Shiba Inu’s Shibarium network is facing a major setback after a recent bridge exploit that allowed an attacker to move funds out of the platform. In response, the Shiba Inu DeFi team makes a public on-chain offer of a bounty to encourage the return of the stolen assets. At the same time, token prices connected to Shiba Inu fell sharply as investors reacted to the news and questioned the network’s security.
Shibarium Bridge Exploit Results In $2.4 Million Drain
The exploit begins when the attacker uses a flash loan to purchase 4.6 million Bone ShibaSwap tokens, also known as BONE. With this control, they accessed validator signing keys and approved a harmful transaction. That transaction transferred approximately $2.4 million worth of assets from the Shibarium bridge in a short period.
The impact of the stolen funds, transferred out of the Shibarium bridge by the attacker, has spread across the market. Tokens connected to the Shiba Inu ecosystem begin to lose value soon after the attack.
The Shiba Inu token, SHIB, falls by about seven percent, dropping from $0.0000145 to $0.0000131. The K9 Finance token, KNINE, also takes a hit, losing about ten percent in value. ShibaSwap’s token, BONE, suffers the sharpest decline, falling by more than one-third in just days.
Shiba Inu Team Sends Bounty Offer To Attacker
After the exploit, the Shibarium DeFi team makes the unusual choice of reaching out directly to the attacker through the blockchain. Public data on Etherscan shows a message sent on-chain offering the attacker a bounty of 5 Ether, approximately $23,000, in exchange for the return of the stolen funds.
According to the team, the bounty is open for 30 days, but it will begin to shrink after seven days, which puts pressure on the attacker to act fast if they want the full reward. The message itself is in clear but firm words. K9 Finance states: “Settlement is atomic when we call recoverKnine(). If you call accept(), we cannot cancel the deal. Code is law. Bounty is live. Please, act fast.”
Shiba Inu developer Kaal Dhairya addressed SHIB holders in an X post. Dhairya stressed that restoring security and protecting user funds remain the top priorities as the team is now collaborating with security experts to investigate the exploit. As part of the immediate response, the developers paused stake and unstake functions and moved stake manager funds into a hardware wallet managed by a multisig.
Whether the attacker accepts or ignores the bounty, SHIB holders now have many questions about safety and trust in the system. The exploit has altered how the community views the network, highlighting why Shiba Inu holders need to closely monitor how the Shibarium DeFi team resolves the situation.
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