Taiko Bridge Exploit Drains $1.7M as Users Urged to Withdraw Funds Immediately

Highlights: 

• Taiko Bridge was the target of a security compromise, resulting in losses worth roughly $1.7 million.
• The DeFi platform has confirmed the incident and urged users to withdraw all their valuables from the network’s bridge.
• Taiko’s security team has halted operations and made efforts to review technical fixes.

Taiko Network, a decentralized Layer 2 blockchain protocol, has suffered a major security breach after attackers exploited a critical component of its system. The compromise led to the theft of about $1.7 million in digital assets from the network’s bridge vault. Taiko confirmed the hack incident in an X post today and raised concerns over the safety of bridges operating on the network. 

The platform warned that the security checks behind all bridges connected to its system may no longer be fully trusted. It also advised users to remove all their funds from the platform to mitigate further losses. “We strongly advise all users to withdraw their funds from all bridges deployed on Taiko immediately,” the platform warned. 

#PeckShieldAlert @taikoxyz has been exploited for ~$1.7M.

The exploiter has already transferred 1.99M $TAIKO (~$189.12K) to #MEXChttps://t.co/uJhqTYrqHH pic.twitter.com/Sl9kesSSUM

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) June 22, 2026

Details of the Taiko Bridge Exploit

Taiko is an Ethereum-based rollup network designed without a central sequencer. Its Ethereum validators help arrange Taiko blocks, making the network closely connected with Ethereum’s main chain. Early investigation findings revealed that attackers took advantage of a weakness in Taiko’s chain state verification process. 

This allowed them to create fake bridge messages that appeared authentic, giving them access to withdraw funds from the ERC20 Vault linked to the Taiko Bridge. Blockchain investigation firms such as Blockaid and PeckShield estimated that the stolen assets include 650,000 USDC and 130 ETH, bringing the total loss to approximately $1.7 million.

Initial technical reports suggest the issue was linked to Taiko’s multi-prover system, which uses different methods to verify transactions. An example involves Intel SGX technology, which helps provide faster verification. The attackers reportedly used the permissionless registerInstance() feature to add a fake SGX instance. 

They used this instance to submit false proofs for fake Layer 2 blocks. This allows them to pass verification checks and send unauthorized withdrawal requests from the bridge vault. The attack did not affect only Taiko’s official bridge. Other bridges operating on the platform’s network may also be affected because they depend on the same underlying verification system.

Taiko Security Team Swings into Action to Mitigate Further Losses

Reacting to the hack incident, Taiko stated that it is working with its Security Council and other ecosystem partners to control the situation. Other important steps taken by the platform include reviewing technical fixes, taking legal action, and working to prevent future exploits. Taiko has also asked centralized exchanges to temporarily stop TAIKO deposits. 

The security team also shared many wallet addresses that were linked to the attackers and advised users to refrain from interacting with them. “All Taiko proposers have temporarily stopped producing new blocks while we investigate and resolve the issue,” the security team added.

🚨 Taiko Bridge Exploit: ~$1.7M Drained from Vault – Withdraw Funds NOW

1/ 🚨 Taiko Network Hit by Major Security Incident – Bridge Exploit

On June 22, 2026, @taikoxyz officially confirmed a compromise of Taiko’s chain state verification mechanism.

As a result, the security… pic.twitter.com/OWyLKLkzHm

— RaFi (@RoanRafi) June 22, 2026

Crypto Hack Incidents Continue to Rise

Crypto losses dropped to about $68 million in May. However, this month has seen a significant rise in crypto-related exploits. On June 10, Crypto2Community reported that hackers stole approximately $36.7 million from DeFi protocols by exploiting a weakness in unverified smart contracts in six months. 

Elsewhere, attackers drained H tokens from over 280 wallets linked to Humanity Protocol after gaining unauthorized access. According to investigations, losses from this exploit amounted to approximately $32 million. In addition, Syscoin Bridge, another DeFi platform, paused its operations on June 8 after attackers exploited a vulnerability in its bridge verification process to create about 5 billion fake SYS tokens.