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Humanity Protocol token crashes more than 80% after a $32 million private-key hack

By Shaurya Malwa · Published June 9, 2026 · 4 min read · Source: CoinDesk
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Humanity Protocol token crashes more than 80% after a $32 million private-key hack

The decentralized identity project said attackers compromised the keys of a foundation member and are dumping the stolen H tokens for ether.

By Shaurya Malwa Jun 9, 2026, 4:54 a.m. 2 min readMake preferred on
A masked person holds a finger to their mouth. (Max Bender/Unsplash)

What to know:

Humanity Protocol's H token crashed more than 80% on Tuesday after attackers stole the private keys behind the project and drained more than $30 million, the latest in a year of crypto thefts that go after keys rather than code.

About 17 wallets tied to the project were emptied, with losses topping $32 million and still climbing, per on-chain data assessed by CoinDesk.

The thief has been selling the stolen H for ether and minted another 100 million H, worth roughly $11 million, on the BNB Chain, blockchain data shows, pointing to more selling pressure ahead.

H fell from about $0.67 to near $0.13 and briefly touched $0.05, an intraday drop of about 90%.

Humanity confirmed the breach, with founder Terence Kwok saying attackers had compromised the private keys, the secret codes that control crypto wallets, of a member of the Humanity Foundation.

The project urged users to stop touching its bridge, the tool that moves tokens between blockchains, and its liquidity pools until the issue is contained, and said it was working with security firms and exchange partners.

Humanity Protocol is a decentralized identity project that uses palm-scan biometrics and zero-knowledge cryptography to let people prove they are human without revealing personal data, positioning itself as a rival to Sam Altman's Worldcoin.

The hack fits the dominant pattern of 2026, in which the biggest losses have come from stolen keys rather than flawed code. Solana exchange Drift lost about $285 million in April after attackers seized an administrative key, and Kelp DAO lost roughly $292 million the same month through a single-validator bridge.

H last traded around $0.13, down about 82% on the day, with the theft still in progress.

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