Hedera hit by $5.8M exploit as HBAR slides 2% on security breach

More than $5.8 million in assets were stolen from the Hedera network in a suspected exploit, blockchain security researchers reported on July 11.

Blockchain security researcher Specter first flagged the incident, reporting that the attacker bridged funds from Hedera to Ethereum using LayerZero before swapping Wrapped Bitcoin into Ether.

The stolen amount climbed from $3.7 million to more than $5.8 million as additional transfers appeared on-chain. Security firm PeckShield said the attacker's wallet held roughly 3,203 ETH, worth about $5.8 million, alongside WBTC. The wallet was initially funded with 1 Ether routed through Tornado Cash, a mixing tool often used to obscure transaction origins.

The exploit adds to a series of crypto thefts this month, with three hacks in July causing combined losses exceeding $28 million, according to DefiLlama. Those include a $6 million exploit of the DeFi protocol Summer.fi and a $20 million governance attack on the BONK DAO. Security incidents climbed roughly 50% in the first half of 2026, even as total losses fell, according to a SlowMist report.

HBAR, the native token of the Hedera network, fell more than 2% to trade near $0.069 following the reports. The attacker's wallet addresses — 0x9A4966152F6e10b33Cb7a37975e8619816d6a494 and 0xaf20D792A19fD42dCf697ceBa6100291D96dD93e — remain under monitoring by on-chain analysts as the investigation continues.

Hedera has not issued a public statement on the incident as of press time. The breach underscores persistent security risks in cross-chain bridge infrastructure, a vector that has been exploited repeatedly across multiple networks.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.