What exactly happened?
SwissBorg reported that approximately 192,600 SOL (approximately $41.5 million USD) were stolen from its 'SOL Earn' strategy, used by users to earn staking rewards. The attack occurred on September 8, 2025, through a compromised API from its provider Kiln, not due to a breach in the SwissBorg platform.
Despite this, only less than 1% of users were affected, and the theft represented about 2% of the total assets managed by SwissBorg.
Response and recovery strategy
SwissBorg assured that its main application and other Earn products remain fully operational and secure.
The company committed to reimbursing affected users with its own SOL treasury funds. It is also collaborating with ethical hackers (white hats), security agencies, and law enforcement to trace and recover the stolen funds.
Meanwhile, withdrawals from the SOL Earn program are temporarily suspended.
Key implications and learnings
This incident highlights a critical vulnerability in DeFi: reliance on third-party APIs can jeopardize an entire platform, even if its internal infrastructure is secure.
SwissBorg's decision to absorb the costs without passing them on to users strengthens its reputation but underscores the need to enhance security in external integrations.
By coinciding with other notable exploit cases (such as in Sui protocols or supply-chain attacks in NPM), the news reinforces that security remains the Achilles' heel of the crypto ecosystem.
SwissBorg was not hacked directly but suffered from a compromised external API that affected its SOL Earn product. The company acts quickly to cover losses, maintain operations, and strengthen security. This serves as a wake-up call about how external risks can compromise even the most trusted platforms.
