Garden Finance disables app after $450K exploit report
Garden Finance disables app access after blockchain security firm Blockaid reported an attacker drained about $450,000 in USDT from the protocol’s HTLC contracts across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum and BNB Smart Chain. The cross-chain bridging service said it detected unusual activity and is investigating while the app stays offline.
Key Takeaways
- Garden Finance temporarily took its app offline after Blockaid flagged an HTLC exploit.
- Blockaid said roughly $450,000 in USDT was drained across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum and BNB Smart Chain.
- The firm said the exploit was ongoing when it published its alert and did not confirm whether user funds were affected.
- Garden said it detected “unusual activity” and is running a full investigation.
- The incident follows an October 2025 breach in which about $11.4 million was stolen from a solver environment.
What happened, and why does Garden Finance disabling the app matter?
Cross-chain bridging and atomic swap protocol Garden Finance temporarily took its app offline after Blockaid reported an exploit against the protocol’s hash time-locked contracts, or HTLCs, on four networks.
For users and traders watching Fintech & Crypto Alerts, the shutdown is a clear operational signal: Garden is pausing access while it investigates unusual activity rather than leaving the front end live during an active security event.
According to Cointelegraph’s report, Blockaid published the alert on Sunday and Garden confirmed separately that its app remained temporarily offline.
How did Blockaid describe the $450,000 exploit?
Blockaid said an attacker drained about $450,000 in USDT from Garden’s HTLC contracts on Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum and BNB Smart Chain.
HTLCs are time-bound escrow contracts that Garden uses to facilitate atomic swaps between Bitcoin and assets on other networks. Blockaid described the exploit as ongoing when it published its alert.
The security firm did not disclose the suspected vulnerability and did not say whether the incident affected user funds. Its alert included addresses associated with the attacker and the affected contracts.
What has Garden Finance said, and is this its first major incident?
Garden said it had detected “unusual activity” and was conducting a full investigation while the app stayed temporarily offline. Garden Finance and Blockaid both acknowledged Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
The episode follows an October 2025 breach in which an attacker stole about $11.4 million after compromising the operating environment of one of Garden’s solvers. Garden said that earlier breach did not affect its protocol contracts or put user funds at risk.
Until Garden and Blockaid provide more detail on the root cause and fund status, users should treat the app outage as a protective pause and monitor official channels for updates on the HTLC incident.