Autheo’s THEO token lost 92% of its value in a day after 19 million unauthorized tokens were minted on Base.
The mint hit the bridged THEO contract on Base on October 13, 2026, in what is being treated as a suspected bridge exploit. The freshly minted tokens were sold on the network, and THEO slid from about $0.08 to roughly $0.006 within 24 hours.
The size of the mint alone does not explain the collapse. THEO has a maximum supply of 7 billion tokens with only about 5.3% circulating at its August 2026 launch, so 19 million extra tokens are a small fraction of the cap. Base trading venues such as Hydrex carried thin liquidity for THEO, which amplified the sell pressure on a token trading at eight cents.
The token was barely two months old when it broke. THEO began trading on August 20, 2026, at $0.05 with an initial market cap of roughly $18.7 million. It picked up a MEXC listing on October 1, widening its venues, and thirteen days later the suspected exploit cut its price by more than nine tenths.
Autheo urged users not to buy, sell or bridge THEO while it investigates. The attacker reportedly swapped the minted tokens for approximately 700.8 ETH, valued at around $1.76 million at the time, before moving the funds off Base. The exact root cause has not been confirmed, and Autheo has not said how it plans to account for the 19 million unauthorized tokens.
