Sui-Based Hardware Wallet Suiball Suspends Operations and Initiates Refunds

Highlights

• The first batch of hardware wallets was ready for shipment
• On-chain customers will receive automatic USDC refunds
• Suiball plans to delete customer data after completing refunds

Suiball, a Sui-native hardware wallet project, announced its plan to halt operations and provide refunds to all pre-orders as the Sui Foundation opted not to support the project due to excessive security risks. In a November 11 statement made through X, it was indicated that this move had come about after repeated attacks were witnessed against hardware wallets in the entire cryptocurrency space, despite Suiball being ready for manufacture. The shipment of the first batch of devices was about to begin when the decision was taken, bringing an end to a project that took years to develop a hardware wallet for the Sui blockchain.

Sui Foundation Cites Security Risks as Suiball Ends Development After Years of Work

According to Suiball, the foundation concluded that the risk levels of investing in the product at that particular time were still very high. The team understood the decision, since the foundation always ensured the protection of its users and ecosystem. The team wrote, “After years of intense development and a finished, working product, it's hard to say that we have to close Suiball down.” As part of the refund plan that was announced, those customers who have ordered directly on-chain will be refunded in USDC through an automatic airdrop.

The above-mentioned purchases comprise about 80 percent of all the pre-orders, Suiball says. Refunds will be transferred to the wallets containing the soulbound NFTs created for the customers who have ordered their devices. Eligible customers do not have to fill out any claims or take any extra actions; the first batch of refunds is expected within a week. However, those who bought the devices on credit cards will go through a different procedure. As part of his plan, Suiball intends to send emails to these customers asking for their Sui wallet addresses. 

After the addresses have been gathered, there will be a second USDC airdrop made by the company to cover the remaining orders. The team informed the customers that they would not ask for any seed phrases or extra payments during the refund process, and to only communicate back through emails from info@citadelwallet.io. Suiball has stated that they will permanently remove customer data such as names, emails, telephone numbers, and delivery addresses after completing refund payments.

The shutdown happened less than a month after the company had delayed shipments in order to perform more security tests. On October 21, the founder of the project announced on X that the project had postponed shipments due to discussions with the Sui Labs and Sui Network team.

At the time, the founder said they had decided to conduct another round of independent security audits for the device before shipping, which would take several months. “We'd rather ship late than ship anything we haven't tested against today's threats,” the founder said. 

In April, the Sui-based DeFi protocol Volo disclosed a security breach that cost about $3.5 million (roughly Rs. 32.7 crore) in digital assets. The team also disclosed that the attack affected select vaults and involved assets including Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Matrixdock Gold XAUm, and USDC. The protocol also highlighted that the exploit was limited to three isolated vaults and that around $28 million (roughly Rs. 262 crore) in total value locked across other vaults is safe, with no shared vulnerabilities identified.

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