Sui’s Cetus DEX Back Online After $223M Exploit

June 9, 2025 – Cetus Protocol, the Sui-native decentralized exchange (DEX), has successfully relaunched following a devastating $223 million exploit on May 22. The team managed to recover the majority of the stolen funds and restore functionality to its liquidity pools .

💡 Key Highlights

• Exploit & Recovery: A vulnerability in a shared math library allowed attackers to spoof token deposits, draining the Sui-based pools using integer overflow. Following the attack, approximately $162M was frozen by Sui validators and returned to Cetus.
• Funding Measures: The platform utilized $7M from treasury, a $30M USDC loan from the Sui Foundation, plus recovered assets to replenish pools, achieving an 85–99% restoration rate.
• Compensation Strategy: For any unrecovered losses, cetus allocated 15% of its CETUS token supply—5% available immediately and 10% vesting over 12 months starting June 10.
• Security & Governance Enhancements: Plans include fully open-sourcing the protocol, implementing additional audits, launching a white-hat bounty program, and upgrading monitoring systems.
• Community Support: Over 90% of Sui validators backed an on-chain vote to unlock recovered funds, enabling full reimbursement — a strong vote of confidence in Cetus’s recovery plan.