TAC Protocol Cross-Chain Bridge Exploit — White Hat Resolution

Timeline: On May 13, 2026, an attacker exploited a vulnerability on the TON side of TAC Protocol's cross-chain bridge, draining approximately $2.8M in assets (including USDT, BLUM tokens, and tsTON). TAC immediately paused the bridge upon detection. Within the following 24 hours, the team engaged with the hacker on-chain and offered a 10% bug bounty in exchange for the return of remaining funds. The hacker accepted, and TAC publicly relabeled the incident as a white hat operation. Importantly, TAC clarified that only the TON-side contracts were impacted; ERC-20 bridge counterparties on Ethereum and the native TAC token remained intact. The team published a post-mortem and committed to full compensation for affected users, financed through Foundation reserves. SEAL 911 and law enforcement were notified during the negotiation window as a precaution.