Hedera (HBAR) has reportedly suffered an exploit, which caused losses of more than $5 million. Blockchain researcher Specter first flagged the incident on Saturday.
The attacker moved stolen assets off Hedera and converted them into Ethereum (ETH), according to on-chain trackers monitoring the wallets. The tracked figure has climbed steadily since the theft surfaced.
How the Hedera Exploit Unfolded
Specter reported that the attacker bridged funds from Hedera to Ethereum using LayerZero (ZRO). The stolen holdings were swapped from Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) into ETH.
The tracked total rose quickly. It moved from $3.7 million to more than $4 million, then to more than $5 million.
Security firm PeckShield later put the bridged amount at about $5.25 million. It said the attacker’s wallet held roughly 2.36K ETH, worth $4.25 million, and 15.58 WBTC, worth about $1 million.
PeckShield added that the attacker originally funded the wallet with 1 ETH routed through Tornado Cash, a mixing tool often used to obscure the source of funds. The theft addresses outlined by Specter are:
- 0x9A4966152F6e10b33Cb7a37975e8619816d6a494
- 0xaf20D792A19fD42dCf697ceBa6100291D96dD93e
A Rising Tally of 2026 Crypto Hacks
The incident adds to a run of thefts this month. According to DefiLlama, three hacks targeting crypto platforms occurred in July, resulting in combined losses exceeding $28 million.
Those include a $6 million exploit of the DeFi protocol Summer.fi and a $20 million governance attack on the BONK DAO.
The pace reflects a wider trend. Security incidents climbed roughly 50% in the first half of 2026, even as total losses fell, according to a SlowMist report.
Hedera has not issued a public statement on the current incident as of press time. BeInCrypto has reached out to Hedera for comment. This is a developing story.
Source: BeInCrypto
