Polkadot bridge exploited, attacker seizes admin control to mint and dump 1B DOT tokens

Polkadot-based cross-chain solution Hyperbridge suffered a major exploit that allowed attackers to mint up to one billion DOT tokens without authorization and quickly dump them on Ethereum, as flagged by blockchain security firm CertiK.

#CertiKInsight 🚨

We have seen an exploit on the @hyperbridge gateway contract. https://t.co/h27iDm1JGd

The attacker slipped through a forged message to change the admin of Polkadot token contract on Ethereum and profited ~$237K from minting and selling 1B tokens.

Stay… pic.twitter.com/3t2n4uq5hy

— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) April 13, 2026

On-chain analysis indicates the breach occurred on April 13 when attacker controlled wallets gained governance access to the bridge contract. They then minted 1 billion DOT on Ethereum and sold the full amount within approximately an hour, causing prices to collapse from around $1.22 to near zero in impacted pools.

The native Polkadot blockchain was not directly affected.

DOT fell from $1.23 to $1.17 as the reports broke, per CoinGecko.

Hyperbridge is a Polkadot interoperability coprocessor designed to enable secure cross-chain communication using cryptographic state and consensus proofs beyond shared-security parachains.

This is a developing story. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.