The busiest swap venue on the Sui network is a concentrated-liquidity DEX called Cetus.
BUSINESS
Cetus Protocol is a decentralized exchange and concentrated-liquidity protocol built on Sui and Aptos.
Its stated mission is to build a flexible liquidity network that makes trading easier for any user and asset.
Liquidity providers concentrate capital in specific price ranges through Infinity Pools, earning swap fees inside the active range.
Traders get routed execution through a built-in Super Aggregator that pulls liquidity from Cetus pools and other protocols on Sui.
Anyone can create a permissionless pool with custom fees, so new and long-tail tokens can list without approval.
Developers can embed swaps, liquidity, and pool data through an SDK, or drop in mini DEX widgets with minimal code.
The protocol also runs a launchpad for new Sui-ecosystem token launches and liquidity mining incentives to deepen pools.
CETUS holders govern the DAO, voting on parameters, token emissions, and new integrations.
TECHNOLOGY
Cetus uses a concentrated liquidity market maker design modeled on Uniswap v3-style price ranges.
Concentrating liquidity where trading actually happens raises capital efficiency versus spreading it across all prices.
Each liquidity position is represented as a Move object, with ownership and fee rights tracked through position NFTs.
Cetus Vault can automate LP management, rebalancing positions on behalf of depositors.
Intent Trading adds limit orders and dollar-cost averaging tools for traders.
Contracts are open-source, permissionless, and composable, so other apps can build directly on Cetus liquidity.
In May 2025, attackers drained about $223 million from its CLMM pools through an integer-overflow bug in a shared math library.
The protocol paused, recovered about $162 million with validator help, took a $30 million USDC loan from the Sui Foundation, and relaunched on June 8, 2025 with 85 to 99 percent of affected liquidity restored.
Post-hack work included patched contracts, fresh security audits, and a move to a fully open-source model.
SECTOR
Cetus sits at the center of the Sui DeFi stack, where concentrated liquidity has become the default swap infrastructure.
Reports from mid-2025 put Cetus TVL above $200 million, making it the main LP DEX on the Sui network.
Sui ecosystem tailwinds include the Sui Foundation DeFi Moonshots program, which offers liquidity incentives to selected DeFi teams.
Across chains, the DEX sector keeps consolidating around venues that pair deep liquidity with aggregator routing.
COMPETITION
$UNI set the template: Uniswap invented the concentrated-liquidity model that Cetus adapted.
$ORCA plays the analogous role on Solana, where one leading DEX aggregates most swap flow.
Cetus competes by being native to the Sui network Move architecture instead of porting an EVM design.
Its differentiator is vertical integration: Infinity Pools, an aggregator, a launchpad, and automation under one protocol.
TOKENOMICS
MC $26.9M, FDV $27.8M at rank 747 — $CETUS trades far below its 2024 peak valuation.
Circulating supply is 965.2M of a 1B max, about 96.5 percent, with major vesting tranches substantially complete as of mid-2026.
Stakers convert CETUS to xCETUS, which carries governance voting power and a weekly share of protocol revenue.
xCETUS also unlocks launchpad access and boosted yields.
A 12-month linear distribution of CETUS to affected LPs formed part of the post-hack compensation plan.
CETUS reached an all-time high of $0.4877 in November 2024 and now trades about 94 percent below it.
Not financial advice. DYOR.