Cetus Hit by Exploit—$220M Gone, $6M Bounty on the Table

🎁 Ace quick missions & earn crypto rewards while gaining real-world Web3 skills. JOIN NOW! 🔥

Cetus Hit by Exploit—$220 Million Gone, $6 Million Bounty on the Table

Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: May 23, 2025

Key Takeaways

Cetus DEX paused operations after a suspected $200 million exploit, with $63 million bridged to Ethereum;
$162 million of the stolen funds has been frozen; Cetus is working with Sui Foundation to recover more;
The hacker was offered $6 million to return the assets, or face full legal and intelligence action.

Ace quick missions & earn crypto rewards while gaining real-world Web3 skills. Participate Now ! 🔥

BITDEGREE IN YOUR SOCIAL FEED

Cetus, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Sui SUI $3.67 blockchain, is investigating a major security issue that may have led to over $200 million in crypto being stolen.

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 ETH $2,537.98 went to a new wallet in a single transaction.

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%.

What Is Chia? | Crypto Finally Explained

Did you know?

Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?

Subscribe - We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!

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 USDT $0.9981 , and several other assets.

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However, the offer comes with a warning—if the funds are moved to mixers or withdrawn through exchanges, Cetus will use legal and intelligence resources to pursue the case.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.