An audacious scoundrel exploited the Hyperbridge gateway that links Polkadot to Ethereum to snag administrative control over a DOT‑linked token contract and minted roughly 1 billion counterfeit DOT on Ethereum, ultimately pocketing about $237,000 in ether. The breach, disclosed on April 13, hinged on a forged cross‑chain message that bypassed state‑proof verification and reassigned the contract admin, exposing a rather unseemly flaw in how the bridge validated messages that should have been guarded by multi‑signature or on‑chain checks.