Wormhole bridge exploit on 2022-02-02
Bridge exploit on Solana, Ethereum, 2 Feb 2022. Last verified 4 Nov 2026.
critical
Reported loss
Not stated
no amount published
Recovered
-
nothing reported
Status
Unknown
updated 26 Oct 2026
Date
Solana, Ethereum
Summary
On 2022-02-02 an attacker abused a flaw in the Wormhole bridge's core contract on Solana to mint unbacked wETH and bridged it back to Ethereum; the Wormhole Foundation later cited the case in the design of its Governor safeguard.
- Protocol
- Wormhole
- Type
- Bridge exploit
- Reported loss
- not stated
Facts and where they come from
| Fact | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Feb 2, 2022 | github.com ↗ |
| Cause | vulnerability in the Solana core smart contract exploited to mint wETH | github.com ↗ |
Primary sources
- Wormhole Foundation GitHub: Governor whitepaper (background on the Feb 2022 exploit) ↗ post-mortem · accessed 2026-11-04
Our own summary of facts published by the sources above. We do not attribute fault beyond them. Amounts are as the sources state them (no USD conversion by us); links and quoted figures last checked 2026-11-04.
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