Hacken token collapsed by 99% due to hacking due to human error

Ukraine-based Hacken has admitted that a critical vulnerability in the $HAI smart contract was caused by “human error”. The leak of a private key with minting authority led to the unauthorized issuance of approximately 900 million tokens on Ethereum and BNB Chain – nearly doubling the circulating supply and triggering a price drop of almost 98%.

In an official statement on X (formerly Twitter), Hacken explained that the attacker used the access gained to instantly withdraw tokens via decentralized exchanges. While the hacker only managed to withdraw about $250,000, it was the massive supply dilution that posed the main threat. The capitalization of the $HAI token collapsed from $12.7 million to $7.2 million, according to CoinGecko.

Hacken co-founder and CEO Dima Budorin admitted personal responsibility: “Five years ago, I did not implement multisig infrastructure for the bridge. I understood the risks, but put off restructuring.” According to Budorin, despite the attack, the deplayer’s wallet was not compromised, and the team managed to revoke the rights to the vulnerable account.

Now the company is considering a tokenswap with compensation to holders. The project announced a “merger of $HAI with Hacken shareholders’ shares” worth more than $100 million. The details of the mechanism will be disclosed after the technical report on the incident is published.

It is noteworthy that in its own security report for the first quarter of 2025, Hacken pointed out that the main threat to Web3 is not code, but “people, processes and access rights. According to the report, such failures led to $1.6 billion in losses in the first three months of the year alone.