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Polkadot (DOT)’s token saw a sharp, sudden drop after an exploit allowed an attacker to mint a massive amount of tokens on Ethereum (ETH) and immediately sell them. The move triggered a fast sell-off, briefly pushing DOT down over 7% before a partial recovery. The incident highlights ongoing risks around cross-chain infrastructure rather than the core network itself.

Bridge exploit mints and dumps 1B DOT

Indeed, on-chain data flagged by Arkham on April 13, shows that an attacker minted 1 billion bridged DOT tokens via a vulnerability in the Hyperbridge gateway. The attacker quickly sold the tokens into liquidity pools, extracting roughly 108 ETH, or about $237,000.

Further confirmation came from CertiK, which said the exploit stemmed from a flaw that allowed forged messages to pass validation checks. This enabled the attacker to manipulate admin permissions on the token contract and mint assets without proper authorization.

The exploit didn’t impact Polkadot’s core chain, but rather a third-party bridge implementation on Ethereum, where the synthetic version of DOT was created and traded.

Price reaction shows liquidity fragility

Against this backdrop, DOT dropped from around $1.24 to near $1.15 within minutes as the minted tokens hit the market. Though the dollar value extracted was relatively small, the size of the mint event spooked traders and triggered rapid selling pressure.

Currently, DOT is changing hands at $1.17, down 4.6% on the day, losing 8% across the week, and accumulating a decline of 18.9% in the past month, according to the most recent price chart information.

Liquidity conditions amplified the move. Even though only a fraction of the minted supply was effectively realized in profit, the headline figure of “1 billion tokens” was enough to shake confidence across smaller trading pools.

The token has since stabilized, but the event reinforces a familiar pattern in the crypto market: exploits tied to bridges and wrapped assets can move prices quickly, even when the underlying network remains unaffected.