On April 15, 2025, the Ethereum Layer2 scaling solution ZKsync encountered a significant security incident. Hackers illegally minted 111 million unclaimed ZK tokens, worth approximately $5 million, by breaching the administrator account related to the airdrop contract. This incident triggered severe fluctuations in the ZK token price, which dropped over 15% at one point within 24 hours and is currently stabilizing at around an 8% decline. Nevertheless, the ZKsync team acted swiftly, emphasizing that the core protocol and user funds were unaffected, and committed to a comprehensive investigation to recover the losses.
Event Summary: Administrator Account Vulnerability Leads to Huge Losses
According to an official statement from ZKsync, hackers exploited a private key vulnerability in a single administrator account to invoke the “sweepUnclaimed()” function in the airdrop contract, illegally minting 111 million ZK tokens, which accounted for 0.45% of the total supply. These tokens were subsequently sold off, causing the ZK token price to plummet from $0.047 to $0.039, with trading volume surging by 143% to reach $87 million. Although the incident was limited to the airdrop contract and did not affect the core protocol, token contracts, or governance structure, there has been a growing outcry from the community regarding security management. Some users criticized ZKsync on the X platform for failing to implement stricter permission management during the airdrop distribution, questioning, “Why is there still a high permission entry for unclaimed tokens?”
The ZKsync security team quickly froze the attack path and collaborated with Security Alliance (SEAL 911) and several exchanges to trace the flow of the stolen funds. The team also publicly urged the attackers to contact security@zksync.io to negotiate the return of the funds, or they would face legal consequences. As of now, the attackers still hold most of the stolen tokens, and recovery efforts are ongoing.
Founder's Response: Core Protocol Secure, Investigation and Recovery Plans in Parallel
Alex Gluchowski, the founder of ZKsync and CEO of Matter Labs, issued a statement after the incident, emphasizing that “the ZKsync protocol, token contracts, and governance structure were not affected, and user funds remain secure.” He stated that the attack stemmed from the leakage of a single administrator account's key, rather than vulnerabilities in the core system code or contracts. Gluchowski promised that the team would release a detailed post-incident analysis report by April 17 and formulate a clear recovery plan to restore community and investor confidence.
Market and Community Reaction: Layer2 Projects Under Pressure
The attack led to a sharp decline in the ZK token price in the short term, significantly impacting market sentiment. According to AiCoin data, the current price of the ZK token is $0.05, with a market capitalization of approximately $173 million, and a 24-hour trading volume surged by 219.72% to reach $102 million. Although the price has slightly rebounded after the incident, it is still down about 12% from the intraday high, reflecting investor concerns over the circulation of newly minted tokens.
The community's reaction has been particularly intense. Some users expressed dissatisfaction with ZKsync's airdrop distribution mechanism on the X platform, arguing that the project failed to effectively filter Sybil attackers during the June 2024 airdrop, which has created security risks. Other users questioned the centralized permission design of administrator accounts in a decentralized network, believing it contradicts the decentralized ethos of blockchain.
More broadly, this incident has intensified the security pressure on Layer2 projects in 2025. According to Immunefi data, the cryptocurrency industry lost nearly $1.6 billion due to hacker attacks in the first two months of 2025, approaching the total for the entire year of 2024. ZKsync's experience is not an isolated case, as other recent Layer2 projects like EraLend have also suffered millions in losses due to contract vulnerabilities.
Future Outlook: Technological Upgrades and Rebuilding Ecosystem Confidence
Despite the challenges, ZKsync's position in the Layer2 space remains solid. As a scaling solution based on zero-knowledge proof (ZK-rollup) technology, ZKsync has attracted over $500 million in total value locked (TVL) due to its low-cost and high-speed transaction advantages. Its ecosystem encompasses DeFi, gaming, and AI applications, and it recently launched BoojumVM, aiming to achieve 10,000 transactions per second with transaction costs as low as $0.0001.
To address this crisis, ZKsync plans to rebuild investor confidence through a dual approach of technology and governance. In the short term, the team will prioritize recovering stolen funds and optimizing the security design of the airdrop contract. In the long term, ZKsync's decentralized governance reform and the introduction of multi-signature wallets are expected to reduce centralization risks and further strengthen its competitiveness in the Layer2 market.
This article represents the author's personal views and does not reflect the position or views of this platform. This article is for informational sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice to anyone.
AiCoin official website: aicoin.com
Telegram: t.me/aicoincn
Twitter: x.com/AiCoinzh
Email: support@aicoin.com
Group chat: Customer Service Yingying、Customer Service KK
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
