The THEO token, associated with the Autheo project, dropped 92% in value within 24 hours on October 13, 2026. This decline followed an unauthorized mint of 19 million tokens on the Base network, which were subsequently sold into the market.
The attacker exchanged the minted tokens for approximately 700.8 ETH, worth about $1.76 million. The sell-off was exacerbated by thin liquidity on trading platforms like Hydrex, causing the price to fall from $0.08 to around $0.006.
Autheo is currently investigating the incident as a suspected bridge exploit involving the Hyperlane protocol. The project uses this bridge to connect its mainnet with Base and the Robinhood Chain.
The team has advised holders to refrain from buying, selling, or bridging THEO while the investigation continues. Users are encouraged to verify their holdings against the official contract address 0xebE516a20238F79DC20b07eaD6768e08891Ed309.
