Initia pauses its blockchain after an attacker mints unbacked tokens and bridges out about $2.7 million

Published Fri, 23 Oct 2026 17:03:56 UTC · Updated Fri, 23 Oct 2026 19:01:25 UTC · Edited by Bizzle · AI-assisted

🔴Bearish for $INITA chain halt after an unbacked-mint exploit is a clear negative for Initia's network, even though INIT rebounded and the co-founder said native INIT tokens were not affected.News sentiment, not financial advice. It reflects the likely impact of this news, not a price prediction.

Summary

Initia, a layer-1 blockchain built to connect a network of rollups, halted its main chain and rollups on Friday after a security incident in which an attacker minted tokens without authorization, The Block and Cointelegraph reported.

Cointelegraph said the network was halted at 3:41 p.m. UTC, citing Initia's post on X, and that the team was working with security researchers, validators and exchanges to gauge the impact.

Co-founder Ezaan Mangalji told The Block that preliminary findings pointed to a previously unknown bug in the network's MoveVM implementation on Cosmos SDK that 'does not apply to native INIT tokens,' and that the attacker minted and bridged out about $2.7 million in AUSD, ETH and USDC before the pause.

Estimates differ slightly: researcher Spreek first put the cash-out at roughly $2.6 million with more funds in transit, while Cointelegraph said Initia had not publicly confirmed the losses or exact cause, and The Block said Initia had not confirmed the amount lost.

Key facts

DeFi platform D2 Finance said the attacker minted 2 million AUSD without sufficient backing and withdrew about 1.4 million AUSD, 105 ETH and 1.08 million USDC to Ethereum, Cointelegraph reported. (Cointelegraph)
D2 Finance said the stolen assets were consolidated into an Ethereum wallet holding about 1,135.5 ETH, worth $2.73 million, according to Cointelegraph. (Cointelegraph)
INIT fell 14% right after the exploit was reported, then reversed to trade about 14% higher on the day, The Block said. (The Block)
Cointelegraph said the timeline for restoring network operations remains unclear. (Cointelegraph)