Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson expressed sympathy for affected users and acknowledged the emotional toll of the losses.
Speaking during a livestream yesterday, Hoskinson apologized to both the victims and the broader Cardano community over the unfortunate breach at SecondFi (formerly Yoroi Wallet), which resulted in the theft of 16 million $ADA.
According to him, many victims may have lost most or all of their $ADA holdings, making the financial and emotional consequences severe regardless of the overall value involved.
Hoskinson Reflects on Previous Crypto Hacks
Hoskinson described the incident as an unfortunate reality of the cryptocurrency industry, noting that security breaches have occurred throughout the sector’s history.
Drawing on more than 15 years of experience in crypto, he said he has witnessed numerous hacks and exploits across multiple blockchain ecosystems.
The Cardano founder also revealed that he personally suffered losses during the August 2022 Nomad Bridge exploit, an incident that caused an estimated $20 million to $30 million in losses for Cardano users.
Although attackers never breached Cardano’s base blockchain during the Nomad Bridge exploit, the incident still affected the ecosystem by disrupting bridge-wrapped assets on Ethereum.
Hoskinson noted that a large portion of the stolen funds was recovered. However, he emphasized that the attack highlighted the persistent risks associated with digital assets.
SecondFi Contains Damage
Meanwhile, the SecondFi breach marks another painful chapter for the Cardano ecosystem.
The team behind the non-custodial neo-finance platform disclosed that attackers stole 16 million $ADA from 374 wallets during the incident. In response, the company moved swiftly to prevent additional losses by transferring 129 million $ADA to an independent third-party custodian.
SecondFi has since launched a special audit and deployed a security patch to address the vulnerability. The company has also begun a compensation process for affected users while warning customers not to enter their recovery phrases into any other Cardano-related wallets.
As per our previous post:https://t.co/rZanyrVGWN
We have identified the root cause and have since rolled out a patch for all unaffected wallets. This will allow us to resume normal operations soon.
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Regarding affected wallets, 4 distinct draining events occurred. 3 were…
— SecondFi (@secondfiapp) June 24, 2026
Hoskinson Insists Cardano Remains Secure
Despite the scale of the incident, Hoskinson reassured $ADA holders that the breach affects only SecondFi and not the broader Cardano network.
He emphasized that attackers did not hack Cardano itself and reiterated that the incident was an application-specific issue involving SecondFi rather than a failure of the Cardano protocol.
The development comes amid rising concerns within the Cardano ecosystem, fueled by governance disputes, the shutdown of TapTools, and the departure of key contributors. Adding to the pressure, $ADA has remained in bearish territory, with the token currently trading at $0.1493, down 95.18% from its previous all-time high of $3.10.
