Garden
Last changed 2026-11-01 · Fact-check review — Fact-check review (verdict: revise): the reviewer checked the page's claims against its sources; the trust score did not change. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| The subject's own conduct | -40 |
| Concerns that are not fraud | -3.2 |
| Incidents it suffered (e.g. hacks) | -18 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -1.4 |
| Long-running | +10 |
| Regulated | +5 |
| Sum | 17 |
- No established finding that it defrauded anyone, so it stays out of the red band (26 or above).
Score: 26/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Page reliability: Fact-checked 2026-11-01 · 6 of 8 claims confirmed · 2 need better sources
anchored·2Vzre7…dtDRSummary
Garden Finance (garden.finance) is a Bitcoin cross-chain bridge and swap protocol launched in 2023 by former Ren Protocol core developers, using Hashed Timelock Contracts (HTLCs) and an intents-based solver network to enable non-custodial swaps across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, Base and other chains. In June and July 2025, blockchain investigator ZachXBT alleged that a large share of Garden's volume and fees came from laundering funds stolen in the February 2025 Bybit hack attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group, which Garden disputed. On October 30-31, 2025, one of its largest solver operators was compromised through a leaked private key and roughly $11.4 million was stolen, with part of it later moved through Tornado Cash; post-incident analysts linked the attacker to a North Korea-affiliated threat actor.
Incidents (1)
Connected Entities
15 entities · 60 linked investigations- Ethereum→mentioned with→Coinbase(60%)
- Ethereum→mentioned with→Bitcoin(60%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Ethereum(70%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Bitcoin(65%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Binance(60%)
- ZachXBT→mentioned with→Bybit(70%)
- Binance→mentioned with→Ethereum(65%)
- Garden Finance→mentioned with→Arbitrum(70%)
- Garden Finance→mentioned with→Bitcoin(80%)
- Garden Finance→mentioned with→Binance(60%)
- + 54 more
Timeline(15 events)
2017
Republic Protocol (later Ren Protocol), predecessor to Garden Finance, is founded in Australia and raises about $67 million. Founders are given as Taiyang Zhang, Loong Wang and Jaz Gulati on one page, with Susruth Nadimpalli added on the other.
The RegisterNovember 2022
FTX and Alameda Research collapse; Ren Protocol shuts down, stranding about $12 million in user Bitcoin. Gulati and Nadimpalli begin work on Garden Finance.
Yahoo FinanceDecember 2023
Garden Finance publicly launches as a Bitcoin cross-chain bridge using HTLC atomic swaps and an intents-based solver network, positioned as a successor to Ren Protocol.
Ren ProjectJanuary 2024
SEED governance token launches with a total supply of 147 million tokens; team and investor allocations are subject to a 24-month cliff.
Garden Finance docs: tokenomicsFebruary 2025
Bybit is hacked in an attack attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group; about 401,347 ETH is stolen (valued at $1.46 billion or about $1.4 billion, depending on the source). ZachXBT later alleges $160 million of the stolen funds transited Garden within 48 hours.
The Crypto TimesJune 2025
ZachXBT alleges that more than 80% of Garden Finance's recent fee revenue came from moving Lazarus-linked Bybit hack proceeds, and that 16 wallets connected to the hack executed synchronized transactions through the protocol.
The Crypto TimesJune 2025
Co-founder Jaz Gulati disputes the allegations, saying 30 BTC in fees were collected before the Bybit hack and citing the integration of screening tools.
BitDegreeJuly 2025
ZachXBT publishes a broader analysis alleging that 25% or more of Garden's total historical volume is linked to stolen assets, with six-figure profits from illicit flows between April and July 2025.
Yahoo FinanceOctober 2025
An attacker gains access to the private key infrastructure of one of Garden's largest solver operators via a leaked key, with SSH access from IP addresses in Japan and China, and drains solver assets across Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum and BNB Chain. Garden temporarily shuts down its app.
DecryptOctober 2025
Garden acknowledges the breach, says user funds are safe and offers a 10% white-hat bounty (about $1.1 million). ZachXBT alleges the on-chain message to the attacker came from a Garden team deployer address and that the solver was team-operated; Garden denies it.
The RegisterOctober 2025
Loss estimates rise from about $5.5 million in initial reports to about $10.8-11.4 million; stolen tokens are reported as wETH, WBTC, cbBTC, LBTC and SEED.
HalbornNovember 2025
CertiK reports that the exploiter moved about $6.65 million (501 BNB and 1,910 ETH) to Tornado Cash; about $1.8 million in SOL and $500,000 in EVM funds remain in attacker-controlled addresses.
AMBCryptoNovember 2025
zeroShadow assesses the laundering patterns as consistent with North Korea-affiliated DangerousPassword (CryptoCore / Sapphire Sleet / UNC1069); the Ernst & Young forensic work identifies a private key leak as the root cause (dated January 2026 on the other page).
DecryptJanuary 2026
Garden publishes forensic findings from Ernst & Young and zeroShadow: unauthorized server access from IP addresses in Japan and China on October 30, 2025, a leaked private key on a compromised device, and links to DangerousPassword. No funds recovered.
DecryptDecision Log
- slot 464267163 · hash 4j54prLEMqSGKa8A5jUtDREz3E6X4fhtD2Coqqfri9Mi
- slot 464267157 · hash 5MyMNmyU5mbZC44PntYcyFmKFVtfBA6WRKmnhiYA3acM
- slot 464266865 · hash Fe9VBSW2GDwmVKwTWgA8yt2DRpMdpzNXTRWUoVcRbnrF
- slot 455369354 · hash 2ZvWZ8svHvWfuwPxXjPJf6PqxjhpWDbKy6LE8mmpmFCC
- slot 420904985 · hash 2VeoMfD44GqU4MMqwqTBWrvcoNyzC2rG2U51YAgBzvPh
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (5 decisions). 14 of 18 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-merge-writer
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:20 AM
last updated: 11/1/2026, 10:53:49 PM
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