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Ethereum

Sui Network releases post-mortem on $260M Cetus hack

Sui Network releases post-mortem on $260M Cetus hack

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The Sui network has released a post-mortem report regarding the cause of the $260 million Cetus hack that shook up its ecosystem last week. 

According to the post-mortem report, the main reason for the Cetus incident was a problem in a math library used by Cetus, not a weakness in Sui or Move. 

Move is a programming language for creating smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, and Sui is a Layer-1 blockchain project.

However, based on the report, the effect on users is still the same. As a result, Sui Network revealed that they needed to adopt a more effective approach and improve their efforts to support the ecosystem’s security. 

Apart from this, the report also highlighted that the network was designed to allow for safer smart contract development, making the first significant incident for a dApp a “deeply sad” moment for the team. 

Sui team takes effective measures to strengthen the network’s security

Last week, the $223 million crypto hack hit the network’s largest decentralized exchange and liquidity provider, Cetus Protocol. Luckily, the network managed to freeze $162 million while Cetus put out a $6 million bounty to reclaim the other $60 million of stolen funds.

The Cetus team earlier stated that they were collaborating with the Sui Foundation and other groups in the ecosystem to recover the remaining funds. The Sui Foundation confirmed that many validators had identified the addresses linked to the stolen funds and were blocking transactions on those addresses until further notice. The Cetus team was looking for ways to recover those funds and return them to the community.

In addition, to enhance the network’s security, Sui has decided to invest an extra $10 million in security efforts. The network will use this money for audits, bug bounty programs, and formal verification. The team also aims to work with the developer community to finalize these security strategies. 

Concerning the incident, the team mentioned that it marks a coming-of-age experience, which, according to them, is something every major blockchain has unfortunately faced. They further supported their claim with the argument that no design or programming language can prevent humans from creating bugs. 

Therefore, the Sui team has urged community members to use this incident as a lesson to learn from it to strengthen vital code on the network and assist builders in taking the necessary steps to come back stronger. 

Following the CoinMarketCap report, SUI’s price currently trades at $3.49, reflecting a 3.07% decrease in the past 24 hours.

Growing cases of cybersecurity raise serious concerns in the crypto world

On May 22, the Cetus DEX experienced a hack that was thought to have happened due to a smart contract code issue, resulting in the loss of around $223 million in user funds. 

Based on the information from the Extractor Web3 security notification tool team, $63 million of the stolen money was moved to the Ethereum network. They also reported a wallet address ending in “AF16” that the hackers used to launder 20,000 Ether worth about $53 million. 

The recovery efforts and the freezing of assets, organized by various projects, platforms, and validators in the Sui ecosystem, received mixed reactions from the crypto community. 

Following this, one user commented that the action was good news for the victims. However, according to the user’s argument, if the 114 validators could freeze wallets whenever they wanted, it raised serious concerns about the network’s ability to resist censorship. The user then concluded that Sui was far from decentralized.

Notably, the Cetus hack is the latest incident affecting crypto and Web3 in the first half 2025. On top of that, cybersecurity still remains a big concern in the crypto world, with many leaders in the industry urging the sector to self-regulate and strengthen defenses to avoid more regulatory attention. 

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Polygon co-founder quits, leaving the crypto giant at a crossroads

Polygon co-founder quits, leaving the crypto giant at a crossroads

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Mihailo Bjelic, a Polygon co-founder, has resigned from the blockchain project he helped build. He is stepping down from the Polygon Foundation board and ending his role at the main development studio, Polygon Labs.

Bjelic shared an X post stating, “After much thought and reflection, I’ve decided to step down from the board of the Polygon Foundation and wind down my day-to-day involvement with Polygon Labs.”

This makes him the third founder to leave the team. He joins co-founders Jaynti Kanani and Anurag Arjun, who had also stepped away from their active roles in the blockchain project. Kanani left the company in October 2023, while Arjun stepped down in March 2023 to concentrate on his modular blockchain project, Avail.

Bjelic claims he can no longer give his best to Polygon

Bjelic has played a pivotal role in taking Polygon to greater heights. In 2017, he co-founded the well-known Ethereum Layer 2, originally named Matic Network, along with Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun. 

Ethereum’s Layer 2 scaling solutions provide many advantages for the Ethereum network. These benefits include faster transaction times, lower fees, and better scalability. As a Layer 2 solution, Polygon uses these features to boost its own performance and improve the experience for its users. 

In support of this, it is evident that the firm has made significant contributions to blockchain research and development, particularly in zero-knowledge and proof-of-stake technologies.

Polygon introduced MATIC for POL-on a one-to-one basis in late 2024 and initiated a token migration as a part of its 2.0 plan. This change was to drive more usage of the network’s main token for gas fees, staking, and infrastructure such as AggLayer. 

Following Polygon’s success, Bjelic’s 10+ years of experience as an IT engineer building technology products and platforms were greatly honored.

