- Cetus Protocol has offered a $6 million bounty to the hacker behind the $223 million exploit.
- The hackers made use of fake tokens to manipulate the platform’s smart contracts. This caused a huge loss across the Sui ecosystem, with different tokens experiencing sharp price drops.
Sui decentralized protocol, Cetus, has offered a $6 million bounty to the hacker responsible for the massive $223 million exploit. The team behind the platform is urging the attacker to return the stolen funds in exchange for the reward, hoping to resolve the situation without involving the authorities.
On the 22nd of May, Cetus shared an update regarding the hack through an on-chain note and a public post. They first confirmed that they had tracked the exploiter’s Ethereum address then they went on to propose a deal known as a “whitehat settlement” to recover lost user money.
According to the “deal,” they requested that the hacker return 20,920 ETH along with all locked assets on the Sui network. In return, the individual can keep 2,324 ETH worth around $6 million and face no legal consequences. Cetus described the offer as urgent and warned that if the crypto is moved or hidden, the agreement will be canceled.
So far, the team has started working with the police, online crime experts, and other government bodies like FinCEN and the U.S. Department of Defense.
How the Sui Breach Happened
The hack started when the hackers found a weakness in Cetus’s smart contracts and then used fake coins to trick the system’s pricing and balances. This trick allowed them to get access to real funds from different liquidity pools, including the SUI/USDC pair. At first, a team member thought it was a glitch, but it was later confirmed to be a cyberattack. The platform had to pause contracts in order to stop more damage.
The news of the hack caused fear throughout the system, causing a major price decline in SUI tokens, including Lofi, Sudeng, and Squirtle, which fell by 76%, 80%, and 97% in just one hour. The value of the Cetus coin also dropped sharply by 53%. According to DEX Screener, 46 other tokens on the Sui chain saw heavy losses within the last 24 hours.
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