SUI Hack: Cetus Offers $6 Million Bounty to Recover $220 Million Stolen Funds

Key Notes

• Cetus has warned of escalating legal and intelligence measures if the assets are moved off-chain or through mixers.
• The Sui team reportedly deployed an emergency function to bypass security checks, enabling validators to block transactions linked to the hacker's assets.
• Following the hack and ongoing recovery efforts, the SUI token has faced strong selling pressure, with its price dropping to $3.85 after a rejection at $4.2.

Cetus, the native decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Sui blockchain SUI $3.65 24h volatility: 5.3% Market cap: $12.18 B Vol. 24h: $1.76 B , is offering $6 million in white bounty to the hacker, in a bid to recover the $220 million stolen funds. The DEX has faced a major exploit on Thursday, May 22, although it managed to freeze $162 million of the stolen funds in a short time after the hack.

Cetus has announced a white hat bounty of up to $6 million for the return of 20,920 Ether ETH $1 845 24h volatility: 2.6% Market cap: $222.72 B Vol. 24h: $14.22 B , valued at over $55 million, along with other stolen funds currently frozen on the Sui blockchain. In a message embedded in a blockchain transaction on May 22, Cetus wrote :

“In exchange, you can keep 2,324 ETH ($6M) as a bounty, and we will consider the matter closed and will not pursue any further legal, intelligence, or public action.”

However, Cetus has warned that if the hacker tries to move these assets off-ramp or send them further to crypto mixers, the hacker will “escalate with full legal and intelligence resources.”

Team Deploys Special Function to Recover Funds From SUI Hack

As per the GitHub activity, the SUI team has deployed an emergency which allows certain transactions to bypass security checks. These measures are potentially undertaken by the team to recover funds linked to SUI hack.

Chaofan Shou, a software engineer at Solayer Labs explained: “It appears that the Sui team asked every validator to deploy patched code so they could take away @CetusProtocol hacker’s $160 million via an unsigned tx.”

An unnamed Sui engineer informed Shou that validators held off deploying this and are currently only blocking transactions involving the hacker’s objects, as shared in a May 22 post on X.

It appears that the Sui team asked every validator to deploy patched code so they could take away @CetusProtocol hacker’s $160 million via an unsigned tx. https://t.co/CDEIAs4C8G pic.twitter.com/wqkdY2F6py

— Chaofan Shou (svm/acc) (@shoucccc) May 22, 2025

This decision has drawn criticism from decentralization advocates, who argue that the ability to override transactions undermines the core principles of a decentralized, permissionless network.

However, others in the crypto community view the swift action as a positive sign of progress rather than a move toward centralization.

Following this development, SUI price has come under strong selling pressure after being rejected at $4.2. It is currently trading at $3.85, with daily trading volume up 45% to $3.4 billion. A price recovery appears unlikely until the team manages to recover the funds.

Just last week, SUI outperformed XRP and ADA in institutional inflows. Despite this bullish sentiment, the token is now facing losses, reflecting broader market uncertainty.

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