Alephium Bridge Hack Drains $815K as May Exploits Hit $326M

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Alephium Bridge Hack Drains $815K as May Exploits Hit $326M — Image source: Unblock Media

Hackers mint 13.76 million unauthorized wrapped ALPH, draining stablecoins and blue-chip assets.
Alephium halts bridge, urges liquidity providers to withdraw as 2026 bridge losses surge.

On May 31, 2026, The Block reported that hackers exploited Alephium’s Token Bridge for approximately $815,000 by forging transactions to mint 13.76 million wrapped ALPH tokens. Initial assessments from security firm Blockaid identified three out of four guardian keys as compromised, but Alephium later clarified the vulnerability occurred offchain in the bridge backend and was triggered under specific edge case conditions rather than from a direct guardian key attack.

The exploit enabled attackers to bypass bridge controls and mint wrapped ALPH tokens amounting to more than double the existing circulating supply. Hackers drained stablecoins and blue-chip assets, including USDT, USDC, WBTC, and WETH, across Ethereum and BNB Chain. On-chain analysts observed that, following the seven-minute attack, the stolen funds were routed to Tornado Cash in an effort to obfuscate their movement.

Alephium responded quickly by shutting down the bridge. The project advised all liquidity providers on Uniswap and PancakeSwap to withdraw funds immediately, emphasizing that any continued LP activity or trading would help the attackers cash out their unauthorized tokens. Bridging remains suspended, and Alephium has warned against swapping or adding liquidity for wrapped ALPH until otherwise notified.

The incident leaves ALPH trading at $0.037, with total value locked (TVL) on the network at $756,000 and $308,000 in bridged TVL, according to CoinMarketCap on May 31, 2026. Meanwhile, security experts note this exploit is part of a larger trend in May 2026. Gravity Bridge lost $5.4 million through a suspected contract key compromise, Verus-Ethereum bridge lost $11.5 million via a verification bypass, and THORChain suffered a $10 million hack. According to DefiLlama data, over $326 million has been lost to bridge exploits in 2026, with bridges now accounting for more than $3.2 billion out of $16.6 billion in historic crypto hacks.

As of May 31, 2026, 02:08 UTC, Tether USDt (USDT) is trading at $0.998, with a -0.021% change in 24-hour trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap. BNB (BNB) is trading at $727.525, with an 11.009% change. USDC (USDC) is trading at $1, with a -0.005% change.