Zilliqa Launches Investigation Into Cold‑Wallet Theft, Urges Exchanges to Pause ZIL Transfers

TL;DR

• Zilliqa confirmed the theft of ZIL tokens from the cold wallet of one of its exchange partners, though it did not disclose the amount stolen.
• Coinone and KuCoin suspended ZIL deposits and withdrawals at the project’s request, while investigations remain ongoing.
• The ZIL token fell to an all-time low of $0.002441 on the same day as the incident, accumulating a 7.1% drop over the last 24 hours.

Zilliqa asked exchanges to preventively pause ZIL deposits and withdrawals after detecting a theft from the cold wallet of one of its exchange partners. The layer-1 blockchain network, launched in 2017 and known for its sharding-based architecture, confirmed the incident through its official account on X, without disclosing the stolen amount, the identity of the affected exchange, or the attack vector used.

“We understand the community will have questions. We will share more updates as soon as we have verified information,” the team stated in its announcement. Alexander Zahnd, CEO of Zilliqa, urged calm and promised a full report once investigations are concluded.

We have been made aware of a security incident involving one of our exchange partners, in which ZIL was stolen from a cold wallet.

The incident is under active investigation, and we are working with the relevant parties to establish the root cause and full scope. As a…

— Zilliqa (@zilliqa) July 20, 2026

Contents of the Theft and Scope of the Zilliqa Incident

Cold wallets are designed to keep funds offline and protect them from digital threats. In this case, attackers managed to access the stored assets regardless, though the damage is limited to the funds in that specific wallet and does not represent a vulnerability in the network as a whole.

At least two exchanges confirmed the suspension of ZIL operations. Coinone, a South Korean platform, clarified that trading will continue normally, but that deposits and withdrawals will remain paused until the incident is stabilized. KuCoin, for its part, described the measure as an “essential maintenance” process.

ZIL All-Time Low

The impact on price was immediate. The Zilliqa ZIL token hit an all-time low of $0.002441 after the breach became known, trading in a range of between $0.002441 and $0.002610, according to CoinGecko data. The contrast with its all-time high is stark: in May 2021, ZIL reached a price of $0.2563.

The incident adds to a streak of security breaches across the crypto industry. According to several reports, the second quarter of 2026 recorded losses exceeding $775 million across 83 incidents, cementing it as one of the most active periods of criminal activity in the sector.