Cetus DEX Hacked: $220M Stolen, $162M Frozen in Swift Response

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Georgi Minev
26 May, 2025, 16:00
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Massive Exploit Hits Cetus DEX: $220M Drained, $162M Frozen

On May 22, a bold cyberattack struck the decentralized exchange Cetus, resulting in over $220 million in digital assets being siphoned off in a matter of minutes—sending shockwaves through the crypto community.

But that wasn’t the end of the story.

Thanks to swift action from the Cetus team and support from the Sui Foundation, approximately $162 million of the stolen assets were quickly frozen. The team is now offering a $6 million white-hat bounty to the attacker in exchange for the safe return of the remaining funds.

Cetus is pursuing a two-pronged recovery effort: a community governance vote and direct negotiations with the hacker.

What Happened?

Date: May 22
Event: Cetus, a decentralized exchange built on the Sui blockchain, was exploited for over $220 million.
Response: Within hours, Cetus and the Sui Foundation successfully froze $162 million in compromised assets.

The recovery was made possible by the decentralized validator network, which acted swiftly to block transactions from flagged addresses—helping to limit the attacker’s movements.

Cetus' Recovery Plan

Cetus has outlined a dual-track strategy to recover the remaining funds:

White-Hat Bounty: Offering $6 million to the attacker for the safe return of stolen assets.
On-Chain Governance Vote: Requesting approval from the Sui community to reclaim the frozen $162 million.
Cross-Chain Tracing: Working with external partners to trace and recover assets bridged to other chains, primarily Ethereum.

Ongoing Challenges

Cetus Makes Major Recovery Progress, Secures $160 Million in Stolen Funds

Despite some progress, users remain in a state of uncertainty:

The aggregator service has resumed operations.
Core liquidity pools are still undergoing extensive data recovery.
Full recovery hinges on negotiations, on-chain governance, and technical remediation.

The Cetus team emphasized:

"We are fully committed to doing everything within our power to pursue the maximum possible recovery of affected users’ liquidity funds."

And further stated:

"Cetus will mobilize all available financial resources of the protocol to restore as much as we can, with the ultimate goal of covering user losses to the greatest extent possible."

Transparency Under Pressure

While Cetus has pledged full transparency, communication has been limited pending internal alignment. This lack of clear updates and definitive timelines has fueled user frustration.

Key concerns remain:

Will users be fully compensated?
Can all frozen assets be recovered?
When will normal operations resume?

As the recovery efforts stretch on, the pressure is mounting for the team to deliver more than promises—and to produce measurable, reassuring results.