ZetaChain halts cross-chain activity after GatewayEVM attack; DefiLlama pegs losses at ~$300K
ZetaChain has temporarily suspended cross-chain transactions on its mainnet after detecting an exploit targeting its GatewayEVM contract — the primary entry point for routing interactions between EVM-compatible networks and apps on ZetaChain. The team said the pause is a precautionary measure while it investigates the incident.
According to ZetaChain, the attack only affected internal team wallets and the team has already closed the vulnerability to prevent further compromise. “Investigation is still ongoing, and at this time no user funds were impacted by this attack,” the project said, adding it plans to publish a full post-mortem.
External tracking data from DefiLlama estimates the exploit caused roughly $300,000 in losses; ZetaChain has not confirmed an exact figure. ZetaChain’s status page showed cross-chain transactions remained paused as of 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday — about nine hours after the team first identified the issue.
Launched in early 2024, ZetaChain positions itself as a universal Layer 1 focused on interoperability, linking networks such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Polygon. The GatewayEVM contract is a key component for enabling cross-chain activity between EVM-compatible chains and ZetaChain applications, which is why the team moved quickly to halt transfers.
The incident arrives amid a string of DeFi security breaches. Most notably, the LayerZero-powered Kelp DAO bridge exploit drained roughly $292 million and generated bad debt on Aave; DefiLlama data indicate at least 10 additional attacks on DeFi projects since then.
What to watch: ZetaChain’s promised post-mortem for details on the attack vector, the final loss tally, and when cross-chain operations will safely resume.
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