Hacker Exploits Hyperbridge to Mint $1 Billion in Polkadot Tokens
- A vulnerability in Hyperbridge allowed a hacker to mint one billion Polkadot (DOT) tokens.
- The minted tokens were valued at over $1.1 billion, but only $237,000 was cashed out due to low liquidity.
- The exploit was confined to bridged DOT on the Ethereum blockchain, leaving native DOT unaffected.
- Hyperbridge is currently down for maintenance as it implements additional security measures.
- The total native DOT supply is approximately only half of the artificially created tokens, at around 1.6 billion.
A flaw in Hyperbridge’s proof verification logic allowed a hacker to gain administrative control and mint excessive amounts of bridged DOT tokens on Ethereum, leading to significant potential losses if liquidity had been higher.
Despite the creation of over a billion tokens, actual financial loss was limited to $237,000 due to insufficient liquidity in decentralized exchanges for these newly minted assets. Source
