Axelar loses $4.67M in Secret bridge exploit; AXL rises

Axelar lost $4.67M in a Secret Network bridge exploit, limited to one smart contract. The core protocol was unaffected, and AXL token price rose despite the breach.

Axelar has reported a security incident involving assets bridged via IBC from the Axelar chain to Secret Network, resulting in a loss of approximately $4.67 million in tokens. The vulnerability was isolated to the Secret-side ICS-20 smart contract used in the Cosmos IBC connection between Secret and Axelar. In response, Axelar’s emergency committee disabled the Secret and Secret-SNIP connections and notified relevant exchanges and law enforcement. Importantly, the core Axelar protocol and other IBC connections, Secret tokens, or Axelar integrations were not affected by the exploit. Despite the incident, Axelar’s AXL token price increased by 3.85% to $0.04558, indicating limited immediate selling pressure. Axelar is preparing a detailed post-mortem to explain the cause, affected assets, and response measures. Users are advised to avoid using the affected connection until the review concludes.