Axelar disables Secret Network bridge routes after $4.7 million exploit

Axelar has disabled its Secret Network bridge connections after a security incident led to the loss of roughly $4.7 million in bridged assets. The company said the problem appears limited to assets bridged from Axelar to Secret Network, with no impact on Axelar’s core protocol.

Incident and immediate response

Axelar reported that the exploit affected assets transferred from the Axelar chain to Secret Network via the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) framework. Early findings indicate the issue is tied to the Secret-side ICS-20 smart contract used in the IBC connection, rather than Axelar’s core infrastructure.

“We have identified an incident affecting assets bridged over IBC to Secret Network from the Axelar chain, with approximately $4.67M worth of tokens taken. Based on current information, the issue is isolated to the Secret-side ICS-20 smart contract of the Cosmos IBC connection…” — Axelar Network (@axelar) June 19, 2026

As part of its response, Axelar said its emergency committee shut down the Secret and Secret-SNIP connections to prevent further losses. The interoperability protocol also stated it contacted relevant exchanges and law enforcement agencies while the investigation remains ongoing.

What was affected

Axelar said the incident is confined to assets on the Secret Network that were bridged from Axelar. The company reported no evidence at this stage that other IBC connections, Secret-native assets, or additional Axelar integrations were affected.

Axelar emphasized that its core protocol continued operating during the incident. It said the suspected vulnerability was isolated to the Secret-side contract responsible for processing transfers from Axelar into the Secret ecosystem.

Next steps and expected timeline

A full post-mortem is expected after the investigation is completed. Until then, Axelar said the affected bridge routes will remain disabled while engineers review the attack path and assess the extent of the losses.

Broader security pressure on crypto infrastructure

The incident adds to a series of recent security breaches affecting crypto infrastructure projects. Earlier this month, Humanity Protocol disclosed recovery measures following a June 8 exploit that led the project to retire its original H token across Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Humanity Mainnet.

Humanity Protocol said affected users will receive replacement H tokens through an airdrop linked to a newly deployed audited ERC-20 contract on Ethereum. The project stated the breach resulted from stolen credentials rather than vulnerabilities in its token contracts, bridge infrastructure, or Safe setup.

Separately, crypto payments platform Pyra announced plans to wind down operations after determining it could not recover from the financial and user impact of the Drift exploit.

DeFi outflows and leverage metrics

Binance Research previously estimated that DeFi exploits triggered roughly $13 billion in total value locked (TVL) outflows in April, reducing available liquidity across decentralized finance protocols. The research arm also reported that the on-chain leverage ratio rose to around 38%, a level last seen in 2021, as TVL declined faster than borrowing activity.