Polkadot price slipped 4% after a Hyperbridge exploit allowed an attacker to create and dump a massive amount of fake DOT▲$1.02 on Ethereum.
Polkadot’s DOT token dropped 3.8% on Monday, April 13, after security firms said a Hyperbridge exploit let an attacker mint and dump 1 billion DOT on Ethereum.
Data from researchers indicates that the incident wasn’t just a Polkadot hack. Blockchain forensics firm CertiK said in an X post that the attacker used a forged message to seize admin control of the Ethereum-side token contract and walked away with about 108.2 ETH▼$1,794.72, or roughly $237,000.
- Hyperbridge is Polkadot’s cross-chain bridge that moves tokens and data between blockchains like Ethereum by verifying cryptographic proofs from one network on another.
The core issue, according to BlockSec Phalcon, was a replay bug in Hyperbridge’s HandlerV1 contract, which is the bridge’s message-checking contract. It involved a type of verification record used by the bridge to confirm that a message is legitimate.
Hyperbridge Exploit Tanks Polkadot
The bug, mistakenly referred to in the crypto community, as the Hyperbridge exploit Polkadot, let the same proof be reused more than once, tricking the system into accepting fake instructions and minting extra tokens on Ethereum. The stolen funds were then moved through Railgun, an on-chain crypto mixer.
Some blockchain sleuths pointed out on X that the attacker spent about a month deploying more than 15 test contracts before the exploit. They also said the attack wasn’t limited to DOT. According to reports, the hack also affected such altcoins as Argon (ARGN), where 999 billion tokens were minted, along with 211,000 MANTA tokens and 23 billion CERE tokens.
Following the Hyperbridge Polkadot exploit in April 2026, DOT fell further, trading just a few percentage points above its all-time low reached in early February.
