator software faults.
The series of halts poses a challenge to the chain’s reputation because they were triggered by internal logic flaws rather than by external stress, such as spam attacks or unusual load. The report underscores a central tension for high-throughput blockchains: adding new features and improving user experience while maintaining stable, continuous operation.
Financial fallout and liquidations
The outages had immediate financial consequences. The foundation’s review cited about $1.88 million in forced liquidations, as the pauses prevented users from adjusting on-chain positions in time.
Such episodes can erode confidence among teams building applications that require constant uptime, including games, trading protocols and payment systems.
Usage remains high despite reliability concerns
Despite the reliability issues and three major outages in 18 months, Sui has continued to show strong demand. On May 30, the network processed a yearly high of 1,539 transactions per second, according to the foundation.
This level of activity suggests that, while the system’s stability is under scrutiny, its throughput and performance remain attractive to those transacting on the chain.
Market reaction, futures launch and token unlock
On Sunday, SUI traded around $0.88, down about 3.3% over the previous 24 hours.
The market is weighing two opposing short-term drivers. On May 29, CME Group launched cash-settled SUI futures, providing institutional-grade tools for speculation and hedging. At the same time, a token unlock scheduled for June 1 is set to release roughly 14.36 million SUI, valued at about $13.1 million, into circulation, potentially adding selling pressure.
Defi capital outflows and ecosystem pressure
The total value locked in Sui-based decentralized finance applications has fallen sharply from a peak of about $2.6 billion in late 2025 to a range of $600 million to $650 million in early 2026.
The latest disruptions add pressure on the ecosystem to retain and attract capital in a competitive environment, as other networks compete on both uptime and user experience.
Outlook: testing standards under scrutiny
Built by Mysten Labs and tracing its origins to former developers from Meta’s discontinued Diem project, Sui is positioned as a high-performance layer-1 chain.
In the near term, market participants are expected to focus on whether upcoming software releases can be rolled out without triggering further halts. The foundation’s ability to harden its testing, staging and release processes is likely to be central to rebuilding trust among traders, developers and users who rely on uninterrupted access to the network.
Worried about Sui’s recent outages? Learn how the network works and assess long-term potential in our in-depth Sui guide.
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