Skip to main content
AVOID.NET
Sign in

Cetus CLMM

avoid.net/cetus-clmm→18/100·100% conf.
[AI-DRAFTED · AWAITING VERIFICATION][src:defillama]

Auto-generated score, not yet verified against the scoring model. Under review — treat as indicative, not a verdict.

anchored·GMZ47F…5vzu

Summary

Cetus Protocol is a concentrated liquidity market maker (CLMM) and the dominant decentralized exchange on the Sui Network, launched in 2023. On May 22, 2025, an arithmetic overflow vulnerability in its fixed-point math library enabled an attacker to drain approximately $223 million from liquidity pools in the largest DeFi exploit of 2025, of which roughly $162 million was subsequently frozen by Sui validators and later returned to affected users via an on-chain governance vote. The incident raised significant concerns about smart contract security, audit effectiveness, and the degree of decentralization on the Sui network.

Connected Entities

10 entities · 60 linked investigations
Organizations
□Ethereum64□Binance□Wormhole□Cetus CLMM□Aptos□ZachXBT□Sui
Protocols
⌂Uniswap⌂Cetus Protocol
Tokens
♦KuCoin
Relationships
  • KuCoin→mentioned with→Uniswap(60%)
  • KuCoin→mentioned with→ZachXBT(70%)
  • KuCoin→mentioned with→Ethereum(60%)
  • Aptos→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
  • Aptos→mentioned with→Binance(70%)
  • ZachXBT→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
  • ZachXBT→mentioned with→Binance(60%)
  • Binance→mentioned with→Ethereum(65%)
  • Cetus CLMM→mentioned with→Wormhole(60%)
  • Cetus CLMM→mentioned with→Sui(70%)
  • + 18 more
Also appears in
Ethereum·64Lendf.me·30Levyathan·18Jump Trading·42StableMagnet·2Shibarium·28Bankr·18Nexera·32Sky (MakerDAO)·51BearnFi·12+ 50 more

Connected Through

9 shared actors · 591 investigations

Distinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.

Have evidence about Cetus CLMM?
0
Accepted
1
Under review
0
Rejected / revoked

Community submissions

  • Under reviewincriminating[WAYBACK]6/3/2026, 10:09:50 PM

    “The May 22, 2026 Cetus Protocol exploit on SUI resulted in million stolen via an arithmetic overflow bug in the checked_shlw function. Approximately million was frozen by Sui validators and returned; roughly million was bridged to Ethereum by the attacker and is being laundered through Tornado Cash. Cetus relaunched using its own reserves plus a million USDC loan from the Sui Foundation, restoring 85-99% of LP funds, but tens of millions remain under attacker control.”

    — avoid-scout

Timeline(14 events)

May 2023

Cetus Protocol launches on Sui mainnet with CLMM architecture; CETUS token generation event conducted

May 2023

OtterSec and MoveBit complete initial security audits of Cetus smart contracts; arithmetic overflow path in get_delta_a not flagged as critical

April 2025

Zellic completes audit of Cetus codebase; no critical vulnerabilities identified

22 May 2025

Exploit begins at approximately 10:30 UTC; attacker exploits checked_shlw overflow bug to drain approximately $223 million from Cetus liquidity pools on Sui

22 May 2025

Attacker bridges approximately $61 million USDC from Sui to Ethereum via CCTP across 60+ transactions over 90 minutes; Ethereum receiving address: 0x89012a55cd6b88e407c9d4ae9b3425f55924919b

22 May 2025

Cetus suspends smart contracts; Sui validators coordinate to freeze approximately $162 million in attacker-controlled funds remaining on Sui

22 May 2025

Cetus team and private sector experts request Circle to freeze stolen USDC on Ethereum; Cetus offers $5 million bug bounty to attacker for return of funds

23 May 2025

Decentralization criticism erupts publicly; Justin Bons (Cyber Capital) and Duo Nine (YCC) argue Sui validator coordination demonstrates centralized fund control

26 May 2025

Sui Foundation publishes on-chain governance proposal to transfer frozen funds to a 4-of-6 multisig trust wallet held by Cetus, Sui Foundation, and OtterSec

29 May 2025

On-chain governance vote concludes early; validators representing 90.9% of stake vote yes; frozen funds transferred to multisig trust

June 2025

Circle blacklists attacker's Ethereum USDC address approximately one month after exploit; stolen USDC had already been converted to ETH, rendering blacklist ineffective for recovery

8 June 2025

Cetus Protocol relaunches at 03:00 UTC with full functionality restored; Sui Foundation $30 million USDC loan and $7 million protocol reserves deployed to replenish liquidity

10 June 2025

CETUS token compensation vesting begins; 5% of total supply immediately claimable, 10% to unlock linearly over 12 months for affected LPs

3 April 2026

ZachXBT publishes broader analysis alleging Circle failed to freeze approximately $420 million in illicit USDC across 15 incidents including Cetus; Cetus case cited as exhibit of delayed response

Provenance & Audit Trail
Anchored on SolanaVerify on-chain21 Wayback Archivessrc:defillama

Decision Log

This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (1 event). 21 of 26 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.

full audit log →version history →

model: claude-sonnet-4-6

generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:23 AM

last updated: 9/15/2026, 5:10:50 PM

4 views

avoid.net — verified advice for a post-truth world