Adding to the count of 2025 crypto hacks, Cork Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency platform, was hit with a massive exploit on Wednesday, resulting in the loss of approximately $12 million. Following the incident, the Cork team notified the media via an X post, alerting users to the exploit for security reasons.
There was a security incident affecting the wstETH:weETH market at 11:23 UTC today.
All other Cork markets have been paused as a precaution, and no other markets have been impacted.
We are actively investigating the situation and will continue to provide updates as more details…
— Cork Protocol (@Corkprotocol) May 28, 2025
The Cork Protocol is a DeFi platform that enables the tokenization of risk from depeg events for stablecoins and liquid staking tokens (LSTs), allowing users to trade and manage risks more efficiently.
$12M Swept Off
While the Cork team did not disclose the amount lost from the security breach, on-chain security firm Peckshield reported that the exploiter stole approximately 3,762 wstETH, valued at around $12 million. On-chain data shows that shortly after the hack, the exploiter swapped the stolen funds for approximately 4,530 ETH.
#PeckShieldAlert @Corkprotocol suffered an exploit, resulting in the loss of 3,762 wstETH (worth ~$12M). The exploiter has swapped the stolen funds for 4,530 $ETH pic.twitter.com/vVnJNeO3jd
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) May 28, 2025
Meanwhile, following the incident, the Cork Protocol team paused all Cork markets and has started an investigation into the exploit. It also promised to regularly share important updates and information with its users and community.
Hacks Increase Amid Market Uptrend
Late last week, the Sui Network-based decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) platform, Cetus Protocol, was hit with a devastating hack, resulting in over $220 million in one of the largest crypto exploits of the year. A rapid increase in the exchange’s funds outflow signalled a security breach, and the Cetus team quickly alerted the community.
Just like the Cork Protocol hacker, the Cetus hacker quickly moved a large quantity of stolen funds to ETH via a network breach. The hack affected tokens like Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) and AXOLcoin (AXOL), as their value drastically decreased within 24 hours after the hack.
Progressively, the SUI Network community has approved a proposal to return about $162 million of stolen funds to affected users.
