Overview: $36M Drain and 89% Token Collapse
Humanity Protocol founder Terence Kwok has confirmed that the project suffered an approximately $36 million hack, draining the treasury and causing the H token to plunge roughly 89% at its trough. Crucially, the attack did not exploit any smart contract flaw; instead, attackers compromised a developer laptop through a phishing email, stealing private keys that allowed them to mint and dump tokens across multiple chains.
Attack Details: Phishing-Breached Laptop Sidesteps On-Chain Defenses
According to Kwok, the attackers targeted a Humanity Foundation member via a spear-phishing email that installed malware on the developer's notebook. Once the private keys were exfiltrated, the attackers used cross-chain bridge functionality to mint an enormous supply of H tokens and rapidly sell them on various decentralized and centralized exchanges. The resulting sell-off pushed the token price from previous highs to near-zero levels within hours, devastating holders. Kwok emphasized that the incident was a security failure at the operational level rather than a protocol-level vulnerability.
Response and Strategic Pivot: Token Migration, Claims Process, and Enterprise AI
Acknowledging the bleak outlook for recovery, Kwok stated the team is pursuing a token migration to separate the new H token from the compromised old supply, along with a decentralized claims process to compensate affected users. They have also reported the incident to law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong and other jurisdictions, hoping for international cooperation in tracing the stolen funds.
More fundamentally, Humanity Protocol is undergoing a business transformation. Kwok announced that the project will shift away from its original 'identity + blockchain' positioning and instead focus entirely on enterprise AI products. Specifically, the team is developing identity and asset attestation solutions tailored for AI companies, aiming to provide compliant, verifiable infrastructure for AI agents and enterprises. This pivot effectively deprioritizes the original token economy in favor of a B2B SaaS-like model for the AI sector. Internal product development is already underway, with more details expected in the coming months.