Sui Hack: $29M Stolen, Tornado Cash Used to Conceal Theft

Sui (SUI), a Solana (SOL) competitor, has experienced a significant setback with a hacker stealing $29 million worth of the cryptocurrency from a single victim last month. The on-chain investigation, conducted by ZachXBT, revealed that the theft occurred on December 12th. The stolen funds were bridged from Sui to Ethereum via Bridgers and then deposited to Tornado Cash in batches. The victim promptly transferred their.sui domains to a new, uncompromised address following the theft. However, current limitations with Sui block explorers and Sui analytics tools make the theft difficult to trace.

Tornado Cash, an Ethereum (ETH)-based coin mixing system, was used to conceal the stolen digital assets. The controversial project was sanctioned by the US in 2022 for national security purposes. The blockchain security firm PeckShield reported a surge in crypto hacks and scams in 2024, with the total value loss in the crypto sector exceeding $3.01 billion, a 15% increase from the 2023 total. This number included $2.15 billion stolen in hacks and $834.5 million looted in scams, with $488.5 million worth of crypto recovered.

Despite the surge in digital asset losses last year, 2024 was still not as prolific as 2022, which saw $3.6 billion worth of value loss across the sector. The Sui community remains optimistic about the project's future, as the team continues to work on improving security measures and enhancing the platform's features.