Sweat Economy Recovers All Drained Funds After Attacker Steals 67% Of Token Supply On Near

What Happened: A 30-Second Drain on NEAR

@SweatEconomy suffered a serious security breach on April 29, 2026, after an attacker exploited a bug in the $SWEAT token contract on NEAR Protocol. Blockchain security firm Blockaid reported that approximately 13 billion SWEAT tokens, worth about $2.63 million at current prices, were drained from several foundation accounts in a very short period. Independent investigator SomaXBT put total losses closer to $2.5 million. The exploit began at around 13:36 UTC and, according to Blockaid analytics, emptied the project's top 100 holder accounts within just 30 seconds.

The attacker deployed a malicious drain smart contract and moved quickly to liquidate the stolen tokens, routing funds through @MEXC and @rhea_finance. The response from all parties was fast: Sweat paused the token contract immediately, @MEXC froze the attacker's account, and @rhea_finance suspended $SWEAT trading. A patched token contract was then deployed, and the Sweat Foundation confirmed that all external user balances have since been restored.

Next steps for the project include filing a formal incident report with law enforcement, working with @MEXC to recover any frozen tokens, and publishing a detailed forensic post-mortem. $SWEAT smart contracts have been temporarily closed from public view pending a comprehensive security audit.

Another Blow in Crypto's Worst Month for Hacks

The incident adds to what has already been a bruising April for the broader DeFi sector. Crypto hacks hit $606 million in April alone — the worst month since February 2025 — with the biggest losses coming from a $293 million exploit of KelpDAO via a LayerZero bridge vulnerability and a $285 million social engineering attack on Solana's Drift Protocol.

The April total is 3.7 times larger than all of Q1 2026 combined, which saw $165.5 million in losses across January through March. Earlier this month, Rhea Finance, a lending protocol, was also hacked, resulting in losses exceeding $18.4 million. That incident is particularly notable given @rhea_finance's direct involvement in the $SWEAT exploit response.

The latest exploit highlights ongoing security challenges in decentralized finance, particularly as attackers increasingly use cross-chain tools to obscure fund movements. For Sweat Economy — a move-to-earn platform that rewards physical activity with digital tokens and counts over 20 million token holders — the swift recovery of all user funds will be critical to maintaining trust in the ecosystem.

Sources
The Crypto Times — Sweat Economy Tokens Worth Over $2M Drained in Reported Attack
BanklessTimes — April 2026 Crypto Hack Recap
Crypto.news — April 2026 Is Already the Worst Month for Crypto Hacks Since February 2025