Taiko Urges Users to Move Funds Following $1.7 Million Bridge Exploit

Taiko, a layer-2 Ethereum blockchain, is now asking its users to withdraw their funds from the bridges of this blockchain network following an exploit in one of the Taiko bridges, which resulted in the theft of $1.7 million (roughly Rs. 16.10 crore) worth of crypto assets, adding to the growing list of DeFi hacks this month. Taiko explained that they were working with partners to ensure that the incident was contained and had suspended the affected systems. According to crypto security company Blockaid, the underlying issue behind this is that there is an issue with the signal validation process on the Taiko bridge. 

Security Firms Link Incident to Flaws in Message Verification Process

According to Blockaid, message proofs have been accepted as valid on Ethereum in the absence of corresponding valid proofs on the Taiko blockchain network. Blockaid added that the theft is worth about $1 million (roughly Rs. 9.47 crore), whereas Lookonchain and PeckShield believe the value of the stolen assets may range from up to $1.7 million (roughly Rs. 16.10 crore). Over 1.99 million TAICO has been moved by the hacker to MEXC,” noted PeckShield. TAICO is currently being sold off by 98 percent from its all-time high price of $2.90 (roughly Rs. 270) recorded in 2024, based on data from CoinGecko.

Arkham, a blockchain intelligence firm, shows that Taiko exploiter wallets are holding around $1.5 million (roughly Rs. 14.21 crore) primarily in Ether (ETH). Taiko posted on X and said, “We have confirmed a compromise of Taiko's chain state verification mechanism. As a result, the security assumptions of all bridges deployed on Taiko can no longer be relied upon. We strongly advise all users to withdraw their funds from all bridges deployed on Taiko immediately.”

This incident is now number 23 in the growing list of crypto exploits this month, as per the data by DeFiLlama. One of the other incidents that was detected earlier this month was Aztec's legacy architecture. The bridge to the private rollup service from the Aztec protocol was exploited for 1,158 ETH, 150,000 DAI, and 0.46 RENBTC worth roughly $2.15 million (roughly Rs. 20.36 crore), reports Cos, co-founder of cybersecurity firm SlowMist. According to him, initial research suggests the hack occurred due to exploiting the fake rollup proof.

Another incident was when the Secret Network bridge was exploited, as hackers had taken advantage of the “infinite mint” flaw in a smart contract that is vulnerable to exploitation and created unbacked versions of Axelar wrapped tokens worth $4.67 million (roughly Rs. 44.23 crore). While the hack took place on June 10, the hack was detected after a week on Wednesday, following a failure in a cross-chain transaction due to the error “insufficient funds” from the drained account, as revealed by blockchain research company Common Prefix on Friday. The hacking of the Secret Network remained unnoticed for a week because the criminal had moved the hacked money to Ethereum and then to exchanges.