Our team has uncovered a situation involving assets transferred from the Axelar chain to the Secret Network via IBC, resulting in the removal of approximately $4.67M worth of tokens. The latest information indicates that this vulnerability is strictly confined to the Secret-side ICS-20 smart contract. This specific contract manages the Cosmos IBC connection utilized for bridging assets from Axelar over to Secret.

The moment this event was brought to our attention, the Axelar emergency committee took swift action to deactivate both the Secret and Secret-SNIP connections. We want to reassure our community that the Axelar core protocol remains completely secure and untouched. Furthermore, this occurrence is uniquely isolated to those specific assets on Secret bridged via IBC from Axelar. We have confirmed that no alternative IBC connections, other Secret tokens, or any other Axelar integrations have been compromised in any way.

To address the situation comprehensively, we are already in contact with the relevant cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement agencies. Our team is currently drafting a detailed post-mortem report to share more in-depth information and next steps with you soon.