Web 3.0 continues to expand and with it the hacks, scams and more recently the issue of possible corruption but that is still to be proven and we do not allege any corruption. We are just reporting on the current matters arising within the Cryptocurrency sector.
This past week the crypto industry has been rocked by a series of alarming developments ranging from a sophisticated decentralized exchange (DEX) hack and a local crypto scam to accusations of political corruption involving Donald Trump’s billion dollar blockchain ventures. These events reinforce persistent concerns about the dangers of crypto security, centralization and how personal enrichment may be entangling itself with public policy.
On May 22, 2025, decentralized exchange Cetus, built on the Sui blockchain suffered a devastating attack that resulted in USD223 million in user losses. The report released by blockchain security firm Dedaub exposed a glaring vulnerability in Cetus’s automated market maker (AMM) logic.
Hackers exploited a flaw in the "most significant bits" (MSB) check a detail buried deep in the smart contract code to override overflow protections and inject liquidity positions using a single token. With that exploit, they drained pools of funds within minutes stealing hundreds of millions of dollars.
While the Cetus team and Sui Foundation acted quickly freezing USD 163 million worth of stolen funds with help from validators. Their intervention has triggered fierce backlash. Many in the crypto community argue that freezing assets contradicts the fundamental ethos of decentralization.
“Sui validators are actively censoring transactions across the blockchain,” one user posted on X, while another criticized: “This completely undermines the principles of decentralization and transforms the network into nothing more than a centralized, permissioned database.”
There has long been debate within Web3 on how to balance user protection with the decentralisation of blockchain especially when the line between centralization and security becomes blurred?
While large scale hacks often grab headlines everyday users remain vulnerable to low tech, high impact scams. A Seaforth man lost USD 120,000 in cryptocurrency after a scammer posing as a trading expert on Discord tricked him into an “automated trading opportunity.”
After weeks of building trust, the scammer convinced the victim to transfer funds to controlled wallets. The victim only realised in May and despite police involvement and transaction tracing, the likelihood of recovering the money remains slim.
It is a reminder that even though blockchain technology promises transparency, it can still facilitate fraud when paired with social engineering. The wild west nature of the space continues to exact a heavy toll on unsuspecting newcomers.
It's still very much the wild west out there, remember to keep safe!
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