The Shibarium bridge, connecting the Shiba Inu blockchain to Ethereum, fell victim to a hack resulting in approximately $2.4 million lost in cryptocurrency. Developers have taken measures for protection.
Details of the Hack
On Friday, the Shibarium bridge experienced a flash loan attack that drained approximately 224.57 ether (ETH) and 92.6 billion SHIB tokens. The attacker borrowed 4.6 million BONE tokens to temporarily gain control of validator keys, leading to unauthorized transactions. The stolen ETH was worth around $670,000, while the value of the stolen SHIB tokens was just over $1.5 million.
Developer Response and Market Reactions
Shiba Inu developers quickly paused staking and unstaking functions, preventing the attacker from further actions. Lead developer Kael Dhairya described the incident as a 'sophisticated' attack likely planned for months. He noted that the team is working with law enforcement and is open to negotiating a bounty for the return of funds. Following the hack, token prices experienced wild swings: BONE surged 78% within an hour, while SHIB gained about 4.5%.
Consequences for Shibarium
The attack highlighted vulnerabilities in governance token-based security models, where flash loans can temporarily concentrate power. Developers plan to rotate validator keys and enhance security. The market capitalization of Shiba Inu remains above $10 billion, keeping it among the top 20 cryptocurrencies.
The Shibarium bridge hack underscores risks in decentralized finance and the need for increased security in token governance models. Developers are taking steps to address vulnerabilities and prevent future incidents.
