Key Takeaways
- Terra temporarily suspended operations at block height 11,430,400 amid the suspected exploit
- The ASTRO token price collapsed by 60%, falling from around $0.045 to as low as $0.01313.
On Wednesday, the Terra blockchain was briefly halted due to a $4 million exploit, Coindesk reported. The interruption resulted from a reentrancy attack, exploiting a known vulnerability and leading to the theft of funds in several tokens.
Terra temporarily suspended operations at block height 11,430,400 amid the suspected exploit. The team notified users through its official account on X, stating that all transactions had ceased while validators and developers worked to resolve the issue.
Cyvers Alerts also posted on X, revealing that the exploit resulted in the theft of 60 million Astroport (ASTRO) tokens, 3.5 million USDC stablecoins, 500,000 USDT stablecoins, and 2.7 Bitcoin.
The attack targeted a reentrancy vulnerability initially disclosed in April but reappeared in a June update. The network halted at block height 11,430,400 to implement an emergency patch, which was completed at 04:19 UTC to seal the vulnerability.
A statement on X highlighted that validators, controlling over 67% of the voting rights on Terra, upgraded their nodes to prevent future exploits. Security firm Beosin reported that the stolen assets included $3.5 million in USDC stablecoins, $500,000 in USDT stablecoins, 2.7 Bitcoin, and over 60 million ASTRO tokens.
The ASTRO token price collapsed by 60%, falling from around $0.045 to as low as $0.01313. Before the incident, the 60 million stolen Astro tokens were valued at about $2.7 million.
Their worth has since decreased to around $1.08 million as the token’s price stabilizes at approximately $0.018. These 60 million tokens represent only about 5.5% of the total supply, but the situation has led to a new all-time low for the Astroport decentralized marketplace.
The exploit also impacted LUNC, the native token of Terra Classic, which saw its price drop by over 5%, falling below $0.00008056, with its market cap slipping under $450 million.
According to Terra’s official X post, the team will work with Terra (Phoenix-1) validators to apply an emergency patch after the suspension to “remediate a suspected exploit.” An X post by Cyvers Alerts confirmed that the exploit resulted in the theft of approximately 60 million Astroport tokens, 3.5 million USD Coin tokens, 500,000 Tether tokens, and 2.7 Bitcoin.
The blockchain halted at block height 11,430,400 for an emergency patch to fix the vulnerability, completed at 04:19 UTC. Validators, supporting the network with over 67% of the voting power, upgraded their nodes to prevent future exploits, according to a post on X.
Security firm Beosin estimated that $3.5 million of USDC stablecoins, $500,000 in USDT stablecoins, 2.7 Bitcoin, and more than 60 million Astroport tokens were stolen in the attack
The latest development comes a month after Terraform Labs agreed to pay $4.47 billion in a settlement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This settlement includes $3.6 billion in disgorgement fines, nearly $467 million in prejudgment interest, and a $420 million civil penalty.
Earlier this month, on July 19, Terraform Labs announced plans to reopen the Shuttle Bridge, allowing users to redeem their sealed assets on the Terra Classic blockchain.
