Garden Finance Shuts Down App After Hackers Drain $450K in USDT

Garden Finance, a cross-chain bridge and atomic swap protocol, has temporarily suspended its app after hackers exploited an off-chain database breach in one of its solvers.

The attackers inserted fake transaction records into the compromised solver's database, tricking it into releasing funds for swaps that were never funded. The stolen USDT assets totaled around $450,000 across various chains, including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum and BNB Chain.

Garden Finance emphasized that its protocol contracts and user funds were unaffected by the breach, as they are secured by HTLC (hash time-locked contract) smart contracts. The stolen funds belonged to the compromised solver, not users.

The company has partnered with security firms zeroShadow, Quantstamp, and Blockaid to trace and recover the stolen assets. Garden Finance paused services as a precautionary measure while it isolates and reviews the affected infrastructure.