Cetus Protocol Relaunches on June 8, 2025 After $223M Hack, Backed by Sui Foundation
June 8, 2025, 8:28 AM IST – Cetus Protocol, a leading decentralized finance (DeFi) platform on the Sui blockchain, According to an official statement on Medium ,relaunched today at 3:00 UTC. This is a big win as it comes after a massive $223 million hack on May 22, 2025. In this attack, hackers stole a lot of money by exploiting a vulnerability in an open-source library and affected the market.
Cetus told its community that they have prepared a strong recovery plan in which they have restarted operations and planned to compensate users with money from their treasury, loans from the Sui Foundation, and support from the community.
Fast and Smart Actions
The hack targeted Cetus’ CLMM (Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker) pools, causing massive losses. Cetus took several immediate actions:
- Fixed the vulnerability: The team identified and fixed the vulnerability in the library, and worked with Sui validators to prepare to prevent similar threats in the future.
- Recovered stolen assets: In a community vote held on May 29, 2025, supported by 90.9% of Sui validators, $162 million worth of stolen assets were frozen and transferred to a secure wallet jointly managed by Cetus, the Sui Foundation, and OtterSec.
- Restored liquidity: Refilled the affected pools:
- The assets recovered were rebalanced via on-chain swaps, OTC, and CEX trades.
- Withdrawn $7 million from Cetus treasury to purchase key tokens such as SUI, WAL, DEEP, NS, and USDY.
- Received a loan of 30 million USDC from the Sui Foundation.
- Security enhanced: Code, contract upgrades, and a new compensation contract were fully audited. Now real-time monitoring and plans to open-source the entire system.
Relaunch information: A new ecosystem
Cetus is now fully operational. Users can swap again, add or remove liquidity, and receive fees and rewards. Pools that were affected have had 85–99% of their liquidity restored, and pools that were not affected remain as they were. LP NFTs from affected pools will now also serve as compensation claim certificates, and remain valid even after liquidity is withdrawn.
Compensation Plan: Community Priority
To address the liquidity shortage, Cetus has set aside 15% of its tokens (CETUS) for compensation, 10% of which is from the team’s tokens that were not yet unlocked, so no new tokens will be created. The plan is as follows:
- 5% tokens can be claimed immediately at launch.
- 10% tokens will be unlocked gradually over 12 months, starting June 10, 2025.
A dedicated page has been opened to claim compensation:
🔗 https://app.cetus.zone/compensation
The new token information has been posted to CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. The token distribution is aimed at building an ecosystem that is completely run by the community.
The pursuit of justice continues
Cetus is still trying to catch the hacker who turned down the first whitehat offer and tried to hide the stolen funds. Police in several countries are involved in the case. If more money is recovered:
- USDC will be given to users in exchange for CETUS.
- The Sui Foundation loan will be repaid.
- After compensation, CETUS tokens will be bought back and deposited into the community treasury.
Towards the future: a strong next step
This launch is not just a comeback, but a new beginning. The Cetus and Sui ecosystems are now getting stronger. Future plans include:
- More audits to strengthen security.
- Better monitoring and risk management systems.
- Whitehat bounty program to help the community.
- Acceleration of product development and a new roadmap coming soon.
Sui Foundation plays a vital role
The Sui Foundation played a huge role in the recovery – providing a loan of 30 million USDC and helping to bring back the assets. On May 27, 2025, they announced a $10 million grant to secure the blockchain. Although there was no separate announcement from them on June 8, their support was crucial in the recovery of Cetus.
Community stands together
Cetus thanked its community and said it regretted the impact of the incident. They said:
“Greatness is not only determined by success, but also by bouncing back from adversity.”
Now Cetus is ready to fly even higher – with its strong security systems, the power of the community, and new DeFi ideas.
