Garden Finance Bleeds $5.5M in Multi-Chain DeFi Security Breach

Another day, another DeFi protocol learns the hard way that code isn't law—hackers are.

The $5.5M Hit

Garden Finance joins the growing club of protocols nursing eight-figure wounds. Attackers exploited cross-chain vulnerabilities, proving once again that interoperability comes with hidden costs. The multi-chain architecture designed to spread risk instead spread the attack surface.

Security Theater

While the team scrambles to patch holes and trace funds, users are left wondering when—not if—the next exploit will hit. The incident serves as yet another reminder that in DeFi, your yield farming gains are only as secure as the smart contracts you trust. Because nothing says 'financial revolution' like watching your liquidity evaporate in a single transaction.

ZachXBT points out Garden Finance has been used to launder hacked funds

Just before the Garden exploit, ZachXBT noted the protocol carried inflows from previous hacks. Up to 25% of the protocol’s activity has been linked to laundering stolen funds, coming from Bybit, Swissborg, and other hacks. 

The protocol boasted of breaking above $2B funds, but ZachXBT noted up to a quarter of those deposits came from hacks. 

“The Garden Finance team profited high 6 figures at minimum in fees generated from stolen funds via their bridge from the Bybit exploit, Swissborg theft, Chinese organized crime and other incidents,” wrote ZachXBT in a message to the hacker attached to the exploit transactions. He addressed the hacker for considering Garden’s earnings when estimating his bounty. 

ZachXBT also claimed Garden has not been cooperative in returning known exploit funds to the victims. The case of Garden Protocol follows a similar usage for ThorChain, which refused to freeze or mark funds from the Bybit exploit. 

The Garden Finance bridge carries around $2.5M in daily volumes, with around $2.52M in annualized revenues. 

SEED token crashes by 64%

In addition to the direct outflows from the hack, the SEED token incurred even bigger losses. 

SEED crashed by over 64% within minutes of the news, dropping to $0.19 and a market cap of just $2.5M. SEED is one of the smaller hauls from the bridge, quickly swapped through DEX, and caused the crash. 

The hacker sales crashed the thin market for SEED, which still relies on Uniswap pairs.

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