Hacker Prints $2.7M in Crypto as Initia Blockchain Grinds to a Halt

13 hours ago

Modular blockchain level Initia halted its web Friday aft the squad confirmed “a information incident” that compromised its operations. According to Initia co-founder Ezaan Mangalji, the attacker exploited the breach to mint an estimated $2.7 cardinal worthy of tokens.

Key Takeaways

  • Initia halted its L1 blockchain and connected rollups Friday aft an exploit enabled a projected $2.7 cardinal successful unauthorized token minting.
  • Co-founder Ezaan Mangalji linked the breach to a antecedently chartless MoveVM flaw, confirming autochthonal INIT tokens were unaffected.
  • Agora denied immoderate AUSD compromise, portion Upbit suspended INIT transfers and the blockchain remained offline.

Initia Network Halted arsenic Co-Founder Reveals an Estimated $2.7 Million Exploit

“As of Oct 23, 2026, 3:41:30 PM UTC, the Initia L1 and Rollups person been halted owed to a information incident,” the authoritative Initia X relationship wrote astatine 12 p.m. Eastern clip connected Friday. “Our squad is actively investigating the concern and moving to found the afloat scope of immoderate interaction with information teams, validators, and exchanges.”

Initia is fundamentally a blockchain platform designed to marque it easier for antithetic cryptocurrency networks to enactment together. The strategy leverages respective halfway pieces successful combination, and the Initia furniture 1 (L1) concatenation was built connected the Cosmos SDK utilizing CometBFT consensus. Because Initia’s blockchain coordinates its connected networks, a vulnerability affecting the main concatenation tin person consequences beyond a azygous application.

In the aftermath of the disruption, Initia co-founder Ezaan Mangalji disclosed further details astir the incident. “To the champion of our cognition truthful far, this is simply a Day 0 bug related to Initia’s MoveVM connected CosmosSDK that allowed the exploiter to mint further tokens connected the Initia L1 but does not use to autochthonal INIT tokens,” Mangalji wrote connected X.

The project’s co-founder added:

“The attacker was capable to mint and span retired ~$2.7m worthy of AUSD, ETH, and USDC earlier the concatenation was paused.”

Agora Addresses AUSD Concerns arsenic Initia Remains Offline

As of property time, astatine 7:45 p.m., astir 7 hours aft the incident, the Initia concatenation is inactive halted and stuck astatine artifact tallness 23365925. Alongside Initia’s disclosure, Agora, the institution down the AUSD stablecoin, clarified that its ain token declaration was not compromised.

“We’re alert of today’s information incidental connected Initia. Agora has nary astute contracts deployed connected Initia. Our information squad has been monitoring the concern and volition frost funds related to hacker addresses that clasp AUSD connected chains wherever AUSD/Agora astute contracts are deployed,” Agora wrote connected X.

The squad continued successful a separate post:

“For further clarity: AUSD and Agora are unaffected. AUSD does not beryllium connected Initia. AUSD deployments connected each networks and Agora operations proceed arsenic normal. AUSD is afloat backed.”

The incidental besides prompted the South Korean cryptocurrency speech Upbit to suspend INIT deposits and withdrawals. While INIT slipped pursuing the archetypal news, Initia’s autochthonal crypto plus has rebounded and stands 12.5% higher implicit the past 24 hours. The crypto plus has done exceptionally good implicit the past 30 days, signaling a 65.8% summation since Sept. 23.

As of the latest accusation provided by scan.initia.xyz, the L1 blockchain remains offline, the full fiscal harm has not been afloat confirmed by the authoritative X account, and developers person not announced erstwhile mean operations volition resume.

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