However, on Friday, May 23,  Bjelic shared an X post stating that he could no longer give his best to Polygon. Based on his explanation, as projects developed and evolved, it was natural for ideas to shift and sometimes become divided up. Afterward, Bjelic mentioned that Polygon leaders seemed sincerely dedicated to seeing the project prosper. He then offered support to them from the sideline and for whatever he could do to assist.

Following his resignation, Nailwal praised Bjelic in an X post, stating he was not only a co-founder but also a brother to him. He added, “From the earliest days — whiteboards full of ideas, endless whitepapers, governance frameworks, strategy calls deep into the night — you have been a force behind so much of what makes Polygon.”

Bjelic reveals himself as a strong crypto believer

Bjelic revealed that he first learned about cryptocurrency in 2013. By 2017, he was really diving into it, excited by the idea of creating a worldwide, inclusive economy. Since then, he has dedicated himself to making that amazing vision a reality. 

This is evident since Polygon’s launch in 2019, as Bjelic and his colleagues have made great progress. According to reliable sources, they have achieved important advancements in zero-knowledge technology and brought on some of the biggest brands in the world, moving closer to that big dream.

By undertaking this great journey, Bjelic initially highlighted taking pride in this and felt lucky to collaborate with many skilled individuals. 

Concerning his resignation, he mentioned that he still felt just as enthusiastic about the potential of cryptocurrency to change systems, empower people, and build a fairer world. Therefore, he added that this belief continues to motivate him, and as a result, he will probably be seen around.

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Ethereum’s trillion-dollar rebrand masks deep trouble as Solana eats its lunch

Ethereum’s trillion-dollar rebrand masks deep trouble as Solana eats its lunch

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Ethereum is trying to clean up its image just as it’s losing its grip. The Ethereum Foundation launched a campaign in 2025 called the “Trillion Dollar Security Initiative” to promote the blockchain as the only serious option for securing real-world value.

But the effort comes at a time when the project is slipping across the board, from price performance to user attention and developer support, while Solana is gaining fast.

The message coming from Ethereum’s leadership is all about stability, uptime, and security. But Ether, the token that runs on it, hasn’t kept up with Bitcoin since the Merge upgrade was rolled out in 2022. The gap has only widened.

The Ether-to-Bitcoin price ratio has stayed on a downward slope since then, and Ethereum has struggled to pull in new interest even as it added new tech upgrades. Instead of regaining momentum, it has seen core users and builders Ethereum’s leadership walk away.

Solana gains traction while Ethereum loses ground

In 2024, Solana’s active developer count jumped by 83%, while Ethereum’s dropped by 17%, data from Electric Capital showed. Cheaper fees and better user experience on Solana have pulled in a younger crowd that’s more focused on speed, memecoins, and new ideas than Ethereum’s long-term vision.

That same audience drove Solana’s price to an all-time high earlier this year while Ether stayed mostly flat. Ethereum’s ecosystem has gotten too fragmented, and developers are opting out of dealing with Layer-2 rollups like Base and Arbitrum just to get basic dApps running.

Even the Ethereum Foundation’s own move to promote security is being questioned. Katie Talati, head of research at Arca, said the new initiative was less of a breakthrough and more of a branding effort. “This feels more like a marketing repositioning from the Ethereum Foundation than an actual technical innovation,” Katie said.

“I don’t believe that this announcement alone will be enough to recapture developer and user mindshare. But over the long term, a greater focus on security guarantees via improvements to UX/UI will attract more developers. Users, however, only come when there is something interesting to use.”

Part of Ethereum’s current struggle comes from its scaling progress. After the Dencun upgrade last year, Ethereum did make progress on moving activity off the main chain. But most of that activity landed on Layer-2s.

The core network hasn’t kept that momentum, and as a result, Ether’s burn rate has dropped. That weakens the coin’s previous deflationary pitch, one of the key reasons investors used to hold it in the first place.

Wall Street push fails to spark interest in Ether ETFs

Now, Ethereum’s leaders are chasing attention in Washington and on Wall Street. A group called Etherealize, formed with support from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and led by researcher Vivek Raman, is focused on lobbying for the blockchain’s future in traditional finance.

Vivek explained the strategy in an email, saying, “We speak to TradFi and Wall Street players all day and in the end — a blockchain’s security is the most important quality to ensure trust.” He added that Ethereum’s role will be as “digital oil” to complement Bitcoin’s role as “digital gold.”

That narrative hasn’t worked out well so far. In 2025, spot Ether ETFs in the US saw $42 million in net outflows. At the same time, Bitcoin ETFs brought in $8 billion across a dozen funds. Institutions seem more interested in returns and yield than Ethereum’s security pitch. Ethereum’s roadmap hasn’t been convincing enough to pull serious capital out of Bitcoin’s orbit.

At the same time, Michael Saylor’s firm MicroStrategy is going all-in on Bitcoin again. His company just announced it would sell $2.1 billion worth of 10% “perpetual strife” preferred stock to buy more Bitcoin. That kind of headline doesn’t help Ethereum’s case.

When one chain is pulling in billions through aggressive buying strategies, and the other is launching rebrands to chase institutional money that isn’t even arriving, the contrast is sharp.

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