Yeliz Akmaca 
Cetus Recovery Strategy
DEX and liquidity infrastructure provider Cetus, operating on Sui, announced that users affected by the $223 million exploit on May 22 can recover 100% of their funds through a community vote. This recovery process will depend on the results of the upcoming community voting. Cetus stated:
“By utilizing our cash and token reserves, if the locked funds are recovered via the upcoming community vote, we are currently in a position to fully cover the stolen assets that are currently off-chain.”
Cetus noted that this includes a critical loan from the Sui Foundation. Thus, 100% recovery is possible for all affected users. The protocol emphasized that the recovery is entirely dependent on the community vote results.
“Since full recovery depends on the community vote outcome, we humbly ask for the full support of the Sui community through the upcoming vote to reclaim the funds,” they said.
Protocol acknowledged that this decision is an extraordinary demand forced by the circumstances but believes it is the right and fair decision, especially for those affected. Regardless of the outcome, the protocol stated that recovery efforts will begin immediately and expressed determination to “put things back on track.” This announcement came after some Sui-based tokens lost up to 90% of their value. Cetus’ own token, CETUS, lost 50% during the attack. The protocol also plans to allocate $10 million for audits, bug bounty programs, and official verification.
📢 New Progress Update – A Path Forward Together!
Since the incident, we have reflected deeply on the incident and its impact on our users, partners, and the broader ecosystem. We are deeply sorry and take this responsibility seriously. Today, we want to share a meaningful step…
— Cetus🐳 (@CetusProtocol) May 27, 2025
Cetus explained that the origin of the (SUI) attack was a vulnerability in the open-source library code of the Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker (CLMM) pool smart contract. The attacker exploited an overflow control bug to manipulate the pool liquidity. Following the $223 million hack, Cetus offered the attacker a $6 million “white hat” reward in exchange for fund return and a promise not to pursue legal action. However, no response has yet been received. This incident reignited the debate on the balance between security and decentralization in the DeFi ecosystem.
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