Cetus | Crypto

Sui's daily DEX volume surged 14.6% in Q1, led by Cetus, which later lost a $223 million exploit.

The Cetus DEX exploit on Sui drained $220 million in minutes. The hacker took advantage of an undetected bug in the math library of the protocol to siphon off the funds. On May 22, 2025, Cetus Protocol, the primary decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Sui blockchain, suffered a major hack, marking one of the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) breaches in cryptocurrency history.  An attacker exploited Cetus’ pricing mechanism flaw, stealing approximately $260 million in digital assets. This incident significantly impacted the Sui community, causing the Sui (SUI) token price to drop by about 15% to $3.81 by May 29. Read more

Validators representing nearly 91% of Sui stake approved an on-chain proposal to release about $162 million seized during last week’s Cetus exploit, allowing the DEX to reimburse users and restore full operations. Cetus said in a social media post that the 48-hour referendum closed on May 29 when more than two-thirds of the network endorsed […] The post Sui community approves release of $162M in tokens frozen during Cetus hack appeared first on CryptoSlate.

DeFi’s decentralization debate rages on after the Sui community voted to return the $162 million frozen during the Cetus exploit. A $200 million-plus exploit targeting Cetus, a decentralized exchange on the Sui network, has reignited debate over decentralization in blockchain protocols after Sui validators collectively froze $162 million of the stolen funds. Some decentralization advocates called foul, criticizing Sui validators’ ability to pause fund transfers on the blockchain as a sign of centralization. Other investors applauded the rapid response and coordination against the attackers. Industry watchers are now waiting for Cetus to initiate its recovery roadmap after the Sui governance vote for returning the frozen $162 million was passed on May 29. Read more

Sui validators voted to return $162 million in frozen assets from the Cetus exploit, enabling a full recovery and restart plan for impacted users. Sui validators approved a governance proposal to return $162 million in frozen assets linked to a recent exploit of the decentralized exchange Cetus, marking a key step toward full user repayment. Cetus was exploited for over $220 million worth of digital assets on May 22, but validators managed to freeze $162 million of the funds shortly after the incident. In a governance vote concluded on May 29, Sui validators passed the recovery proposal with 90.9% voting in favor, 1.5% abstaining and 7.2% not participating, according to the network’s official governance page. Read more

Sui-based protocol Cetus said on May 27 that it can reimburse every user affected by its May 22 exploit if Sui token holders approve the return of frozen funds in an upcoming on-chain vote. Cetus said in a May 27 social media post that its cash and token reserves, combined with a secured loan from […] The post Cetus seeks Sui community nod to unlock $162M to make users whole appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Cetus hack saw $223 million in user funds stolen, most of which has been frozen by Sui network validators and ecosystem partners. Blockchain security firm Dedaub released a post-mortem report on the Cetus decentralized exchange hack, identifying the root cause of the attack as an exploit of the liquidity parameters used by the Cetus automated market maker (AMM), which went undetected by a code "overflow" check. According to the report, the hackers exploited a flaw in the most significant bits (MSB) check, allowing them to manipulate the values for the liquidity parameters by orders of magnitude and establish relatively large positions with a keystroke. The Dedaub security researchers wrote: The incident and the post-mortem update reflect the unfortunate trend of cybersecurity exploits and hacks impacting crypto and the Web3 industry.   Read more

Cetus Protocol posted a $5 million reward on May 23 for information that identifies and leads to the arrest of the attacker who extracted $223 million from its decentralized exchange on the Sui network.  Announced on May 23, the offer is coordinated with cybersecurity firm Inca Digital and will be funded by the Sui Foundation […] The post Cetus posts $5M bounty for hacker’s ID amid centralization concerns on Sui freeze appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Turns out the Cetus developers have been here before, as their hacker deal once saved Crema on Solana. The bounty offer to recover stolen funds from Sui-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Cetus closely resembles a successful strategy used by a Solana project three years ago. It turns out that Cetus shares the same development team as Crema Finance, a Solana-based DeFi project that suffered a $9-million hack in 2022 but recovered most of the funds by negotiating with its hacker. Now, Cetus is relying on the same strategy. Cetus is asking the hacker to return all but $6 million, or 2,324 Ether (ETH), of the stolen funds in exchange for a promise not to pursue legal action. The protocol lost $223 million to an exploit on May 22. Read more

Sui-based DEX Cetus offered the hacker a $6 million white hat bounty offer as the protocols are trying to recover the stolen $220 million, with $162 million remaining frozen. Cetus is offering a $6 million white hat bounty in an effort to recover $220 million in stolen digital assets, while emergency responses from the Sui Network have raised concerns about decentralization. Sui-native decentralized exchange (DEX) Cetus was exploited for over $220 million worth of cryptocurrency on May 22. However, Cetus managed to freeze $162 million of the stolen funds shortly after. Cetus has since offered a white hat bounty of up to $6 million for the exploiter for returning the stolen 20,920 Ether (ETH), worth over $55 million, along with the rest of the stolen funds currently frozen on the Sui blockchain. Read more

The Cetus team is working with other stakeholders in the Sui ecosystem to freeze and recover all the stolen funds from the recent hack. Cetus, a decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) built atop the Sui blockchain network, said $162 million of over $220 million stolen in a May 22 hack has been frozen. According to the Cetus team, the DEX is working with the Sui Foundation and other entities within the ecosystem to recover the remainder of the funds. The Sui Foundation also confirmed: The Cetus hack is the latest in a string of such incidents impacting crypto and Web3 in the first half of 2025. Cybersecurity continues to be a major issue in crypto, with many industry executives calling for the sector to police itself and establish more robust defenses or risk increased regulatory scrutiny. Read more