Cetus, a decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) built atop the Sui blockchain network, said $162 million of over $220 million stolen in a May 22 hack has been frozen.

According to the Cetus team, the DEX is working with the Sui Foundation and other entities within the ecosystem to recover the remainder of the funds. The Sui Foundation also confirmed:

“A large number of validators identified the addresses with the stolen funds and are ignoring transactions on those addresses until further notice. The Cetus team is exploring paths to recover those funds and return them to the community.”

The Cetus hack is the latest in a string of such incidents impacting crypto and Web3 in the first half of 2025. Cybersecurity continues to be a major issue in crypto, with many industry executives calling for the sector to police itself and establish more robust defenses or risk increased regulatory scrutiny.

Source: Cetus

Related: Germany seizes $38M in crypto from Bybit hack-linked eXch exchange

The Cetus hack: the story so far

On May 22, the Cetus DEX was hacked in what is believed to be a smart contract code exploit that saw the DEX drained of approximately $223 million in user funds.

According to the team behind the Extractor Web3 security notification tool, $63 million of the stolen funds were bridged to the Ethereum network.

The Extractor team also identified a wallet address ending in “AF16” used by the threat actors to launder 20,000 Ether (ETH), valued at roughly $53 million.

The Cetus hackers transfer 20,000 Ether to a new wallet address. Source: Etherscan

The recovery efforts and the asset freeze coordinated by different projects, platforms, and validators in the Sui ecosystem drew mixed reactions from the crypto community.

“Good news for the victims, but if validators, 114 only in total, can freeze wallets when they want, it raises a major question about the network’s censorship resistance. Sui is anything but decentralized,” one user wrote in response.

Magazine: $55M DeFi Saver phish, copy2pwn hijacks your clipboard: Crypto Sec

Key takeaways:

Solana’s bull flag pattern projects a rally to $260, but low spot buy volumes have analysts advising caution.

After briefly dropping to $160 from $184, Solana (SOL) is attempting to reclaim a position above its key resistance at $180 for a second consecutive week. With Bitcoin (BTC) hitting an all-time high, market speculators are banking on eventual capital rotation, which could pump major altcoins like SOL toward new highs.

Solana shows promising signs on the daily chart, forming a textbook bull flag pattern after a strong uptrend. While SOL prices currently trade under $180, a breakout above this level could propel SOL toward its first target at $200, with further upside potential to $220 if momentum sustains.

Solana 1-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The trend remains bullish, supported by the relative strength index (RSI) at 64.30, indicating healthy momentum without overbought conditions. However, SOL needs a clear market structure break (MSB) or a decisive bullish breakout above $180 to trigger the next leg of the rally. 

Declining volumes during the consolidation phase suggest caution, as a lack of buying pressure could stall the breakout. 

If SOL fails to breach $180, the immediate key area of interest is between $140-150, and the bull flag pattern would be invalidated. The support range is a daily order block, which should provide higher time frame (HTF) support in case of a price correction. 

Related: Bitcoin could go much higher due to lack of FOMO and futures market euphoria — Analysts

Solana price fractal aims for $260

Crypto trader Robert Mercer shared a chart identifying a price fractal pattern similar to October 2024. Mercer emphasized two critical zones: one around late 2024, where SOL broke past $180 after consolidation, and a current zone mirroring that setup. He predicts a breakout above $180 could trigger a sharp upward rally, mirroring the late 2024 rally that saw $SOL peak near $260.

Solana price fractal analysis. Source: X.com

Likewise, technical analyst Javon Marks identified a hidden bullish divergence on Solana’s 3-day chart, a pattern that previously triggered a 1,332% surge in 2024. Marks suggested that if this pattern breaks out again in 2025, Solana could reach a price target of $450.

Popular crypto trader XO also remained on the lookout for a long opportunity, but suggested waiting to see if Solana could flip the $180 level into support.

Solana analysis by XO. Source: X.com

Related: BTC price eyes $112K as risk assets ‘ignore bad news’ on unemployment

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

OpenAI is planning to develop AI “companion” devices that will integrate artificial intelligence capabilities with everyday life, potentially opening the door to a new high-tech innovation used alongside laptops and smartphones.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he and designer Jony Ive are developing these secret devices for mass consumption, with plans to ship 100 million units upon launch.

Ives joined OpenAI after his startup, io, was acquired by Altman’s company in a $6.5 billion deal, the Journal reported on May 21. 

Neither Altman nor Ives specified what these companion devices would look like or how they would operate. Ives simply referred to them as a “new design movement” that would be similar to Apple’s family of hardware and software integrations. 

OpenAI has raised billions of dollars from investors, who view the company as a stalwart in the AI industry following the overwhelming success of its ChatGPT large language model (LLM). As of May, ChatGPT had nearly 800 million weekly active users, according to industry data. 

These usage trends were behind OpenAI’s massive $157 billion valuation as of October 2024 — a figure that nearly doubled to $300 billion by March 2025.

ChatGPT usage trends. Source: DemandSage

Related: Microsoft and OpenAI renegotiate investment deal: Report

Not the first “secret” project

In addition to its secretive companion devices, OpenAI’s ambitions extend to social media, where the company plans to take on Elon Musk’s X and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta platforms, according to an April 15 report by The Verge. 

The new social media platform will reportedly combine ChatGPT’s image generation capabilities with a social media feed similar to X’s. It’s unclear whether the new social media platform would launch as a standalone product or be incorporated into ChatGPT.

The blend between AI and social media has also bled into the blockchain industry, with several startups utilizing these technologies to build AI agents, LLM tools and decentralized social media networks.

As Cointelegraph reported, Validation Cloud recently deployed an LLM on the Hedera network, giving decentralized finance users the ability to query blockchain data more easily. 

Related: OpenAI’s Altman appears to reject Musk’s $97.4B bid for control