K9 Finance’s $23K Bounty – Who Hijacked $2.4M Shibarium?

 K9 Finance provides a 5 ETH bounty following a 2.4M flash loan exploit on the Shibarium bridge. Stolen KNINE tokens blacklisted; developers freeze BONE tokens.

K9 Finance has declared a bounty of 23,000 (5 ETH) to reclaim stolen tokens following a major exploit that had passed off with $2.4 million through the Shibarium bridge. 

In this assault, the hacker obtained a flash loan and took control of the keys of the validator in Shibarium and stole large amounts of money.

The attacker borrowed 4.6 million BONE, the governance token of Shibarium, and carried out a flash loan and obtained majority power by compromising 10 out of 12 validator signing keys.

This enabled the control of the consensus of the network to certify fraudulent transactions.

Under this control, the attacker emptied around 224.57 ETH and 92.6 billion SHIB and moved the stolen funds to his or her wallet. 

Secondly, the hacker acquired $700,000 of KNINE, which are the tokens of K9 Finance, a major participant in the Shibarium ecosystem.

Smart Freeze and Escalating Response

Shibarium developers responded by loading and unloading stakes as quickly as possible. This freeze caused the 4.6 million borrowed BONE tokens to be frozen because they are inherently unstaked. 

The delay was effective in ensuring that the attacker did not consolidate control of the network.

The DAO of K9 Finance responded by blacklisting the wallet of the attacker. This action made the KNINE tokens impossible to sell at open markets, preventing the liquidation and containment of the harm.

K9 Finance also dispatched an on-chain message to the attacker requesting a timely restoration of stolen tokens. 

The bounty offer will last 30 days, but will begin a reduction after a week – it is a sign of the urgency of the plea.

Shibarium ecosystem faces pressure but remains resilient

The attack caused the Shiba Inu community to shake, and the price of BONE fell by almost 10% and SHIB slightly fell. 

Nonetheless, developers emphasized that they have community asset protection and verifying the integrity of validator keys at the top of their list.

It investigates cybersecurity experts Hexens, Seal 911, and PeckShield, and also contacted authorities.

But the team is still willing to make a good-faith negotiation with the attacker when the money is refunded without going to court.

Kaal Dhairya, a developer of Shiba Inu, wrote in X that the advanced plan of the attacker seems to have been planned for many months.  Containment and open communications are the main pillars of the continuing response.