Cetus, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Sui
In a May 22 post on X, Extractor, a tracking tool created by cybersecurity firm Hacken, reported that around $63 million had already been moved to Ethereum, and 20,000 ETH
Following the incident, many tokens saw drops in price on Cetus. Some, like Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) and AXOLcoin (AXOL), lost nearly all of their value. The biggest fifteen losses were all above 75%.
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The exchange has paused its smart contract to stop further activity and stated that it will give an update when services resume.
One wallet linked to the incident currently holds nearly $52 million in SUI, about $4.9 million in Haedal Staked SUI (HASUI), $19.5 million in Toilet (TOILET) tokens, a similar amount in wrapped USDT
Cetus reported in an update on X that $162 million of over $220 million has been frozen. The exchange is working with the Sui Foundation and other network groups to recover the rest.
The Sui Foundation confirmed that many validators are currently blocking transactions from the wallets connected to the stolen funds.
Additionally, Cetus offers the attacker a $6 million reward and will drop any legal or public actions if the stolen assets, including the 20,920 ETH (worth over $55 million), are returned.
However, the offer comes with a warning—if the funds are moved to mixers or withdrawn through exchanges, Cetus will use legal and intelligence resources to pursue the case. In a separate post on X, Cetus stated, “We encourage the hacker to sincerely consider our offer terms”.
On May 15, Coinbase was targeted in a $20 million extortion attempt after attackers bribed overseas support staff. How did the exchange respond to the incident? Read the full story.
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