Attacker Drains $2.1 Million From Aztec Connect 3 Years After Its Shutdown

An attacker drained more than $2.1 million from Aztec Connect on June 14 by exploiting a flaw in the platform’s proof verification logic.

Blockchain security firm CertiK flagged the suspicious transaction on X (formerly Twitter).

Aztec Connect Exploit Nets Attacker $2.1 Million

CertiK said the exploit appears to stem from incomplete validation of submitted proof data. According to the security firm, one contract function verified only the beginning of the proof, while token transfer instructions embedded elsewhere in the data may not have been properly checked. This potentially allowed the attacker to manipulate withdrawals and drain approximately $2.19 million.

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#CertiKInsight 🚨We have detected a suspicious transaction that drained @aztecnetwork Router contract of ~$2.19M by 0x0f18d8b44a740272f0be4d08338d2b165b7edd17 on Ethereum.https://t.co/MizKXnEkTMStay Vigilant! pic.twitter.com/iUYMtenQYY

— CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) June 14, 2026

The Aztec Foundation said it was notified of a potential exploit involving Aztec Connect. The team stressed that the incident does not affect the AZTEC ERC-20 token or any smart contracts associated with the current Aztec network.

The foundation noted that Aztec Connect was deprecated three years ago. Thus, Aztec Labs no longer has any control over the system.

Aztec Labs also confirmed an active investigation. However, the team said it has no way to step in.

“Aztec Labs holds no admin keys or control over the system; it cannot be paused or upgraded by us,” the post read.

The incident came just days after a separate exploit on Raydium (RAY). The incident resulted in the loss of roughly $1.3 million after attackers drained five legacy liquidity pools on the Solana (SOL) network.

The attack adds to the growing list of exploits recorded this month, which have collectively resulted in losses of approximately $43.93 million, according to DeFiLlama.

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