The Shiba Inu community is on high alert after a major compromise of the Shibarium bridge over the weekend. What began as reports from blockchain security firm PeckShield quickly escalated into a confirmed attack involving validator key leaks, flash loans, and malicious state changes. Developers have scrambled to contain the breach by freezing 4.6 million BONE tokens, but the situation has revealed vulnerabilities in the security of Shiba Inu’s infrastructure and has had an impact on Shiba Inu’s short-term price action.
Developer Confirms Attack Details
Taking to the social media platform X, Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya revealed that the incident was probably planned for months and executed using a flash loan to acquire 4.6 million BONE tokens. After gaining access to validator signing keys, the attacker was able to gain majority control and approve a malicious state to siphon assets from the Shibarium bridge. Fortunately, the stolen BONE was delegated to Validator 1, leaving it locked by unstaking delays and giving the team a narrow opportunity to intervene.
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Dhairya confirmed that the developers immediately froze the compromised funds, suspended all staking and unstaking activity, and transferred stake manager reserves into a hardware wallet secured by a 6/9 multisignature setup. However, the moves were temporary until the extent of the validator compromise could be confirmed, but the developer assured the community that protecting assets was the team’s top priority.
The breach drew quick attention from multiple blockchain security outfits. PeckShield, a leading blockchain security company, posted an Etherscan transaction showing the breach by the ShibaSwap exploiter on X.
However, Kaal Dhairya noted that the Shiba Inu team is working with PeckShield, Hexens, and Seal 911 to continue investigations on the incident and the next steps to take.
According to a separate analysis by Tikkala Security on X, the losses appear to extend beyond the BONE freeze. The post claimed that multiple signer keys appear to have leaked in Shibaswap, which caused an estimated $2.8 million loss. Tikkala Security pointed to an attacker address on Etherscan and explained that the exploit involved repeatedly submitting legitimate Merkle leaf exit requests tied to a root signed by ten different addresses.
Market Impact And Price Outlook
Despite the severity of the breach, BONE’s market price spiked by over 20% in the hours following the freeze announcement, and this is likely due to the rapid containment. However, the BONE price has calmed, and the breach could have long-term effects that extend beyond the next few days.
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The Shibarium bridge is important to Shiba Inu’s strategy. Any lingering doubts about validator integrity or the scope of the losses could weigh heavily on the price of Shiba Inu and BONE.
As it stands, both the Shiba Inu and BONE prices have reversed gains in the past few hours. At the time of writing, BONE is trading at $0.1959, down by 4.4% in the past 24 hours, but still up by 24% from its price point seven days ago. Shiba Inu, on the other hand, is trading at $0.00001305, down by 7% in the past 24 hours.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
Scott Matherson
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