Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has concluded that the $31 million exploit affecting Humanity Protocol was not an insider theft. After analyzing how the stolen funds were moved, he determined that the incident stemmed from a genuine private key compromise rather than a scheme orchestrated by the project team.
The initial suspicion of insider involvement arose because of unusual market-making and over-the-counter trades occurring just before the June 25 token unlock. However, ZachXBT now believes these activities were unrelated to the security breach. The hacker likely exploited an already inflated token price, which had been driven up by aggressive trading in the weeks leading up to the attack.
On June 9, attackers drained over 17 wallets associated with Humanity Protocol, causing the H token to lose more than 80% of its value. The perpetrator converted roughly $23.7 million into Ethereum, with about $7.9 million remaining in H. Later, on BNB Smart Chain, the attacker gained proxy administrator rights and minted an additional 100 million H tokens, valued at around $12.9 million.
Humanity Protocol CEO Terence Kwok confirmed that a private key belonging to a foundation member was compromised. He advised users to avoid interacting with the project’s bridge or liquidity pools while investigations continued. Despite the clarification, questions persist about the project’s market-making agreements and the token’s price manipulation before the hack.
H reached an all-time high of $0.844 on June 2 but plummeted to about $0.123 after the exploit, with trading volume surging past $605 million. The scheduled token unlock on June 25 may have contributed to the vulnerability, as some early investors chose immediate release over longer vesting.