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Syndicate Labs has confirmed that a private key leak enabled an attacker to maliciously upgrade its cross-chain bridge contracts on two networks, siphoning approximately 18.5 million SYND—worth about $330,000—alongside roughly $50,000 in user tokens. The company said the incident was contained to specific chains and did not affect the broader Syndicate infrastructure.
Syndicate Labs identified the root cause as poor operational security around the bridge upgrade keys. The team said the “private key was stored in a password management tool without an additional layer of encryption.” It also acknowledged that the upgrade process did not use multi-signature or hardware signatures and lacked “early warning and circuit breaker measures for contract upgrades,” meaning a single compromised key was sufficient to push a malicious implementation.
Following the exploit, SYND’s price fell by more than 30% on some venues as the sell-off affected liquidity. Syndicate Labs described the attack as highly sophisticated and said it involved exploiting weaknesses in key storage and the absence of stronger safeguards on upgrade paths.
Syndicate Labs pledged to “fully compensate all affected users,” including returning the 18.5 million SYND drained and providing “additional compensation.” The company also said it would fully compensate affected application chain clients. Syndicate Labs stated it has sufficient reserves to cover losses.
To prevent a repeat, Syndicate Labs said it is hardening its key management by strengthening private key encryption, tightening access controls, and planning to introduce hardware or multi-signature mechanisms. The team also outlined plans for real-time monitoring of upgrade paths, including the addition of circuit breaker measures for contract upgrades.
Syndicate’s SYND token remained under pressure as markets digested the attack and awaited concrete timelines for compensation and security upgrades.
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