You Won’t Believe What Happened to $220M in Crypto Hack

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Sui validators freeze majority of stolen funds in $220M Cetus hack

On May 22, a hack resulted in the theft of approximately $220 million from Cetus, a cryptocurrency exchange that operates on the Sui blockchain network. However, they’ve announced that around $162 million of the stolen funds have now been successfully frozen.

As reported by the Cetus team, the Decentralized Exchange (DEX) is collaborating with the Sui Foundation and various partners within its network to retrieve the remaining funds that were lost. Furthermore, the Sui Foundation has verified this collaboration.

“A large number of validators identified the addresses with the stolen funds and are ignoring transactions on those addresses until further notice. The Cetus team is exploring paths to recover those funds and return them to the community.”

2025’s Cetus hack is just one example among several similar events that have disrupted both cryptocurrency and Web3 in the early part of the year. The cybersecurity challenges faced by this industry remain significant, leading numerous experts to advocate for self-regulation and strengthened security measures. Failure to do so could potentially invite stricter government oversight.

The Cetus hack: the story so far

On May 22nd, it’s suspected that the Cetus Decentralized Exchange (DEX) suffered a hack, potentially due to an exploitation of its smart contract code. This breach resulted in an estimated loss of around $223 million worth of users’ assets.

Based on reports from the developers of the Extractor Web3 security alert system, approximately $63 million of the stolen assets was transferred to the Ethereum blockchain.

Additionally, the Extractor group discovered an Ethereum wallet with the final digits “AF16,” which was employed by the hackers for laundering approximately 20,000 Ether, equivalent to around $53 million in value.

Different initiatives within the Sui ecosystem, such as those aimed at recovery and asset freezing, have sparked a range of opinions among cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

As a researcher, I find myself expressing concern over a recent development: if just 114 validators, collectively, have the power to lock wallets at their discretion, it stirs up a significant question regarding the network’s resistance to censorship. It seems Sui, in this aspect, may not live up to its decentralized ideals.

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2025-05-22 23:12