Taiko warns withdraw from bridges after $1M exploit

The Ethereum layer-2 scaling project Taiko has issued an urgent warning for users to withdraw funds from all bridges on its network after a security breach compromised its chain state verification mechanism. The incident, confirmed early on Monday, June 22, 2026, resulted in the theft of at least $1 million from a protocol vault.

Blockchain security firm Blockaid identified the root cause as a flaw in how the Taiko bridge validates source signals. The firm explained that crafted message proofs were accepted as valid on the Ethereum mainnet despite having no corresponding legitimate events on the Taiko source chain. This allowed an attacker to register and retrieve fraudulent bridge messages, leading to unauthorized asset releases from an ERC20 vault. While Blockaid initially estimated losses at over $1 million, other on-chain analysts suggested the figure could be as high as $1.7 million.

In response, Taiko stated the security assumptions behind its entire bridge system could no longer be relied upon. The project is coordinating with its Security Council and ecosystem partners to contain the incident. As an immediate precaution, Taiko has temporarily stopped its network...