Humanity Loses $31 Million, a Private Key Causes Token Price to Plunge 90%
On June 9th, the digital identity project Humanity Protocol suffered a major security breach resulting in over $31 million stolen from hundreds of wallets holding its H token. The attack was caused by the compromise of a private key belonging to a foundation member, leading the team to advise users against interacting with its bridge or liquidity pools.
Following the incident, the price of the H token plummeted by over 90%, from around $0.70 to a low of $0.052, wiping out a significant portion of its market capitalization. The attacker allegedly minted 100 million new H tokens and began selling them for BNB.
Humanity Protocol, founded in 2024, aimed to verify human users through palm-print biometrics and zero-knowledge proofs on Polygon CDK. Despite raising $50 million across two funding rounds and achieving a unicorn valuation, the project faced prior controversies. Shortly after its June 2025 token launch, reports emerged that only about 1 million of its 9 million registered IDs had completed biometric verification, suggesting 88% might be bots. Furthermore, allegations surfaced that the project might be a rebranded "shell" of a Chinese access control company, raising concerns about data privacy and authenticity.
The project's founder, Terence Kwok, has a controversial business history. His previous venture, Tink Labs, burned through $170 million in funding before collapsing in 2020.
The breach highlights the persistent critical risk of private key management in crypto. With no user compensation plan detailed in the initial response, the incident deals a severe blow to trust in a project already struggling with credibility issues.
Foresight News06/09 03:18