Cetus, the native decentralized exchange (DEX) on Sui, has dusted itself off after a harrowing exploit in late May — a vulnerability in the pricing logic was used to siphon off roughly $220 million in minutes. The attack was swift and dramatic, targeting liquidity pools by inflating and draining token balances before anyone could react.
In response, Sui validators moved decisively, freezing approximately $162 million of the stolen funds on-chain within hours of the incident. Meanwhile, Cetus scrambled to patch the flaw, halting operations and conducting meticulous security audits to plug the gap in the smart contracts.
By June 7, with the core fix in place, Cetus orchestrated an impressive recovery: they rebooted liquidity pools using a blend of $7 million from their cash reserves, a $30 million USDC loan from the Sui Foundation, and funds recovered from the attacker — restoring between 85 % and 99 % of each affected pool.
🌊 The Final Countdown Has Begun.
Cetus will officially relaunch in just a few hours. Ahead of that, we’re unveiling our complete Recovery Plan and what’s next for the protocol. 🐳
This isn’t just about recovery or bouncing back — it’s about resilience, rebuilding, and an… pic.twitter.com/VNejffrjbS
— Cetus🐳 (@CetusProtocol) June 7, 2025
The team also set aside 15 % of its native CETUS tokens for user compensation, with 5 % released immediately and the remaining 10 % unlocked monthly over a year starting June 10. They’re consulting external auditors again, adding real‑time monitoring, and preparing to open-source the protocol to welcome broader scrutiny.
On a legal front, Cetus is pursuing the attacker across jurisdictions and reaffirmed that law enforcement involvement is underway. They remain confident that he hacker will be caught and more funds recovered.
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