I just came across news that a blockchain had gone straight into shutdown mode. One transaction conjured 2 million AUSD out of thin air, and in about seven minutes, roughly $2.65 million in real assets was drained from the bridge.
At around 11 p.m. Beijing time last night, someone signed a transaction on Initia and minted 2 million unbacked AUSD out of nothing. Just 153 seconds later, a cross-chain message released 1.4 million real AUSD on Ethereum. Over the next seven-plus minutes, roughly $2.65 million flowed back to Ethereum. Along the same route, about 105 ETH and 1.08 million USDC were also taken. The attacker eventually swapped the assets for roughly 1,135 ETH, worth about $2.73 million, and parked it in a new wallet. At 15:41 UTC, the team halted the L1 and all rollups. The co-founder pointed to a zero-day vulnerability in their own MoveVM as the root cause. The native INIT side appears unaffected for now. Those stablecoins on the bridge had already served as fuel before the chain was halted.
You’d think you’d get used to seeing things like this, but it still makes you stop and stare. Someone prints a ticket out of thin air, the bridge redeems it for real assets at face value, and someone always ends up paying for the gap.
At around 11 p.m. Beijing time last night, someone signed a transaction on Initia and minted 2 million unbacked AUSD out of nothing. Just 153 seconds later, a cross-chain message released 1.4 million real AUSD on Ethereum. Over the next seven-plus minutes, roughly $2.65 million flowed back to Ethereum. Along the same route, about 105 ETH and 1.08 million USDC were also taken. The attacker eventually swapped the assets for roughly 1,135 ETH, worth about $2.73 million, and parked it in a new wallet. At 15:41 UTC, the team halted the L1 and all rollups. The co-founder pointed to a zero-day vulnerability in their own MoveVM as the root cause. The native INIT side appears unaffected for now. Those stablecoins on the bridge had already served as fuel before the chain was halted.
You’d think you’d get used to seeing things like this, but it still makes you stop and stare. Someone prints a ticket out of thin air, the bridge redeems it for real assets at face value, and someone always ends up paying for the gap.