Cysic bridge exploiter sends $744,000 to Tornado Cash after 10% bounty offer

By Khal · · 1 min read

Editorial illustration: Silver Ethereum symbols, gold faceted tokens and stone debris tumble from a broken arched bridge into a large teal and silver vortex.
AI-generated editorial illustration · AI-generated editorial illustration · Published Oct 23, 2026, 11:19 a.m. (43 minutes ago)

In brief

  • Exploit wallet sent 300 ETH and 30.4 BNB to Tornado Cash, according to PeckShield.
  • The roughly $744,000 transfer followed the Cysic Foundation's 10% bounty offer.
  • Attacker minted 10 million CYS tokens on BNB Smart Chain via a bridge flaw.
  • Cysic froze about 2.8 million tokens and says its mainnet wasn't affected.
  • Cysic didn't respond to Cointelegraph's request for comment.

What went into the mixer

PeckShield's data shows the address moved 300 ETH and 30.4 BNB to the crypto mixer, Cointelegraph reported. Those two transfers make up the roughly $744,000 figure.

Tornado Cash pools deposits from multiple addresses. That's what makes funds harder to trace once they've gone in, and it's why a deposit like this one draws attention from security firms tracking a hack.

Very little is left behind. The attacker's Ethereum wallet held just $45 in ETH at press time, according to Akham data cited by Cointelegraph.

How the Cysic exploit started

The incident began on a Saturday. According to the Cysic Foundation, as reported by Cointelegraph, the hacker exploited a bridge vulnerability to mint 10 million Cysic (CYS) tokens on BNB Smart Chain.

Cysic suspended the bridge and blacklisted the recipient address, a step that froze about 2.8 million of the newly minted tokens (the foundation's figure). The foundation also said its mainnet and existing assets in user wallets weren't affected by the exploit.

A 10% offer, then Tornado Cash

On the following Thursday, the Cysic Foundation offered the hacker a 10% bounty in exchange for returning 275.872 ETH (worth about $665,000), an amount representing roughly 90% of the identified Ether proceeds. The Tornado Cash transfer of 300 ETH and 30.4 BNB followed on Friday.

That's the full sequence laid out in Cointelegraph's report: a bridge exploit on Saturday, a bounty offer on Thursday and a mixer deposit on Friday. It doesn't say what Cysic plans to do next on recovery.

Cointelegraph contacted the Cysic Foundation for comment on its fund recovery efforts and didn't receive a response by publication.

Related stories