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06/10 09:26

$14 million missing in new attack on Bitcoin-based

$14 million missing in new attack on Bitcoin-based DeFi protocol

ALEX Protocol, a DeFi platform built on top of Bitcoin’s Stacks layer, has suffered a second major breach, this time resulting in losses of around $14 million.

The incident occurred just over a year after a previous attack in which $4.3 million was stolen via an inter-chain bridge.

The first reports of suspicious activity began to appear on social media, prompting the ALEX team to confirm a “security incident.” The project later published a detailed analysis, while the official website remains unavailable due to maintenance.

The vulnerability stems from a flaw in the way failed transactions are handled on the Stacks network. The hacker reportedly exploited the protocol’s inability to properly verify failed transactions by using rejected data to authorize unauthorized withdrawals.

Crypto security firm QuillAudits estimated the damage at around $14 million. Among the stolen assets were 63.5 variants of “wrapped” Bitcoin (aBTC and sBTC). The incident also rocked the broader Stacks ecosystem, with the price of ALEX plummeting by over 50% and STX – the network’s native token – falling by around 10%.

There was brief confusion over the stability of sBTC after data recorded a price deviation. However, a Stacks spokesperson clarified that the token remains stable when using official oracle data.

While the attack was isolated to ALEX, other projects in the Stacks ecosystem responded quickly. Pontis suspended its bridge to protect liquidity, and Bitflow removed the affected liquidity pools to prevent further risks.

This is not the first time ALEX has encountered a critical vulnerability. Last May, $4.3 million was withdrawn from the XLink bridge, with the breach believed to be related to a compromised private key. Following that incident, the team implemented various security improvements and migrated critical contracts, but apparently these measures were not enough to prevent this much more destructive exploit.

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