The Crypto Heist of May: $244 Million Gone, But $157 Million Saved!

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Well, ain’t it just a lovely sight? Crypto hacks left a whopping $244.1 million lighter in May 2025.

Now, according to those sharp-eyed folks over at PeckShield, this marks a 39.29% decrease from April’s big show. Seems like the hackers are slacking off a bit, only managing about 20 major heists. But fear not, the good guys stepped in, freezing some of that ill-gotten loot—safety first, right?

The real showstopper was the mighty team-up of Sui (SUI) validators and Cetus Protocol. They pulled off a miracle and froze $157 million of a $220 million theft. I know, I know—71% recovery rate? That’s the kind of number that makes you think someone’s been watching too many superhero movies.

#PeckShieldAlert In May 2025, ~20 major crypto hacks were recorded, resulting in total losses of $244.1M—a 39.29% decrease from April. Notably, @CetusProtocol & #SUI have frozen a combined $157M of stolen funds (representing 71% recovery from the $220M theft). #Top 5 Hacks in…

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) June 1, 2025

The Cetus Exploit: The Robbery of the Month!

If there was one hack that took the cake, it was Cetus Protocol. This particular caper was the biggest of the bunch, pulling in the majority of those poor, poor dollars. According to Dedaub, the criminals found a hole in the “most significant bits check mechanism” (sounds technical, right?). With that little opening, they were able to tweak liquidity parameters and, presto! Made big ol’ positions with the kind of ease that’ll make you wonder why you didn’t think of it first.

The result? A cool $220 million gone with the wind. But hold your horses—$63 million is still happily sitting in the thief’s wallet, while the rest was kindly frozen by the network validators. Good thing for them, right?

And, just for good measure, we’ve got the next big losers in the crypto world. Cork Protocol said goodbye to $12 million, while a North Korean-affiliated attack (because who else would be behind such things?) made off with $5.2 million. The MBU token got a small poke, losing $2.2 million, and MapleStory Universe—yes, the game—suffered a breach to the tune of $1.2 million. At least they’ve got plenty of pixels left to protect!

While May’s losses still sting, it’s actually a bit of good news in the grand scheme of things. With $1.63 billion snatched in the first quarter of 2025 alone, these numbers don’t seem quite so bleak. And remember, the big culprit in the Bybit attack—oh yes, that one—accounted for nearly 92% of the damage earlier this year. It’s like finding out the villain in a good story was the same one all along. That’s 2025 for ya!

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2025-06-01 16:42