Garden Finance Refutes $5.5M Exploit Claims as ZachXBT Uncovers On-Chain Evidence

Garden Finance denies $5.5M hack as ZachXBT shares on-chain evidence

Garden Finance, a Bitcoin-native DeFi bridge, has claimed it was not hacked despite allegations of a $5.5 million exploit. Blockchain analyst ZachXBT has provided on-chain evidence suggesting otherwise. The co-founder of Garden insists only a single “solver” was affected, maintaining that user funds are safe.

Key Takeaways

Garden Finance maintains its protocol was not hacked; only one "solver" experienced a breach, keeping user funds secure.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT provides evidence indicating that Garden's deployer wallet recognized a broader compromise across several chains.

Conflicting Views on Garden Finance Exploit

Tensions are escalating around Garden Finance after reports surfaced that the DeFi bridge experienced a serious exploit exceeding $5 million on Thursday. Although the project claims it was not a victim of a hack, ZachXBT, a blockchain investigator, has shared evidence from on-chain data that appears to contradict this assertion.

Garden’s co-founder @punkaj took to X to state firmly, “Garden has NOT been hacked,” clarifying the situation by saying that only one of its solvers—entities that manage cross-chain swaps—was breached.

Garden Finance Statement after the hack
Source: X
“The impact is limited to the solver’s own inventory. Protocol, users, and their funds remain safe,” he asserted, noting that the application has been temporarily taken offline for a thorough investigation.

In response, ZachXBT shared a screenshot of an alleged on-chain message sent from a Garden deployer address to the hacker.

ZachXBT's response to Garden Finance
Source: X
The message, which is recorded on Ethereum block 23,690,488, indicated that Garden’s systems were "compromised across multiple blockchains, including but not limited to Arbitrum," and included a 10% white-hat bounty for returning the stolen assets.

ZachXBT commented, “This looks like an attempt to downplay the incident,” implying that the compromised solver might actually be linked to a member of the Garden team.

Previous Controversies Re-emerge

This situation is not the first instance of allegations against Garden Finance. ZachXBT had previously accused the platform of laundering funds related to the $1.4 billion Bybit hack, an event that is supposedly associated with North Korea's Lazarus Group. He suggested that over 75% of Bridge volume from April to July was connected to illicit activities. Garden Finance has since dismissed these claims, describing them as “misleading.”

What Lies Ahead for Garden Finance?

As of now, the protocol remains offline, and a comprehensive postmortem analysis has yet to be released. Intriguingly, early tracking by PeckShield has identified five linked addresses that are holding around $5.8 million in stolen funds.

Users are strongly advised against interacting with Garden’s contracts until a full investigation has been completed. This incident amplifies concerns surrounding DeFi bridge vulnerabilities in 2025, highlighting ongoing risks within multi-chain infrastructures.