Private key exposure costs trader about $21M on Hyperliquid

A trader using the wallet address 0x0cdCE955 lost roughly $21 million in crypto on Hyperliquid after the wallet's private key was compromised, blockchain security firm PeckShield said on Friday. PeckShield’s onchain analysis found the attacker drained about $17.75 million in DAI and roughly $3.11 million in MSYRUPUSDP, then bridged the assets to the Ethereum network in a series of transfers that rapidly dispersed the funds across multiple addresses.

PeckShield said the theft resulted from a private key exposure that allowed the attacker to move funds directly from the victim’s wallet. The security firm tracked transactions showing the stolen tokens were relayed through several addresses, a technique commonly used to obscure origin and complicate recovery. PeckShield has not determined how the private key was obtained.

The breach affected a single user wallet rather than the Hyperliquid protocol itself, according to the security firm’s analysis. Still, the incident underscores the persistent risk that private key compromises pose in decentralized finance, where custody of assets rests with individual users. Industry security reports show that private key and front-end compromises...