The Suiball native hardware wallet project for Sui has announced it will shut down and issue refunds to all pre-order customers. Previously, the Sui Foundation reportedly determined that supporting this project posed excessively high security risks.
Suiball stated that this decision was made following a series of recent attacks targeting hardware wallets across the cryptocurrency industry. The project team said they had completed development and entered the manufacturing phase, with the first batch of devices ready for shipment.
On November 11, the team announced on X that the Sui Foundation believes the risks associated with supporting such products are currently too high. The team accepted this decision, stating that the foundation’s priority is protecting users and the ecosystem.
"After years of intensive development and having delivered a fully functional, working product, it's hard to say we must shut down Suiball," the team wrote.
Suiball will be refunded in USDC.
According to the refund plan outlined in the announcement, customers who placed orders directly on-chain will receive USDC refunds via automatic airdrop.
Suiball said that such orders account for approximately 80% of all reservations. Refunds will be sent to the wallet associated with the soulbound NFT received by the customer when reserving the device.
Eligible customers do not need to submit any applications or complete additional steps; the first payments are expected to be issued within the next week.
Customers who purchased equipment with a credit card will follow a different process. Suiball plans to contact these customers via email and request their Sui wallet address to issue refunds.
After collecting the addresses, the company will conduct a second USDC airdrop to settle outstanding orders.
The team reminds customers that they will never ask for seed phrases, private keys, or additional payments during the refund process. Customers are instructed to respond only to emails from [email protected]
Suiball commits to permanently deleting customer information collected for device delivery—including name, email address, phone number, and shipping details—once the refund is completed.
The company will officially cease operations after the refund process is completed.
Closed following a delay in the previous security audit
This closure occurred less than a month after Suiball delayed shipping to conduct additional security testing.
On October 21, the founder of Suiball stated on X that, following discussions with Mysten Labs and the Sui Network team, the project has decided to delay delivery.
At the time, the founder stated that the company had agreed to commission an additional independent security audit before releasing the device, a process expected to take several months.
“We’d rather ship late than send out anything that hasn’t been tested against today’s threats,” the founder said.
The October announcement still stated that customers would receive the equipment after the audit was completed. However, the November decision ended the project before any initial shipments were made.
Suiball debuted at SuiFest in Singapore in October 2025, positioned as a hardware wallet built specifically for the Sui network.
Its planned features include native support for Sui assets, Bitcoin compatibility, clear signing, and integration with the Sui wallet platform Slush.
The product was originally promoted with a pre-order discount price of $149, with a listed retail price of $229.
Hardware wallet security incident raises concerns
This decision comes as several well-known hardware wallet manufacturers have experienced security incidents over the past few months.
In October, hardware wallet manufacturer Keystone confirmed a security breach in which customer names, home addresses, and purchase information were exposed following unauthorized access to its website.
Although the private key and recovery phrase were not compromised, this incident exposed sensitive delivery information of hardware wallet buyers.
Subsequently, Trezor warned customers that a Safe 5 device purchased through the former distributor CryptoBilis is suspected of being compromised with malicious components.
This suspicious modification involves additional circuit boards and cellular components that may transmit the recovery phrase displayed on the device.
Back in August, BitBox patched two critical vulnerabilities affecting its BitBox02 and BitBox02 Nova devices, including a flaw that could allow malicious firmware to be installed.
The company stated that there is currently no evidence that these vulnerabilities have been exploited.
Suiball has not specified which specific event influenced the Sui Foundation's decision to withdraw its support.