The decentralized lending protocol Hyperdrive, operating in the Hyperliquid ecosystem, fell victim to a smart contract attack. As a result, the attacker managed to withdraw assets worth about $782K. This is already the third major security incident in the Hyperliquid network since its launch.
How the attack happened
The incident occurred on Sunday night. The hacker was able to drain two Hyperdrive pools — Primary USDT0 Market and Treasury USDT Market. In total, about 673K USDT0 stablecoins and 110,244 thBILL were stolen, with a combined value of $782K.
The stolen tokens were quickly converted by the attacker into assets on other networks — BNB and ETH — and then withdrawn from Hyperliquid.
According to CertiK, the cause was a vulnerable smart contract. The hacker “repeatedly used an arbitrary call in the router,” which allowed them to gradually withdraw funds.
Hyperdrive team’s response
The protocol developers promptly suspended market operations to prevent further losses. On Sunday, the team stated that the issue had been localized and the vulnerability fixed.
“We identified the root cause and fixed it. We have also identified affected accounts and will soon present a compensation plan,” Hyperdrive representatives said.
Details of the plan have not yet been disclosed, but users are promised compensation. At the time of the incident, according to DeFiLlama, about $21M was locked in the protocol.
Not the first failure in the Hyperliquid ecosystem
The Hyperliquid ecosystem has already faced major security issues. In March, one trader manipulated the price of the meme coin JELLYJELLY on the Solana blockchain, resulting in $12M in losses. Previously, another price attack cost the protocol $4M.
Thus, the Hyperdrive incident became the third major blow to Hyperliquid’s reputation in less than a year of the network’s operation.
What’s next?
Affected users are waiting for clarification and details of the compensation program. For Hyperdrive, the attack may become a test of resilience: loss of trust could slow the project’s growth, even though it remains relatively small compared to other protocols in the ecosystem.
For Hyperliquid itself, the series of hacks and manipulations raises questions about the maturity and reliability of the infrastructure. If the network wants to establish itself among the leading blockchains for derivatives, it will have to prove its ability to cope with security threats.
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