Researchers flag inflated swETH and rswETH rates after Swell hot key compromise

Swell’s liquid staking tokens are reportedly worth more on paper than they should be. Someone may have nudged the numbers on purpose. Security researcher Spreek reported on October 22, 2026 that an unidentified actor had reportedly taken control of Swell DAO’s operational hot keys, including the oracle bot that sets exchange rates for swETH and rswETH. The reported 2,513 ETH sitting in Swell contracts is exposed, but it is not a confirmed loss. What researchers say happened According to Spreek’s report, the actor had control of the keys as of 14:25 UTC on October 21. From there, the actor allegedly began raising the exchange rates of both tokens. The increases ran at the maximum the system allows: 1% per hour. Crucially, no new ETH came in to back those higher rates. By October 22, swETH’s rate had reportedly climbed about 3.0% above 1.133254 ETH. The rswETH rate sat roughly 2.0% above 1.082464 ETH. Spreek’s report also says four malicious upgrade contracts were deployed. If those upgrades were executed through Swell’s timelock, they could sweep approximately 2,513 ETH from various contracts. The upgrades are loaded, but they have not fired. Swell’s response and the open questions ...