Incident case
ChainSwap July 2, 2021 exploit
An attacker exploited the ChainSwap bridge and withdrew assets from wallets that had interacted with it. The team froze the bridge and nodes, deployed a fix, and estimated total damage at approximately $800,000.
reviewedcurrent
Incident facts
- Incident title
- ChainSwap July 2, 2021 exploit
- Bridge
- ChainSwap
- Incident date
- 2021-07-02
- Incident type
- Exploit
- Major incident
- Yes
- Affected chains
- Ethereum, BNB Chain, Unknown
- Affected assets
- Unknown
- Attack category
- Cross Chain Contract Exploit
- Reported loss
- Approximately $800,000
- Recovery
- Partial Recovery
- Reimbursement
- In Progress
- Restart
- Reopened
- Current outcome
- Active After Incident
- Resolution
- Unresolved
- Last reviewed
- 2026-06-15
- Last verified
- 2026-06-15
Timeline events
ChainSwap froze the bridge after the first July exploit2021-07-02
ChainSwap reported freezing the bridge and shutting down nodes after detecting anomalous withdrawals, with a fix deployed shortly afterward.
ChainSwap announced treasury-funded compensation2021-07-04
The team said affected users would be compensated from the ChainSwap treasury and described full compensation as almost complete.
Evidence records
- ChainSwap post-mortem and compensation planChainSwap · Tier 1 · 2021-07-04
Known unknowns
- The final compensated amount and completion date remain unverified.