Cetus Protocol Hit by $223 Million Hack; $162 Million Frozen, $5 Million Bounty, Community Vote on Repayment Ongoing

Cetus Protocol, the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Sui blockchain, suffered a security breach in May 2025 resulting in the theft of approximately $223 million in digital assets. The attack exploited a math bug in the checked_shlw function of Cetus’s smart contract library, allowing the attacker to drain funds from multiple liquidity pools. Despite multiple prior audits, the flaw went undetected.

Following the incident, Cetus suspended its affected smart contract and froze about $162 million of the stolen assets on the Sui blockchain, while roughly $60 million was bridged to Ethereum. The platform has identified the attacker’s Ethereum wallet and is working with law enforcement and third-party organizations to recover the assets.

Cetus has offered to drop all legal action against the attacker if the stolen funds are returned, and has announced a $5 million bounty for information leading to the identification and arrest of the perpetrator. Negotiations with the attacker are ongoing, and the offer includes amnesty if the funds are returned within a limited timeframe.

To compensate affected users, the Sui Foundation is providing Cetus with a secured loan, and the recovery of the frozen $162 million is subject to an on-chain community vote involving Sui validators and token holders. Full compensation for users depends on the outcome of this vote, which is currently ongoing.

In response to the exploit, the Sui Foundation has committed $10 million to security initiatives, including audits, bug bounties, and formal verification. Cetus Protocol, which has a trading volume of $57 billion, over 15 million user accounts, and 144 million transactions, is working to restore confidence in the ecosystem.

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