Cetus Protocol

• Cetus is a decentralised exchange and concentrated liquidity protocol on Sui and Aptos.

• Liquidity providers concentrate capital in chosen price ranges rather than across the whole curve.

• CETUS is the governance token.

• Supply allocated across community, ecosystem and contributors.

• Locked for xCETUS, which shares protocol revenue.

Pros:

• Leading DEX on Sui by volume, with a strong position in the Move ecosystem.

• Concentrated liquidity materially improves capital efficiency.

• Revenue sharing to lockers rather than governance rights alone.

Cons:

• In May 2025 the protocol suffered a major exploit, with well over $200 million drained through a vulnerability in its liquidity maths. A large portion was frozen by Sui validators and later returned, but the incident remains the defining event in its history.

• The validator freeze that recovered funds also raised legitimate questions about how decentralised Sui actually is.

• Sui ecosystem concentration.

• Exposure to the primary DEX in the Move ecosystem.

• Recovery and continued operation after the exploit is evidence of both the risk and the response.

• The May 2025 exploit is essential context and should weigh heavily.

• The dominant concentrated liquidity venue across Sui and Aptos, serving both major Move chains.

• Constant-product pools spread liquidity across price ranges where no trading happens.

• Concentrating it where trades occur raises capital efficiency substantially.

• Founded by a team operating within the Move ecosystem.

• Backed by OKX Ventures and Jump Crypto.

• No public ICO. Distributed through ecosystem and community allocations.

• A major exploit has already occurred and cost users substantially before recovery.

• The recovery mechanism depended on validator intervention, which is itself a centralisation signal.

• Sui and Aptos ecosystem dependency.

• Concentrated liquidity increases impermanent loss for providers.