Taiko reopens bridge after $1.7M exploit; users restored

Taiko, an Ethereum layer-2 network, reopened its bridge on Thursday after an attacker exploited a vulnerability on June 21 and withdrew up to $1.7 million from the protocol’s Ethereum vault. The project reported that affected users have been reimbursed and that bridge operations have resumed.

The incident occurred when the chain-state verification mechanism accepted forged proofs, enabling unauthorized withdrawals. Blockchain security firms estimated the total loss at as much as $1.7 million. Taiko paused bridge activity immediately after detecting the compromise and initiated a recovery process.

Taiko completed an 11-day, four-stage recovery plan before restoring the bridge. The final stage included deploying code fixes and auditing the chain’s finalized state to confirm there were no forged checkpoints or remaining attacker claims that could be executed. Independent security experts reviewed the changes, which were submitted through the project’s security council.

The team replenished the bridge to restore 1:1 backing between assets issued on the layer-2 network and assets held on Ethereum. Conservative withdrawal quotas were introduced as a temporary precaution; project communications noted the limits should not prevent normal bridge transactions but did not disclose quota sizes. Taiko also announced it will publish a full postmortem describing the incident and the response.

The project has not disclosed whether any of the stolen assets were recovered. Market data showed Taiko’s token, TAIKO, briefly rose to about $0.35 after the reopening before falling back to roughly $0.14.

The exploit affected the bridge and the chain-state verification system, components that enable token transfers between Ethereum and layer-2 networks. The project focused its public updates on technical remediation steps, user reimbursement and next steps for publishing a detailed incident report.