Cross-chain yield platform Garden Finance has reportedly suffered a multi-chain exploit, with total losses topping $5.5 million. The incident was flagged by on-chain investigator ZachXBT, who said the attacker’s activity was traced to 0x98BCc6c34A489CEfdD9DfA8d792CFEFb02Ea2D12. According to his findings, the stolen assets were rapidly converted into tokens that are harder to freeze, a move commonly used to reduce the chances of fund recovery.
Stolen funds were quickly moved
The rapid conversion of the assets is a critical detail in the case. In many crypto exploits, attackers try to move funds into non-freezable or less censorable assets as fast as possible, making enforcement and clawback efforts much more difficult. While on-chain tracking may still reveal the path of the funds, actual recovery often becomes significantly harder once those swaps are completed.
In response, Garden Finance reportedly sent an on-chain message to the suspected attacker. The protocol offered a 10% white hat bounty in exchange for returning the stolen assets and helping fix the vulnerability. The approach suggests the team is attempting to open a negotiation channel rather than relying solely on technical or legal recovery options.
Past criticism adds to scrutiny
ZachXBT also pointed to a controversial backdrop surrounding the platform. He noted that he had recently criticized Garden Finance for ignoring user refund requests and claimed that more than 25% of the platform’s activity involved stolen funds. That context has intensified concerns about the project’s risk controls, monitoring standards, and broader due diligence around fund flows on the protocol.
As of now, Garden Finance has not released an official public statement about the exploit. Market observers are still waiting for more details on the affected chains, the assets involved, the root vulnerability, and whether any restitution or remediation plan will be announced. Until then, users are likely to watch both on-chain activity and future protocol updates closely.