Hacking News
Initia Layer 1 Halted After $615K Drained
Initia, a layer 1 platform, halted its layer 1 operation at 06:18 UTC after an unauthorized transfer drained the escrow accounts holding assets bridged to its rollups. The attacker used compromised rollup infrastructure keys to fabricate IBC transfers, and validators froze the chain before the bleeding stopped. The team initially claimed user funds were untouched, but later admitted the issue affected rollup infrastructure. Most of the assets moved out of the escrow accounts are still frozen on L1, with the team still unsure of the full extent of the damage. This is the second hit in under three weeks, following an earlier exploit where the attacker minted unbacked tokens without touching token supplies. The chain is now frozen, and the platform is up 71% in 24 hours and 71% over seven days, despite being 84% below its May 2025 peak.