Axelar Reports $4.67 Million Bridge Hack with Secret Network

Axelar has reported a significant security breach involving its connection to the Secret Network, where an attacker exploited a vulnerability to steal around $4.67 million. The issue stemmed from an "infinite mint" flaw within a modified CW20-ICS20 token contract on the Secret Network.

Upon analysis, it was revealed that the attacker was able to create unlimited Secret-wrapped Axelar assets by activating a new Cosmos chain with just one validator and manipulating the contract's functions.

— Common Prefix (@CommonPrefix) June 19, 2026

This incident went undetected for a week, during which the attacker was able to falsify deposits and issue tokens lacking proper backing.

The Axelar emergency committee took swift action by disabling connections to both the Secret Network and Secret-SNIP to prevent further unauthorized transactions. The team is actively collaborating with exchanges and law enforcement to track and recover the stolen funds.

The affected tokens include saUSDT, saUSDC, saDAI, saWETH, saWBTC, saWBNB, and sawstETH, but the primary Axelar protocol and other IBC connections remain secure.

Interestingly, following the announcement of the hack, the price of the Secret token (SCRT) experienced a brief uptick of nearly 6%, reaching $0.06, before settling around $0.058, which still represents a daily gain of about 3%. The current market cap for SCRT is approximately $20 million.

For perspective, the SCRT token peaked at an all-time high of $10.64 in October 2021, indicating a massive decline of 99.5% from its highest valuation.

This incident reflects ongoing vulnerabilities within blockchain networks, as seen recently with multiple attacks on the Aztec L2 network, which suffered consecutive breaches leading to losses of more than $4 million.