ZetaChain pauses cross-chain activity after GatewayEVM attack; DefiLlama flags ~$300K loss
ZetaChain has temporarily suspended cross-chain transactions on its mainnet after discovering an attack targeting its GatewayEVM contract — the protocol’s primary entry point for routing activity between EVM-compatible networks and apps. The team says the halt is a precaution while investigators work to contain the incident and assess damage.
According to ZetaChain, the exploit impacted only internal team wallets, and engineers have already closed the attack path to prevent further compromise. “As a precaution, cross-chain transactions are currently paused on ZetaChain,” the team posted. “Investigation is still ongoing, and at this time no user funds were impacted by this attack.”
Data aggregator DefiLlama reports roughly $300,000 in losses tied to the incident; ZetaChain has not confirmed a precise figure and said it will publish a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete. ZetaChain’s status page showed cross-chain functionality remained paused as of 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday — about nine hours after the team first detected the breach.
Launched in early 2024, ZetaChain positions itself as a universal Layer 1 focused on interoperability, connecting networks including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Polygon. The GatewayEVM contract plays a central role in enabling those cross-chain interactions, which helps explain the team’s swift decision to pause transfers.
The event arrives amid a spate of recent DeFi security incidents — most notably the LayerZero-powered Kelp DAO bridge exploit that drained roughly $292 million and generated bad debt on Aave. DefiLlama data indicates at least 10 DeFi projects have been attacked since that high-profile breach, underscoring continued risks across cross-chain infrastructure.
What to watch next: ZetaChain’s updates and the promised post-mortem for a full breakdown of the vulnerability, exact losses and remediation steps.
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