Berachain halts network to conduct emergency hard fork amid $128 million Balancer exploit
Berachain halted its network for an emergency hard fork to recover funds lost in a cross-chain Balancer V2 exploit totaling over $128 million.Summary
Berachain validators coordinated a network halt to allow the core team to execute an emergency hard fork and rollback, aiming to recover user funds affected by an ongoing Balancer V2 exploit that drained over $128 million across multiple chains.
The attack primarily targeted the Ethena/Honey tripool on the Berachain Exchange (BEX), involving non-native assets, necessitating a complex rollback beyond a simple hard fork. Smokey The Bera, Berachain’s chief smokey officer, defended the contentious decision as responsible, prioritizing user protection over immediate decentralization ideals.
The exploit stemmed from a faulty access check in Balancer V2, where an attacker introduced fake fee data and then executed a withdrawal command to drain assets. Industry figures, including ZachXBT and DeFi Ignas, supported Berachain's swift action for protecting user deposits.
(Source：The Block)