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Alephium, a proof-of-work Layer 1 that runs a private fork of the Wormhole bridge, lost about $815,000 across Ethereum and BNB Chain on Friday after an attacker pushed forged messages through the bridge backend and out the other side as legitimate-looking transfers, according to the team. Alephium has shut the bridge down and said no new transactions can be initiated.
The attacker drained 200,967 USDT, 17,594 USDC, 5.18 WETH and 0.335 WBTC on Ethereum, plus 36,750 USDT and 24.386 WBNB on BNB Chain, per Alephium's accounting, and minted 13.76 million wrapped ALPH on Ethereum with no corresponding ALPH locked on the Alephium chain. The full sequence took about seven minutes, according to blockchain security firm Blockaid, which spotted the exploit first and brought in the SEAL 911 emergency-response unit.
The headline number is small by the standards of 2026's bridge year — PeckShield data put cumulative cross-chain bridge losses at roughly $329 million through mid-May — but the attack mechanism is the part to watch. Initial reports, including from Blockaid, blamed compromised guardian keys. Alephium and Blockaid have since revised that.
