Sui mainnet restarts after second software bug halt
Sui’s mainnet resumed normal operations on May 30 after a second halt in as many days, with the network’s operators saying a software bug tied to gas charging logic in version 1.72 had been fully patched. The restart matters because the stop-start sequence exposed a reliability problem in one of the more closely watched layer-1 networks, even as validators moved quickly to restore transaction processing.[1][2]
Overview
- Sui said the outage stemmed from an interaction between its Address Balances feature and gas fee logic introduced in version 1.72, which disrupted network activity and transaction processing.[1][2]
- The first shutdown lasted roughly 5 hours and 55 minutes, according to incident reporting, making it one of the network’s longest recent interruptions.[2][6]
- A second pause followed shortly after a temporary fix, which Sui said carried a low-probability risk of further downtime before the permanent patch was deployed.[1]
- Validators have now deployed the long-term fix, and Sui said the underlying vulnerability has been fully resolved, restoring normal operations.[1]
- The team said it will publish a post-mortem, leaving some uncertainty over whether related edge cases remain under review.[1][6]
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Sui mainnet resumes after back-to-back halts
The Sui mainnet pause was first triggered on May 28, when validators running the 1.72 update encountered a bug in gas charging logic and stopped producing new checkpoints.[2][6] A second interruption followed after the initial workaround, which Sui had described as temporary and not fully risk-free.[1]
The network’s operators said the root cause was the interaction between the new Address Balances feature and gas fee logic introduced in the same release.[1][4] According to reports citing the official Sui announcement, the permanent fix has now been deployed across validators and network activity has returned to normal.[1][2]
| Incident | Timing | Reported cause | Operational impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| First halt | May 28 | Gas charging bug in 1.72 | Mainnet stopped producing checkpoints for about 5 hours 55 minutes[2][6] |
| Second halt | May 29 | Variant of the same issue | Network paused again before the long-term fix was rolled out[1][6] |
| Recovery | May 30 | Validator-coordinated patch | Normal transaction processing resumed[1][2] |
What the Sui restart means for the network
For market participants, the key issue is not just the outage itself but the fact that it happened twice in rapid succession. A second halt after an initial fix can weigh on confidence in validator coordination and software rollout discipline, especially for a network positioning itself as a high-performance layer-1.[1][6]
Sui’s public messaging suggests the team moved to contain the issue rather than let it linger. Validators upgraded to the patched version, and the network returned once the fix was broadly adopted.[2][6] That limits the immediate damage, but it does not eliminate the reputational cost of repeated downtime.
Reliability risk remains the central overhang
The main downside scenario is straightforward: if the post-mortem identifies broader implementation weaknesses, the incident could feed caution among developers and users considering Sui for higher-value activity. Analysts note that repeated halts can matter more than the duration of any single outage because they raise questions about operational resilience.[Interpretation based on available data][1][2]
A second uncertainty is whether the same release introduced additional edge cases that have not yet been surfaced. Sui said a detailed incident review is forthcoming, which leaves open the possibility that the current fix addresses the immediate failure but not every adjacent risk.[1]
For now, the immediate takeaway is that Sui mainnet is back online, but the network’s next test will be whether it can hold that line through future upgrades without another stall.[1][2]
- https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/sui-mainnet-resumes-after-two-outages-linked-to-same-software-bug
- https://cryptobriefing.com/sui-mainnet-resumes-after-validator-fix/
- https://newscord.org/article/sui-mainnet-resumes-after-validators-fix-gas-charging-bug-in-172-release-Story_20260529_Suinetworktemporarila8648c26
- https://www.mexc.co/news/1120166
- https://www.mexc.com/news/1118383
- https://www.mexc.com/news/1119979
- https://whale-alert.io/stories/88bb01a4fc25ab/Sui-Mainnet-Halted-for-Nearly-7-Hours-After-Validator-Crash-Bug-Then-Resumed-After-Patch
