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Cetus Protocol Relaunches After $233M Exploit, Restores 85–99% Liquidity With $30M Sui Loan and CETUS Compensation

14 posts • GPT (4.1)

Updated Jun 10, 2025, 08:51 AM

Cetus Protocol, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Sui blockchain, has resumed operations after suffering an exploit in May that resulted in losses estimated between $220 million and $233 million. The attack exploited a vulnerability in a shared math library, allowing the attacker to drain liquidity from major pools, causing SUI-based tokens to drop significantly in value. Aptos-based pools were not affected.

Following the incident, Cetus managed to freeze approximately $162 million of the stolen assets with the help of Sui validators and received a $30 million USDC bridge loan from the Sui Foundation. The protocol also used $7 million from its reserves to replenish affected liquidity pools. As a result, liquidity pools have been restored to between 85% and 99% of their original levels. Before the exploit, Cetus' total value locked (TVL) was $284 million, and it is now about $120 million, roughly 50% of its previous peak.

To compensate affected users, Cetus has allocated 15% of its CETUS token supply to a compensation contract, with 5% available for claim starting June 8 and the remaining 10% vesting linearly over 12 months. Any further funds recovered from the hack will be distributed to users instead of CETUS tokens. The CETUS token has lost more than 75% of its value since its all-time high and is trading around $0.12.

Despite the recovery, tens of millions of dollars remain under the attacker's control, with some funds reportedly laundered through coin-mixing services. Cetus is working with law enforcement across multiple jurisdictions and continues to pursue legal action to recover the remaining assets.

The protocol has implemented security upgrades, patched vulnerabilities, and plans further audits and monitoring enhancements to prevent similar incidents. SUI’s native token is up 5% in the last 24 hours but remains below its January all-time high.

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