Sui DEX Cetus Protocol Resumes Operations Two Weeks After its $233M Exploit

TL;DR

• Sui-based decentralized exchange Cetus Protocol has relaunched 17 days after it suffered a major exploit.

• The DEX lost $233 million in a hack but has recovered around $162 million worth of funds.

Cetus Protocol Resumes Operations Following a $233M Hack

Cetus, a leading decentralized exchange on the Sui blockchain, relaunched operations a few hours ago. This latest development comes 17 days after the protocol suffered a $233 million exploit.

The team has now restored the platform to full functionality and has replenished affected pools with 85% to 99% of their original liquidity.

The attack, which was carried out on May 22nd, was orchestrated by an unknown attacker. The hacker exploited an integer overflow flaw in a shared math library used by Cetus' contracts to make one deposited token seem like millions of dollars in value.

Shortly after the hack, Sui validators froze $162 million of the funds, which was eventually returned to Cetus. Cetus also obtained a $30 million USDC loan from the Sui Foundation, enabling it to relaunch operations. The recovery rate for affected LPs ranges between 85% and 99%.

According to the team, the remaining will be returned as CETUS over the next 12 months following a linear unlock schedule. They added that they have identified and patched the vulnerability that led to the exploit, thoroughly audited the protocol, and rebalanced all affected liquidity pools to prepare for the relaunch.

The attacker is attempting to launder some of the funds through transfers to the "mixer" service, Tornado Cash. Cetus added that the hacker ignored their previous whitehat offer and has begun attempting to launder assets.

"We are highly confident that a successful arrest and recovering the remaining assets is only a matter of time," Cetus wrote. 

The exploit affected only Sui-based pools, with the protocol's Aptos side unaffected. Cetus Protocol has revealed that it intends to initiate an additional round of comprehensive audits, upgrade the protocol's real-time monitoring system, launch a new white-hat bounty program, and revise its roadmap for upcoming product features. 

CETUS is down 13% in the last 24 hours and now trades at $0.1148.