Cybersecurity firm Hacken has confirmed that a leaked private key was behind a major exploit on Saturday, which allowed an attacker to mint and dump roughly $250,000 worth of Hacken Token (HAI). The exploit led to an immediate 99% drop in the token’s value, from $0.015 to a mere $0.000055. As of now, HAI has slightly recovered and is trading around $0.00025. The attacker exploited a minter account tied to the Ethereum and BNB Chain, which had minting privileges. In a post on X, Hacken revealed that the minting permissions were misused to produce new HAI tokens, which were then offloaded across decentralized exchanges, crashing the token’s value in minutes. Hacken stated that the compromised wallet has now been disconnected from the smart contract and that full control has been re-established. However, the bad actor successfully escaped with an estimated $250,000 worth of HAI before mitigation measures could be enforced. Hacken Private Key Compromised During Bridge Upgrade According to Hacken, the breach occurred amid backend “architectural changes” to the firm’s blockchain bridge infrastructure. Ironically, the changes were part of an ongoing redesign meant to prevent such risks. The company admitted that rebuilding the bridge involved migrating old contracts—a legally and technically complex operation. As a preventive measure, all bridge transactions on both Ethereum and BNB Chain have been suspended until further notice. Hacken also warned users against falling for fake airdrop claims , clarifying that no such campaigns are planned. Hacken CEO Dyma Budorin noted that tokens bought after the exploit will not be supported in the revised tokenomics. The company plans to fast-track its long-term strategy to turn HAI into a regulated security token, representing both token utility and equity in Hacken. “All legitimate user balances remain trackable,” said the firm, assuring holders that swap options for affected tokens will be revealed soon. Crypto Exploit Cases Still on the Rise The incident adds to a growing list of security exploit cases in the crypto industry. Blockchain security firm PeckShield reported in April that over $1.6 billion was stolen in various attacks in Q1 2025 alone . Most recently, Meta Pool was hit on June 18, when an attacker minted nearly $27 million worth of tokens—but could only extract about $132,000 in Ether. Hacken’s exploit notes ongoing vulnerabilities within decentralized ecosystems, especially around token minting privileges and bridge security. The post Hacken Blames Private Key Leak for $250K Exploit, HAI Token Drops 99% appeared first on TheCoinrise.com .
