Berachain Enlists White Hat Hacker for Chain Restart - Security Overhaul Underway
Berachain taps ethical hacker expertise as blockchain reset looms
Security First Approach
The protocol's bringing in specialized talent to bulletproof its systems before the mainnet revival. White hat involvement signals serious commitment to fixing vulnerabilities—not just slapping bandaids on code.
Chain Resurrection Strategy
Complete network overhaul means every line of code gets scrutinized. They're not just restarting—they're rebuilding from the ground up with security as the foundation.
Because nothing says 'trust us' like hiring the same people who could break your system. Welcome to crypto—where sometimes you need a thief to catch a thief.
Emergency measures and technical intervention
Shortly after its first announcement on the matter, the Berachain Foundation revealed that network validators had “coordinated to purposefully halt the Berachain network” to allow the Core team to conduct an “emergency hard fork” which was going to address the vulnerabilities linked to Balancer V2 contracts.
According to Berachain’s posts, the exploit primarily affected the Ethena/HONEY tripool via a “relatively complicated smart contract transaction,” affecting both BERA and non-native assets. The foundation noted that the rollback and recovery process involved “more than a simple hard fork,” meaning the chain operations will be completely halted until a permanent fix is finalized.
A few hours later, the Berachain team announced that it had distributed the binary for the hard fork, adding that “many of the validators have upgraded.”
It also added, “Prior to going live and producing blocks once again, we’d like to ensure that CORE infrastructure partners necessary for chain operations (oracles for liquidations etc) have updated their RPCs, so at this point they will be our main blocker to resuming liveness.”
The Balancer-linked exploit compromised about $128 million in digital assets across several Ethereum-compatible chains.
White hat negotiations and fund recovery
In a development that could mark a fortunate turn in the crisis, Berachain said it is in conversation with a “MEV bot operator” who currently holds the compromised BEX funds.
The individual reportedly indicated that he is a WHITE hat hacker and “is willing to pre-sign a set of transactions to transfer the funds back upon the chain going live,” according to Berachain’s latest post on X.
“In accordance with our communications with the whitehat,” the foundation wrote, “we’re confirming that funds should be returned to 0xD276D30592bE512a418f2448e23f9E7F372b32A2, the Berachain deployer address.”
The address has also broadcast on-chain messages confirming that the procedure should be followed. Berachain’s post included links to ethereum transactions that indicate intent to return the assets once the hard fork is complete.
Losses and lessons for the Berachain ecosystem
The past day has tested Berachain’s capacity for crisis response. According to PeckShieldAlert, Berechain lost $12.86 million, which makes the foundation’s rapid coordination with validators and infrastructure providers very necessary, as chances were very high that it would have suffered greater losses.
The event also raises questions about the safety of ecosystems that are built on forked or imported code. Analysts note that the Balancer-linked vulnerability may prompt a new wave of audits across decentralized exchanges and liquidity protocols modeled after the Balancer framework, as some, like Berachain, still have to wait on Balancer to release a long-term risk mitigation approach in the NEAR future.
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