Cross-chain interoperability protocol Axelar has disabled its connection to Secret Network following an exploit that resulted in the loss of approximately $4.67 million in bridged assets.

In an update on June 19, Axelar said it had identified an incident affecting assets bridged over the Inter-Blockchain Communication [IBC] protocol from the Axelar chain to Secret Network. The team said the issue appears to be isolated to the Secret-side ICS-20 smart contract used in the Cosmos IBC connection between the two networks.

“Approximately $4.67M worth of tokens” were taken, according to the protocol.

Axelar said its emergency committee disabled the Secret and Secret-SNIP connections immediately after becoming aware of the incident.

The protocol also said it has contacted relevant exchanges and law enforcement agencies while investigations continue.

According to the initial assessment, the exploit is limited to assets bridged from Axelar to Secret Network through the affected IBC route. Axelar said no other IBC connections appear to be impacted and that no other Secret Network tokens have been affected.

The team further stated that Axelar’s core protocol remains unaffected.

“We’re preparing a detailed post-mortem,” the protocol said.

The incident highlights the complexity of cross-chain infrastructure, where vulnerabilities can arise within specific integrations rather than the underlying bridge network.

Axelar’s statement suggests the issue originated in the Secret-side ICS-20 contract associated with the Cosmos IBC connection, rather than within Axelar’s validator network or core interoperability infrastructure.

That distinction could become an important focus of the investigation as both ecosystems work to determine the root cause of the exploit.

The latest incident adds to a growing list of bridge-related security events across the crypto sector, where interconnected networks and smart contracts continue to present attractive targets for attackers.

At the time of publication, neither Axelar nor Secret Network had released a detailed technical explanation of how the exploit occurred.

• Axelar disabled its Secret Network connections after approximately $4.67 million in bridged assets was stolen.
• The protocol said the issue appears isolated to a Secret-side ICS-20 contract, while Axelar’s core infrastructure remains unaffected.