Polkadot exploited as attacker mints 1 billion DOT, dumps for $237K, crashing price and halting trades.

An attacker exploited a vulnerability in Polkadot's Hyperbridge gateway contract on Ethereum by minting 1 billion fake DOT tokens, over 2,800 times the actual supply. They immediately sold these tokens for about 108.2 ETH ($237,000), causing the bridged DOT price to crash from $1.22 to nearly $1. In response, exchanges like Upbit suspended DOT deposits and withdrawals to prevent further damage. Developers are investigating the security flaw related to cross-chain message verification and working on fixes, while exchanges maintain restrictions until the risk is fully assessed.