The decentralized change Cetus, constructed on the Sui blockchain, has been hit with one of many largest DeFi exploits of the 12 months, dropping over $220 million in crypto belongings.
Whereas the staff swiftly froze $162 million, they’re now providing the hacker a $6 million white hat bounty if the remaining funds, together with 20,920 ETH, are returned.
“Maintain 2,324 ETH and stroll away—we gained’t take authorized or public motion,” Cetus supplied in an on-chain message. If ignored, the staff says it is going to pursue each authorized and intelligence channel accessible.
The incident comes amid an increase in crypto-related breaches—April alone noticed $90 million in stolen funds throughout 15 assaults, and Bybit’s large $1.4 billion loss in February nonetheless casts a shadow.
Behind the scenes, builders on the Sui community thought-about deploying an emergency “whitelist” perform to bypass customary validation and probably get well belongings. Critics argue this undermines the chain’s decentralization, whereas defenders view it as a vital safeguard.
Developer logs and GitHub exercise verify {that a} proposal was mentioned to permit sure transactions with out signatures. Some validators resisted, and present actions are restricted to blocking hacker-related transfers, not rewriting transactions.
The controversy has break up the crypto group. To some, it’s a crimson flag for centralization. To others, it reveals that blockchain governance may be proactive with out abandoning core values.
“Decentralization isn’t about standing by—it’s about appearing as a group,” one person wrote.
Because the bounty window stays open, the Cetus case could also be remembered not just for the size of the theft—however for testing the boundaries of decentralized decision-making.
