Cetus Protocol Offers $5 Million Reward for $223 Million Hacker

Cetus Protocol, a decentralized exchange on the Sui network, has posted a $5 million reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the attacker who extracted $223 million from its platform. The offer, announced on May 23, is coordinated with cybersecurity firm Inca Digital and will be funded by the Sui Foundation if the tip proves decisive. Informants are required to email the perpetrator’s name, location, and supporting proof with the subject “Cetus lead.” The DEX has also stated that it would withdraw any civil action and cancel the bounty should the exploiter return the assets and accept the earlier settlement proposal.

This move comes amid growing concerns about centralization on the Sui network following the freezing of $162 million by many of its 114 validators. The collective freeze prevented the remaining $162 million transfer and locked the tokens on-chain. This action has sparked a debate within the crypto community about the balance between rapid asset protection and the implications of validators being able to suspend specific accounts at will.

Hours before the public bounty, Cetus used an on-chain transaction to deliver a separate proposal to the attacker on Sui and Ethereum blockchains. That note offered a $6 million retention fee, equivalent to 2,324 ETH, in exchange for the return of 20,920 ETH and all frozen amounts on Sui. The team said it had mapped the exploiter’s Ethereum wallets and was coordinating with US federal authorities, FinCEN, the Seychelles Police Force, selected defense-sector partners, major exchanges, and bridge operators. The ultimatum warned that any attempt to launder funds would trigger a global law-enforcement escalation.

Per the protocol’s May 22 incident disclosure, the attacker targeted a flaw in Cetus’ pricing mechanism, prompting an immediate pause of all smart-contract activity. The project’s blockchain data shows that the exploit yielded $223 million in tokens. Of that sum, $61 million was moved to Ethereum via bridges, while the remaining $162 million was frozen by Sui network validators. Cetus has not revealed when normal trading will resume or whether the team will implement code changes before reactivating the contracts.

Gautham Santhosh, co-founder of Polynomialfi, wrote that the crypto community is now weighing the benefit of rapid asset protection against the implication that validators can suspend specific accounts at will. Although he highlighted that the process demanded consensus and was not arbitrary, the episode has changed the security assumptions regarding layer-1 blockchains.