Hacker steals $223 million in Cetus Protocol cryptocurrency heist

The decentralized exchange Cetus Protocol announced that hackers have stolen $223 million in cryptocurrency and is offering a deal to stop all legal action if the funds are returned. The project also announced a $5 million bounty to anyone providing relevant information leading to the identification and arrest of the attacker. Cetus Protocol is a decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity protocol operating on the Sui and Aptos blockchains. It employs a Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker (CLMM) model, allowing liquidity providers to allocate assets within specific price ranges, enhancing capital efficiency and enabling advanced trading strategies. Cetus Protocol boasts a total trading volume of $57 billion (as of May 2025), with over 15 million accounts executing 144 million trades on the platform. The incident occurred yesterday, initially prompting Cetus Protocol to pause its smart contract for investigations. A few hours later, the project confirmed the theft and that "$162M ... Read full article.