Flow Network Frozen as $3.9M Hack Triggers Rollback and Selloff

• FLOW dropped 40% after a $3.9M execution-layer exploit forced validators to halt the chain.
• The attacker minted millions of FLOW, drained liquidity, and laundered funds across bridges into BTC.
• Validators rolled back the chain, triggering backlash from bridge operators.

FLOW sold off hard last week after a confirmed security breach on the Flow blockchain. The token fell roughly 40% in a single day, sliding from $0.17 to $0.10 as news of the exploit spread.

At the time of writing, FLOW traded near $0.10 after a brief bounce to $0.12. The token remains down more than 11% over the past 24 hours, data shows. This pullback was the result of an estimated $3.9 million loss tied to an execution-layer failure.

Execution-Layer Exploit Triggering Emergency Halt

The incident was first flagged by on-chain researcher Wazz, who tracked an attacker minting roughly 5 million FLOW through a compromised execution path. The newly minted tokens were sold into liquidity pools, draining market depth and accelerating the price correction.

Flow later confirmed the breach, adding that the attacker exploited a flaw in the transaction execution layer and moved approximately $3.9 million off the network before validators coordinated a halt. The team said user balances were not affected. Validators paused the chain shortly after the exploit.

Bridges and liquidity pools were frozen as the attacker routed funds through multiple cross-chain systems. Assets were bridged out via Celer, deBridge, Relay, and Stargate, then swapped through THORChain and Chainflip.

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Chain Rollback Sparks Industry Pushback

To contain the damage, Flow validators reverted the blockchain state to a point before the exploit. The decision immediately raised concerns across the ecosystem. Bridge operators warned that a rollback could create doubled balances and unresolved liabilities for users who bridged assets during the affected window.

deBridge founder Alex Smirnov publicly urged validators to stop processing transactions until a clear remediation plan was communicated.

He warned that the rollback could cause more financial damage than the original exploit by breaking accounting assumptions for bridges, custodians, and exchanges.

At the time of the halt, the chain remained stuck at block height 137,385,824. Flow said the network would restart within hours, operating in a limited mode while fixes were deployed.

Exchanges Suspend Transfers as Liquidity Dries Up

South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb decided to suspend FLOW deposits and withdrawals following the attack. Korea’s Digital Asset Exchange Alliance issued a transaction risk warning as well.

The exchange response removed a major source of liquidity during the selloff. Market depth thinned quickly as traders stepped aside, contributing to the sharp price drop to the $0.10 level.

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