Injective Halts Block Production for Four Hours Amid $4.9 Million Exploit

Injective, a layer‑1 blockchain, experienced a multi‑hour interruption in block production after an exploit was traced to core modules used by binary‑options markets. The network halted after block 181027005 at 16:09:59 UTC on Aug. 31 and resumed roughly four hours later.

Emergency Response and Upgrade

The foundation released an emergency v1.20.3‑safeharbor.1 patch that added an insurance‑fund denomination check and disabled binary‑options settlement on mainnet. Validators and infrastructure providers required a rapid upgrade; some validators were temporarily jailed for missing the upgrade window.

Impact on Assets

• Native token INJ continued to trade around $4.80, down about 3 % in the prior 24 hours.
• Researchers estimate roughly $4.9 million was bridged to Ethereum during the exploit; about 1,980 ETH remained in an address linked to the attacker.

Community and Exchange Reaction

On‑chain researcher Earthling Paddy questioned the foundation’s description of the incident, noting that the vulnerable logic resided in protocol modules rather than isolated applications. Exchanges such as Coinbase and Coins.ph temporarily restricted INJ transfers.

Foundation Statements

Injective’s statement asserted that consensus, native INJ, and staked assets were never compromised and that the attack affected only a small number of ecosystem applications. The foundation said it is adding stronger invariants, real‑time monitoring, and other safeguards. A full technical post‑mortem has not yet been published.

Remaining Uncertainties

The exact amount drained, who absorbed any shortfall, and how the ecosystem pool was replenished remain unclear. The incident demonstrates that while the consensus layer stayed intact, the network experienced a significant block‑production pause.