Polkadot Confirms Hyperbridge Exploit as DOT Drops 5%

Polkadot (DOT) has confirmed an issue involving a Hyperbridge exploit affecting its Ethereum (ETH) gateway. This follows earlier reports of suspicious activity tied to bridged DOT tokens. Initial signals pointed to irregular token movements on Ethereum. This raised concerns about a possible vulnerability in the bridge.

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Bridge Paused as Network Says Core Ecosystem Remains Unaffected

According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the crypto bridge exploit allowed an attacker to mint 1 billion DOT tokens on Ethereum and sell them into the market. The issue was limited to the Hyperbridge gateway and did not affect the core Polkadot network.

Polkadot said DOT within its ecosystem, along with parachains and other bridging routes, remains unaffected. Hyperbridge has been paused while the team investigates the vulnerability. The network said,

“We’re aware of an issue affecting @hyperbridge’s Ethereum gateway contract. The exploit only affects DOT on Ethereum that is bridged through Hyperbridge and does not affect DOT in the Polkadot ecosystem, or DOT bridged through other bridges. Polkadot, its parachains, and native DOT remain secure and unaffected. Hyperbridge has been paused while the issue is investigated.“

Security researchers said the issue stemmed from how cross-chain messages were validated. By exploiting that process, the attacker was able to gain control of the bridged token contract and mint new tokens.

On-chain data shows the attacker extracted roughly $237,000 worth of ETH. The relatively low profit, despite the large mint, was due to shallow liquidity in the DOT-ETH pool. This limited how much value the attacker could get from the sell-off.

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Price Reaction and Liquidations

The DOT price dropped around 5% shortly after reports of the exploit began circulating. The move triggered DOT liquidation activity as leveraged positions were forced out during the decline. At press time, the asset was trading at $1.17. It should be noted that just earlier today, DOT was priced at a high of $1.25 before plummeting to a low of $1.15. DOT is only 4.7% from its all-time low of $1.13.

This isn’t the first time a bridge has been targeted. These systems tend to carry a higher risk because of how much control they have. The core Polkadot network was not affected. But the bridge issue was still enough to move the market.

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