ZKsync tokens worth $5M swiped in admin account breach
The team says an attacker minted unclaimed tokens from ZKsync’s 2024 airdrop
CryptoFX/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
The Ethereum scaling-focused ZKsync team said one of their admin accounts was accessed and compromised, leading to the theft of over 100 million tokens.
The attacker swiped roughly 111 million ZK, or $5 million worth of the token, the ZKsync team said. This was the amount left unclaimed from the controversial ZK airdrop that took place in June last year.
The team said the incident is “isolated” and added that “all user funds are safe and have never been at risk.”
ZKsync later identified a wallet address believed to be in the attacker’s possession and explained that the perpetrator had called a function in the airdrop contract that minted the unclaimed tokens.
“The attacker called the sweepUnclaimed() function that minted approximately 111 million unclaimed ZK tokens from the aidrop [sic] contracts,” ZKsync’s X account said.
That wallet also moved over 1,000 ETH two days ago onto Ethereum’s mainnet. Its first transaction is from three days ago. DeBank data shows that the wallet holds $3.7 million in ZK and ETH tokens on ZKsync’s chain and $1.76 million in ETH on Ethereum’s mainnet as of Wednesday morning, meaning that wallet has a net worth of over $5.5 million.
We don’t know yet how the account was breached, nor do we know the identity of the attacker.
ZKsync co-inventor Alex Gluchowski wrote Tuesday morning: “We’re actively investigating this incident and will publish the full update once the investigation and recovery efforts are complete.”
Gluchowski also emphasized in a post: “No code was compromised — an operator key was compromised.”
Image: ZK token price in Pacific Time, showing a price plunge before the 6:49 am X post announcing the breach.
Some X users have accused the ZK breach of being an inside job (without showing evidence), while others have alleged that the ZK token is a scam in its entirety. Blockworks has reached out to ZKsync for comment, but did not receive a response by press time.
ZK’s price fell shortly after 6:30 am PT, right before the team’s first post about the breach at 6:49 am PT.
The token hit an all-time low of $0.041 on Tuesday.
By Wednesday morning, ZK’s price was up roughly 5% in the past 24 hours, but remains down 30% in the past month, per CoinGecko data.
Updated April 16, 2025 at 3:15 pm ET: Updated headline.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
