Cetus Protocol Relaunches After Exploit, Goes Open Source to Rebuild Trust

Cetus Protocol—the decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Sui blockchain—has made an official relaunch following a disastrous exploit, signaling what could be a strong comeback. The relaunch, which happened Sunday, comes with a number of strategic decisions that the company hopes will restore trust with the community, shore up security, and push forward decentralized development. A major exploit hit Cetus, a key player in the Sui DeFi ecosystem, disrupting operations and draining liquidity from several pools. In response, the team executed a full platform reboot and has managed to restore affected liquidity pools to between 85 and 99 percent of their original assets. This rapid recovery highlights both the tenacity of the protocol and the determination of the development team to come back stronger. Community-First Recovery and Compensation Plan In the recovery initiative, the Cetus team has set aside 15% of its native token, $CETUS, to make amends with users affected by the exploit. The reparation comes in two parts: first, they immediately distributed 5%, and they will unlock the remaining 10% over the next 12 months (starting on June 10). This staggered release respects the gesture’s intention while also attempting to keep the token’s price from suffering any adverse effects. DEX Comeback After Exploit – $CETUS Goes Open Source! After a major exploit, Cetus Protocol, $Sui DEX, is officially back online. The team relaunched the platform on Sunday, fully restoring functionality and replenishing affected pools with 85–99% of their original… pic.twitter.com/WFWE6tsKea — cryptophilip (@FaschingPhilip) June 9, 2025 Cetus is taking a community-first approach to restitution, one that not only repays losses but also strengthens user loyalty and aligns long-term incentives. By leveraging token-based compensation, the decentralized exchange is making amends for a multi-million dollar hack that lost user funds earlier this year. This move has been broadly well received across the Sui ecosystem, especially as it coincides with other proactive steps being taken to improve the platform’s transparency and resilience. At a moment when the DeFi space is seeing a rising number of exploits and rug pulls that are worryingly common, the speedy response and well-structured compensation plan drawn up by the Cetus team set a notable example for crisis management in our industry. Going Open Source: A Strategic Pivot Toward Transparency Cetus Protocol’s post-exploit strategy features perhaps its most consequential move: a decision to go open source. This was announced alongside the relaunch of the protocol. The decentralized exchange (DEX) will soon make its codebase publicly accessible, inviting any number of developers, auditors, and community members to review ostensibly the protocol’s weak spots, much as people do with bug reports for encrypted messaging apps. They will then strengthen these weak spots, piece by piece. Cetus is also starting a new white-hat bounty program at the same time that it is transitioning to a DAO. This program is intended to attract ethical hackers and security researchers. The job of those attracted to the program is to find and forthrightly report vulnerabilities that exist in the platform before the vulnerabilities can be exploited. By rewarding those who help in this way to secure the platform, Cetus can better handle would-be threats to its operational assurance. The open-source pivot represents a crucial reformation in how the protocol functions and presents itself to the populace. When one talks about doing a “pivot” (which has always been a part of the DeFi ecosystem), it usually signifies taking a step back to reassess what you’re doing and then altering your course based on that assessment. However, the protocol’s recent open-source shift also seems to radiate, across our own assessment in The Block, a core ethos of decentralized finance. Rebuilding credibility is especially important after the loss of user funds. Stakeholders in the cryptocurrency sector are still reeling from trust being broken. Until the powers that be in this industry can show to users and to the world that they are capable of not only policing but also of being transparent with their business operations, 24/7, in both good times and bad, then my hunch is that cryptocurrency will have another very hard hill to climb. Legal Action and Accountability on the Table Although the trust of the users has been compromised, the team is concentrating on a two-pronged approach. One prong is work on rebuilding the protocol, live with the necessary services maintained, and the path to regaining the user trust that has been lost. The other focuses on pursuing legal action against the perpetrator of the exploit. Investigations are confirmed as being underway across many places and with many persons. Even though the particulars of the attack have not been completely revealed, the ongoing legal pursuit makes it clear that Cetus is not taking this problem lightly. Often in DeFi-related exploits, we see a lack of commitment to the legal follow-through, but by Cetus’ pursuing the legal route, it could lend some seriousness to the situation and potentially help future victims of DeFi exploits. In the end, the Cetus Protocol recovery is about more than just restarting the protocol; it is a full-scale case study in how to respond to a protocol emergency. Cetus is doing many things right—restoring liquidity quickly, compensating users, embracing open-source development—and many of its moves indicate that the DEX will emerge from this crisis a more secure, transparent, and community-aligned platform. Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Follow us on Twitter @nulltxnews to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, Distributed Computing, and Metaverse news !

Source: NullTx