Axelar says $4.7 million stolen in Secret Network bridge hack

Blockchain interoperability network Axelar on Friday disclosed a security incident impacting assets bridged over IBC from the Axelar chain to Secret Network, resulting in the loss of approximately $4.7 million in tokens.

We have identified an incident affecting assets bridged over IBC to Secret Network from the Axelar chain, with approximately $4.67M worth of tokens taken. Based on current information, the issue is isolated to the Secret-side ICS-20 smart contract of the Cosmos IBC connection…

— Axelar Network (@axelar) June 19, 2026

Secret Network is a standalone blockchain designed for privacy-by-default smart contracts, where transaction data is encrypted while code remains verifiable on-chain. Through its integration with Axelar, it enables private cross-chain communication, allowing applications to support use cases like confidential DeFi trading, private NFT transactions, and anonymous governance.

Axelar said early findings suggest the issue is isolated to the Secret-side ICS-20 smart contract used in the Cosmos IBC connection between Secret and Axelar for assets transferred from Axelar to Secret.

As an immediate precaution, the Axelar emergency committee disabled the Secret and Secret-SNIP connections. The team has also contacted relevant exchanges and law enforcement authorities.

The company stated that the incident is isolated to assets on Secret bridged from Axelar and that no other IBC connections, Secret tokens, or Axelar integrations appear to be impacted. Axelar’s core protocol was not affected, according to the team.

Axelar said it is continuing its investigation and plans to release a detailed post-mortem.