Cosmos-based Layer-1 network Berachain has initiated an emergency hard fork, halting the network due to a vulnerability discovered in the multi-chain Balancer attack. According to on-chain security trackers, the attack has resulted in losses of more than $128 million to date.
Berachain Launches Emergency Hard Fork After $128 Million Balancer Attack
The Berachain team explained in its post on the X platform that the network was “intentionally halted” and that this was done to enable a rollback operation to recover user funds.
The team stated that the attack specifically targeted the Ethena/Honey tripool liquidity pool and was carried out through a complex smart contract transaction.
According to the company’s statement, since the attack affects not only native assets (BERA) but also off-chain tokens, the rollback process requires a more complex process than a simple hard fork.
While Berachain’s administrator, Smokey The Bera, admitted that the decision to temporarily shut down the network could be controversial, he emphasized that the step was imperative to protect user assets.
Regarding the attack, on-chain researcher ZachXBT described the measure as “the right decision to prioritize the user.” Similarly, DeFi analyst DeFi Ignas stated, “In this case, user security should be the priority rather than decentralization ideals.”
The attack was reportedly caused by an access control flaw in Balancer V2 and its forks, allowing the attacker to withdraw real assets from the system using fake fee data.
*This is not investment advice.