Summary
ZetaChain is a San Francisco-based omnichain Layer 1 blockchain that enables native cross-chain smart contracts connecting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other networks. The protocol has been flagged by community investigators and crypto-security observers following a premeditated $334,000 exploit of its GatewayEVM smart contract in April 2026, which the team's own earlier bug-bounty review had dismissed as intended behavior. Additional concerns include a controversial airdrop policy that rewarded sybil actors, persistent token unlock sell pressure, and structural centralization risks inherent to its Threshold Signature Scheme validator design.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 3 more
Timeline(13 events)
2021-01-01
ZetaChain founded by Ankur Nandwani and Charlie Pyle in San Francisco.
Crunchbase / CBInsights2023-08-01
ZetaChain raises $27 million in Series A from Jane Street Capital, Blockchain.com, Sky9, and others.
TechCrunch2023-08-20
Snapshot taken for genesis airdrop eligibility across ZetaLabs testnet participants.
ZetaChain Blog2024-01-01
ZetaChain Mainnet Beta launches; over 900,000 users and 8 million transactions reported in first week.
ZetaChain Blog2024-02-01
ZETA token begins trading. Airdrop of 31.5 million ZETA distributed to 800,000+ users; sybil policy allows top earner of flagged groups to still receive tokens.
ZetaChain Blog / Hemera2024-08-01
Approximately $34 million in ZETA tokens (19% of circulating supply) unlocks, primarily for Core Contributors and Advisors.
CCN2025-03-11
ZETA token reaches all-time low of $0.1851, a decline of approximately 93% from its all-time high.
CCN2025-05-01
A further 5.67% of total ZETA supply (approximately 44 million tokens) unlocks, adding additional sell pressure.
Crypto-Corner2026-04-23
Attacker funds exploit wallet via Tornado Cash approximately three days before the attack, indicating premeditation.
CryptoTimes2026-04-26
GatewayEVM smart contract exploit executes nine cross-chain transactions draining $333,868 in USDC and USDT from ZetaChain-controlled wallets across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and BSC.
CoinTelegraph2026-04-27
ZetaChain publicly discloses the exploit, pauses all cross-chain transactions, and acknowledges that the vulnerability had previously been reported through its bug bounty program and dismissed as intended behavior.
CoinTelegraph / Crypto.news2026-04-29
ZetaChain releases post-mortem detailing the three chained design flaws, deploys mainnet patch disabling arbitrary call functionality, and announces review of bug bounty triage processes.
The BlockDecision Log
- hash: 2UCevsYqxZnBBJ9qeDzp7NZ2hnKhbxjpKoifYMpPJvZR
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-5
generated: 5/4/2026, 1:51:10 AM
last updated: 5/30/2026, 12:21:42 PM
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