A quadrillion‑token mint exploit caused MAP Protocol [MAPO] to plunge 96%, dropping from $0.003 to $0.0001. An all-time low price for the altcoin reflected panicked market sentiment following an inflationary attack of unprecedented scale in recent hours.
The attacker had tricked Butter Bridge, the cross-chain bridge built on the MAP Protocol, into minting 1 quadrillion MAPO tokens. This was nearly 5 million times the 208 million supply. The minted tokens were sent to a new externally owned account (EOA).
In an hour, MAP Protocol announced in a post on X that the team was “aware and coordinating with external security partners on investigation and containment.” The announcement also detailed that the bridge between mainnet MAPO and MAPO ERC-20 was paused.
Butter Bridge also reiterated the message and stressed that user funds were not at risk. Pending swaps were held, the post assured.
How did the exploit occur?
The attack was more than a compromised private wallet; it originated from the Solidity contract layer. According to blockchain security firm Blockaid, the attacker first submitted a legitimate oracle multisig‑signed message.
They then deployed a malicious contract to a targeted address and resent a manipulated retry message. Because the message produced the same hash structure, it appeared valid and enabled the exploit.
The bridge was thus tricked into the massive token mint.
Team will announce a new contract address
The attacker used the EOA to dump nearly a billion MAPO tokens onto Uniswap liquidity pools, draining nearly 52 ETH worth $180k, Blockaid reported. The attacker also controls close to a trillion tokens.
This meant the MAP Protocol had to pause mainnet operations and start a migration process to a new contract address that will be announced soon.
It was reported that the latest exploit comes in a month when at least 18 DeFi and blockchain protocols were compromised, including THORChain [RUNE] and RetoSwap.
Therefore, cross-chain infrastructure remains the Achilles’ heel of DeFi, even in 2026.
Final Summary
- MAP Protocol faced an attack in which Butter Bridge was tricked into minting a quadrillion MAPO tokens, and a billion tokens were dumped.
- The attack forced the MAP Protocol to pause mainnet operations and commence migration. It also exposed the fragility of cross-chain infrastructure.
