Garden Finance Hit by $450K Attack on Cross-Chain Bridge

Garden Finance's cross-chain bridge and atomic swap infrastructure were hit by an attacker who drained approximately $450,000 in USDT from hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) across multiple networks, according to Blockaid. The incident led to a temporary pause in Garden's services while the affected systems are isolated and reviewed.

Garden's position differs from the initial description of the breach: the company says its protocol and on-chain HTLC smart contracts were not compromised. Instead, Garden attributes the event to an intrusion into the off-chain database of an independent solver, where fraudulent transaction records were allegedly inserted, leading to incorrect swap releases.

The incident highlights a persistent vulnerability class for cross-chain systems: even with audited or well-designed on-chain escrow logic, operational processes and off-chain databases can become critical attack surfaces. Garden is working with multiple security firms to trace and recover the funds and expects to restore services shortly, contingent on completing security checks.

This incident follows a similar breach in October 2025, where an attacker stole about $11.4 million after compromising the operating environment of one of Garden's solvers. The company emphasized that its priorities are securing the affected systems, tracing the solver's funds, and resuming services only after relevant reviews are completed.