Shiba Inu’s decentralized finance platform has offered a bounty worth 5 Ether ($23,000) to hackers who exploited its Shibarium layer-2 network bridge for $2.4 million. The DeFi team sent an onchain message to the attackers on Monday, requesting the return of stolen digital assets.
The bounty offer includes a 30-day deadline with decreasing rewards after seven days. K9 Finance stated that the settlement becomes final when the recovery function is called. The protocol emphasized that code governs the agreement once the attacker accepts the terms.
Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya confirmed that authorities have been contacted regarding the incident. The development team remains open to negotiations with the perpetrators while investigating the security breach.
Bridge Exploit Drains Millions in Assets
Saturday’s attack targeted the Shibarium bridge through compromised validator signing keys. Malicious actors executed a flash loan to purchase 4.6 million Bone ShibaSwap tokens. This purchase granted them majority validator control over the network.
The attackers then signed fraudulent transactions to transfer funds from the bridge. The exploit drained approximately $2.4 million in various digital currencies from the protocol’s reserves.
Security teams, including Hexens, Seal 911, and PeckShield, are assisting with the ongoing investigation. The collaborative effort aims to identify vulnerabilities and prevent future attacks on the network infrastructure.
Shibarium developers responded immediately by pausing stake and unstake functions across the platform. The team transferred stake manager funds to a hardware wallet secured by multisignature controls. These emergency measures protect remaining user assets from additional exploitation attempts.
Dhairya emphasized that network security restoration represents the team’s primary objective. User asset protection remains the top priority throughout the recovery process. The development team continues monitoring the situation closely.
Token Prices Drop Following Attack
The exploit triggered significant price declines across the Shiba Inu ecosystem tokens. SHIB dropped from $0.0000145 to $0.0000131, representing a 7% decrease. The decline reflects investor concerns about network security vulnerabilities.
K9 Finance’s KNINE token experienced a 10% drop, falling from $0.00000287 to $0.00000257. ShibaSwap’s BONE token suffered the largest impact with a 38% decline. BONE prices fell from $0.31 on Sunday to $0.19 at current trading levels.
The Shibarium attack follows another recent security incident involving THORChain co-founder John-Paul Thorbjornsen. Onchain investigator ZachXBT reported that Thorbjornsen lost $1.35 million through a Telegram meeting call scam on Friday.
These incidents highlight ongoing security challenges facing decentralized finance protocols and individual crypto users. The attacks demonstrate the importance of robust security measures and user education in cryptocurrency.