Compromised admin key fuels panic as millions in unclaimed airdrop tokens are dumped onto Ethereum.
Key Highlights:
• ZKsync confirms $5 million in ZK tokens stolen through a compromised admin account.
• ZK price plunges by 20% after 1.7M tokens bridged to Ethereum and partially sold.
Yello ParadiseSquad, ZKsync just took a major reputational hit, and the market felt it fast. The platform’s security team revealed that a compromised admin key allowed unauthorized access to around $5 million worth of unclaimed airdrop tokens.
The breach was confined to the airdrop contract and did not affect user funds or protocol infrastructure, but that didn’t stop the ZK token from bleeding.
Roughly 1.7 million ZK tokens were quickly bridged to Ethereum, swapped, and partially deposited into a HitBTC address. Traders reacted immediately, sending the token price into a sharp nosedive. At one point, ZK had dropped over 20% in a matter of hours, later recovering slightly to settle at a daily decline of 8.3%, trading near $0.0456, according to CoinMarketCap.
Users Safe, But Trust is Wounded
ZKsync emphasized in its public statement that user funds were never at risk, and that the breach was strictly limited to the unclaimed portion of the airdrop. Still, the optics are hard to ignore. This incident revives concerns from June 2024, when the ZK airdrop faced backlash for poor Sybil attack filtering, leaving many real users with little or no allocation.
Though the protocol’s core functions remain unaffected, the breach is a reminder of how even high-profile projects are vulnerable at the operational level. ZKsync has promised a full post-mortem and says it’s taking “all necessary steps” to reinforce internal security procedures going forward.
A Rebound or a Trap?
While the price has clawed back some losses, don’t assume the worst is over. Panic selloffs often give way to fake bounces, especially when stolen assets are still in motion. Smart traders know to wait, watch the on-chain data, and avoid emotional entries in moments like this.
This might look like a dip, but it could be the setup for another flush.
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