Cetus is back as a top 10 DEX following its relaunch

Cetus Protocol is back among the top 10 decentralized exchanges, following its relaunch over the weekend. Both Cetus and SUI aim to recover their volumes following the DEX hack. 

Cetus Protocol announced it is back among the top 10 DEXs based on trading volumes. The protocol restarted over the weekend, relaunching after a $260M hack.

Cetus achieved $122.82M in volumes for the past 24 hours, becoming the 10th most active DEX. The protocol is also a significant fee producer on SUI, though fee production is still recovering in the first days of the relaunch.

💪 1st stage — back to the TOP 10 DEX list of all chains by daily trading volume. 🌊🌊#Cetus 🐳 pic.twitter.com/jmLLOwUEN0

— Cetus🐳 (@CetusProtocol) June 9, 2025

Cetus aims to recover its position as a leading DEX to make the SUI ecosystem a viable Solana competitor and a venue for meme tokens and other on-chain activity. DEX activity is the biggest source of on-chain users for SUI. However, the chain aims to revive other uses, including NFTs and on-chain gaming.

The coming days will show if Cetus can retain those activity levels. Cetus, along with Bluefin, was the main driver of SUI DEX volumes, reaching record numbers in Q1. For now, the SUI L1 chain retains only 300K daily active users, down from 1.6M before the hack.

Cetus will have a long way to recover trust in the ecosystem, though initial volumes showed traders were ready to return. 

CETUS, SUI aim for trading recovery

Following the relaunch, CETUS traded at $0.11, with a small setback for the past few days. The potential for fund recovery helped support CETUS and prevent it from erasing all value. CETUS open interest is also starting to recover, from a low of $13M to over $15M. The token’s long positions also increased following the relaunch.

SUI remained stable at around $3.25, with daily volumes under $600M at a three-month low. Open interest also increased from around $580M over the weekend to over $645M.

The protocol recovered its value locked to over $102M, following a crash as low as $37M. The agreement to recover funds from the hacker wallets meant the DEX could rebuild its liquidity quickly. 

However, traders also decided to leave Cetus, shrinking the TVL from over $182M just after the relaunch. At its peak, Cetus carried over $238M. SUI carries over $1.84B in total value locked, with over $1B in stablecoins.

SUI-based tokens remain highly volatile, with some trending assets posting over 180% in weekly gains. Just days after rebuilding its liquidity pairs, Cetus Protocol already posts trending tokens and peak gainers, though often at extremely low volumes under $50,000 and minimal market depth.

Cetus may also regain its volumes by trading the native CETUS token, as well as offering high-volume stablecoin pairs. 

Cetus Protocol has already positioned itself at a time when DEX volumes are increasing again, and whales are moving back to decentralized swaps. Over 26% of all trading volumes originate with DEX, up from recent lows of 12.4%. The increased activity reflects only the spot volumes, not taking into account the growing sector of derivative DEX.

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