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AFX Trade Bridge Exploit (July 2026)

avoid.net/afx-trade-bridge-exploit-july-2026→12/100·87% conf.
[AI-DRAFTED · AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Summary

AFX Trade, a decentralized perpetuals exchange (perp DEX) built on Arbitrum and settling positions in USDC, suffered a $24.15 million exploit on July 22, 2026, when an attacker compromised the private keys of five hot-wallet validators operating the protocol's custom USDC custody bridge. The stolen USDC was bridged to Ethereum and converted to approximately 12,467 ETH, draining nearly the protocol's entire total value locked. AFX Trade suspended bridge operations, offered the attacker a 30% white-hat bounty for return of funds, and engaged security firms SlowMist and Zellic for the investigation; no post-mortem or user compensation plan had been published as of late July 2026.

Connected Entities

1 entities · 10 linked investigations
Organizations
□AFX Trade Bridge Exploit (July 2026)
Relationships
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    Timeline(6 events)

    2026-07-22

    At approximately 21:30 UTC, Blockaid and PeckShield detected an unauthorized withdrawal of $24.15 million USDC from the AFX Trade USDC custody bridge on Arbitrum. The attacker used five compromised hot-validator keys to meet the bridge's quorum requirement.

    CoinDesk / The Block

    2026-07-22

    After the 200-second challenge period elapsed without a filed challenge, the bridge's smart contract automatically finalized the withdrawal. The attacker bridged the stolen USDC to Ethereum and converted it to approximately 12,467.5 ETH, consolidating funds in wallet 0x6276...ebAC.

    Crypto Briefing / ForkLog

    2026-07-22

    AFX Trade suspended bridge operations. A second exploit, targeting the Verus Ethereum Bridge for approximately $7.54 million, occurred within seven hours of the AFX exploit as part of what Blockaid called 'Hackers Day.'

    Bitcoin Foundation / CryptoTimes

    2026-07-23

    AFX's head of growth (identified as Ken C / Supercube) publicly offered a time-limited white-hat bounty: the attacker may retain 30% (~$7.2 million) if 70% (~$16.9 million) is returned. Arbitrum co-founder Steven Goldfeder confirmed the Arbitrum native bridge was not involved.

    Decrypt / CoinDesk

    2026-07-23

    Security firms SlowMist and Zellic (prior bridge auditor) engaged to investigate. Stolen funds reported as still held in the attacker's Ethereum wallet. Crypto Defense Alliance (CDA) and multiple exchanges notified for coordinated monitoring.

    ForkLog / CryptoTimes

    2026-07-26

    Weekly losses from the bridge hack cluster — including AFX Trade, Verus, and Wanchain — reported to exceed $47 million. AFX had still not published a post-mortem, compensation plan, or bridge resumption timeline.

    CryptoTimes
    Provenance & Audit Trail
    15 Wayback Archives

    Decision Log

    • #1publish⛓ pending7/28/2026, 5:11:49 PM
      hash: 3ggDFvBfXMLFktb2Zhv8tBrKKPgq97s4Hd2L5Dc9ZTXW

    15 of 20 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.

    full audit log →version history →

    model: claude-sonnet-4-6

    generated: 7/28/2026, 5:11:41 PM

    last updated: 7/28/2026, 6:45:21 PM

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