Berachain Deploys Emergency Hard Fork to Trap Hacker and Freeze Funds from Balancer V2 Exploit
Berachain has taken swift action to contain the fallout from the recent Balancer V2 exploit by conducting an emergency hard fork, effectively trapping the hacker’s funds and freezing assets associated with the attack. This move aims to prevent further losses and facilitate the recovery of stolen assets, which totaled over $128 million from the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol’s Composable Stable Pools.
The Bera Foundation confirmed that the hard fork binary has been distributed, and many validators have already been updated. The foundation stated, “The binary for the hard fork has been distributed and many of the validators have been updated. Before we get back up and running and producing blocks, we want to ensure that the key infrastructure partners required for chain operations (oracles for liquidations, etc.)…”
Berachain’s Emergency Response and Fund Recovery Efforts
The emergency hard fork is a proactive measure to prevent the hacker from accessing the stolen funds. Berachain’s core team is working closely with infrastructure partners to ensure the stability of the chain before resuming operations. The team has confirmed that bridges, centralized exchanges, and custodians will be reconnected once the chain is live again.
According to the foundation, a MEV bot operator who has been active on the chain for several months currently holds the compromised funds and has agreed to return them. The operator has indicated that he is a white hat and is willing to pre-sign a series of transactions to transfer the funds back once the chain goes live.
Balancer Breach and DeFi Security Concerns
The Balancer exploit has raised concerns about the security of DeFi protocols. Despite undergoing multiple audits by top firms, including OpenZeppelin, Trail of Bits, and Certora, Balancer’s V2 contracts were still compromised. Developer Suhail Kakar commented that repeated audits are no longer a guarantee of security, noting that “Code is hard, DeFi is even harder.”
The incident adds to Balancer’s troubled security history, with the protocol suffering multiple attacks since its launch in 2020. According to DeFiLlama data, Balancer’s total value fell from $442 million to around $213 million in a day.
For more information on the Berachain emergency hard fork and the Balancer exploit, please visit https://cryptonews.com/news/erachain-deploys-emergency-hard-fork-trap-hacker-balancer-exploit/
