Axelar Network's Secret Bridge Hacked, $4.67M in Tokens Stolen Today

According to PANews, Axelar Network's Secret Network bridge was exploited today (June 20), resulting in approximately $4.67 million in token theft. The attack targeted the ICS-20 smart contract governing Cosmos IBC connections between Axelar and Secret, through which an attacker exploited an unlimited minting vulnerability to forge arbitrary Secret-wrapped Axelar assets.

Axelar's emergency council disabled Secret and Secret-SNIP connections immediately upon discovery. The breach was limited to assets bridged from Axelar to Secret via IBC; other IBC connections, Secret tokens, and Axelar's core protocol remained unaffected. The attacker exited through the Axelar bridge, and the protocol's isolation prevented contagion to other chains.