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Polkadot Hit by Hack After 1 Billion Unauthorized DOT Are Minted on Ethereum and Sold

En.Bloomingbit • April 13, 2026

Polkadot's DOT token was hit by a hack that led to a large volume of unauthorized minting on the Ethereum network.

Wu Blockchain reported on August 13 that hackers minted 1 billion DOT tokens on the Ethereum mainnet and sold them on the market.

The attack may have exploited token minting authority or a smart-contract vulnerability. The exact cause and attack route have yet to be confirmed, leaving further investigation necessary.

Still, the token's limited liquidity appears to have kept actual market damage relatively contained.

The full story

This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

Polkadot Hyperbridge Exploit: 1 Billion DOT Minted and Sold On April 13, 2026, a vulnerability in the Hyperbridge gateway contract on Ethereum allowed an attacker to mint 1 billion unauthorized Polkadot (DOT) tokens. The exploit was facilitated by forging messages to gain administrative control over the bridged DOT token contract. The attacker subsequently sold the minted tokens for approximately $237,000 worth of Ether. This incident specifically affected DOT tokens bridged to Ethereum, while the native DOT and Polkadot ecosystem remained secure. The Hyperbridge protocol has been paused for investigation and remediation. The exploit highlights ongoing vulnerabilities in cross-chain interoperability solutions. The incident has raised concerns about the security of decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructures. Security firms CertiK and BlockSec are investigating the attack vector and its implications. 19 sources 66

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Ethereum Polkadot