Truebit’s native token TRU crashes 99.9% following $26M exploit

The Truebit Protocol was hacked on Thursday, as on-chain data showed that an anonymous wallet (0x6C8EC8f1) received approximately 8,535 ETH. The hack resulted in an estimated loss of approximately $26.44 million at current Ethereum prices.

Blockchain security platform Cyvers flagged the suspicious on-chain transaction, stating that its real-time monitoring systems had detected the transfer. The security firm said the transaction triggered alerts due to unusual behavioral patterns. 

Cyvers says Truebit’s transaction meets its criteria for anomalous behavior

Cyvers also acknowledged that its system’s detection models identified elevated risk indicators in the transaction. The security platform argued that the transfers were inconsistent with typical transactions associated with Truebit.

Initial findings found that more than 8,500 ETH was withdrawn from Truebit in a single transaction. Cyvers also revealed that approximately 50% of the funds moved through Tornado Cash in a short period of time.

Truebit Protocol acknowledged that it’s aware of the security threat incident involving one or more malicious actors. The firm has not issued an official explanation regarding the purpose of the transaction, but has confirmed that it is in contact with law enforcement to address the situation.

Truebit verifies complex computations off-chain, preventing the execution of heavy calculations on Ethereum. The firm then verifies the correctness of the calculations using cryptography.

Cyvers revealed that it continues to monitor the address, seeking to identify potential related transactions associated with the movement of the funds. The security firm didn’t confirm the activity as a hack but maintained that the transaction was marked as anomalous activity.

The incident immediately caused a 100% drop in the price of TRU. At the time of publication, the asset is trading at $0.072.

2025 was a record-breaking year for crypto crime; however, last month recorded a 60% drop in losses from hacks and cybersecurity incidents. Blockchain security firm Peckshield reported that the losses declined from $194.2 million in November to $76 million in December.

The security firm revealed that last month saw only two major losses, including $50 million stolen from a wallet through address poisoning. The attackers generated identical addresses similar to those with which the victim had previously engaged, then worked to poison the victim’s transaction history. The perpetrators trick the victim into mistakenly sending digital assets to the lookalike address. The other loss resulted from an incident in which attackers drained more than $27.3 million from a single wallet due to a private key leak.

Chainalysis reports an increase in crypto crime in 2025

Chainalysis revealed in its end-of-year report that the crypto space recorded over $3.4 billion in digital asset theft from January to December 2025. The firm also acknowledged that Bybit’s February hack by the North Korean hacker group, Lazarus, accounted for $1.5 billion of the total. 

DRP-linked hackers are believed to have stolen approximately $2 billion in 2025 alone. The analytics firm acknowledged that North Korean hackers have been the most destructive yet in the past year.

Chainalysis also reported that illegal digital asset addresses received approximately $154 billion in transactions last year. The amount represents a 162% increase year-over-year. The analytics firm argued that the surge was mainly driven by a 694% rise in the value received by sanctioned entities. 

Chainalysis found that there’s a shift in the types of assets involved in illegal crypto activities. The firm revealed that stablecoins are the most preferred assets for crypto crime. According to the report, blockchain-based dollars account for 84% of all illicit transaction volume. 

The analytics company also reported that illicit actors are increasingly relying on infrastructure providers, including domain registrars and bulletproof hosting services, to partake in illegal cyber activity. Chainalysis believes the totals of crypto crime will be higher a year from now as the firm continues to incorporate historical data into its estimates.

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