 
 
The Shiba Inu ecosystem faced heightened scrutiny this week after an attempted exploit on its Layer-2 blockchain bridge, Shibarium.
Initial reports earlier on Saturday framed the incident as a “hack,” prompting alarm across the community. However, developers have now clarified that the Shibarium protocol itself was not compromised.
According to Shibarium developer Kaal Dhariya, the attack involved a flash loan that allowed the perpetrator to acquire 4.6 million BONE tokens. The attacker then used stolen validator signing keys to gain temporary majority control, enabling them to push a malicious state on the bridge. While the attempt was sophisticated, developers emphasized that core infrastructure remained intact.
Dhariya noted that the staked BONE tokens remain locked due to unstaking delays, giving the team a critical opportunity to secure them.
“This gives us the chance to freeze those funds,” he explained in a statement shared on X.
 
Notably, the Shibarium Bridge is a vital component of the Shiba Inu ecosystem. It allows users to transfer assets, such as SHIB, BONE, LEASH, and wETH, between Ethereum and Shibarium. By offloading activity from Ethereum’s mainnet, Shibarium reduces transaction fees, increases speed, and enhances usability for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, gaming, and metaverse projects.
In response to the exploit attempt, the Shibarium team temporarily paused staking and unstaking functions. They also transferred validator funds into a secure hardware wallet managed by a trusted 6-of-9 multisignature setup. Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the validator keys were compromised through a server breach or a developer’s machine.
Meanwhile, leading blockchain security firms, including Hexens and Peck Shield, are actively collaborating with the team to prevent further risks and restore confidence.
Despite the attempted exploit, Shiba Inu’s native token SHIB has held firm. As of Saturday, SHIB traded around $0.00001412, marking a 4.8% rise in the past 24 hours before recoiling. BONE, the governance and utility token of the ecosystem, surged nearly 40% with over $10 million in daily volume.
Market watchers believe the renewed attention on Shibarium may have contributed to the rally. BONE plays a crucial role within the ecosystem, allowing holders to vote on governance proposals, earn rewards through staking, and support liquidity on ShibaSwap. Its sudden surge signals that investors view the exploit as contained rather than catastrophic.
To calm community fears, Shibizens, the official communication channel for Shiba Inu, issued a detailed Q&A update addressing investor concerns later in the day, noting that Shibarium hadn’t been hacked.
“Was Shibarium hacked? No. The protocol itself was not compromised. The issue came from stolen validator keys used to push a fake state,” the team wrote.
They confirmed that only a small amount of ETH and SHIB was affected, while the bulk of assets, including the 4.6 million BONE at the center of the exploit, remain frozen. Validator keys are being replaced, and once integrity checks are complete, full functionality will return.
“Our top priority is protecting the network and community assets,” the developers stated, promising ongoing transparency as remediation continues.
At press time, SHIB was trading at $0.00001368, reflecting a 3.03% drop over the past 24 hours.