Shibarium, the Layer-2 community constructed across the Shiba Inu ecosystem, was hit by a flash mortgage exploit on Friday that drained greater than $2.4 million in ETH and SHIB from its bridge contract.
How the exploit unfolded
The attacker borrowed 4.6 million BONE, Shibarium’s governance token, via a flash mortgage. By compromising 10 of the community’s 12 validator keys, the exploiter successfully gained majority management over Shibarium’s consensus mechanism. With that leverage, they drained round 224.57 ETH and 92.6 billion SHIB from the bridge and redirected the funds to their very own pockets.
The haul additionally included about $700,000 price of K9 (KNINE) tokens linked to K9 Finance, a challenge built-in into Shibarium’s ecosystem.
Developer response
Shiba Inu builders rapidly moved to include the fallout. They paused staking and unstaking capabilities, successfully locking the borrowed BONE tokens and stopping the attacker from consolidating management. Since BONE withdrawals are topic to an unstaking delay, the freeze ensured the attacker couldn’t full their energy seize.
In the meantime, the K9 Finance DAO blacklisted the exploiter’s pockets, making it unimaginable for the stolen KNINE tokens to be bought on the open market.
Broader impression
Though the assault highlights persistent vulnerabilities in bridge safety, builders framed the short response as proof of Shibarium’s resilience. Nonetheless, the exploit has rattled the Shiba Inu neighborhood, with BONE dropping practically 10% and SHIB slipping barely within the aftermath.
With the investigation ongoing, the incident reinforces how validator key safety and cross-chain bridge safeguards stay essential strain factors for Layer-2 ecosystems.
