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Berachain Foundation recovers funds from Bex / Balancer V2 exploit, securing $12.8M after a hard fork and coordinated chain restart. The post Berachain Foundation recovers $12.8M from Balancer V2 exploit appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Stream Finance’s staked stablecoin, XUSD, lost its peg early Tuesday, falling by more than 60% after the DeFi protocol disclosed that an external fund manager had lost approximately $93 million in managed assets. The event shook the DeFi circles, causing XUSD to plummet to a new all-time low of $0.30, according to data from CoinGecko. Stream Finance Freezes Withdrawals In an X post, the Stream Finance team confirmed the loss and temporary suspension of all deposits and withdrawals while investigations continue. “Yesterday, an external fund manager overseeing Stream funds disclosed the loss of approximately $93 million in Stream fund assets,” wrote the company. It also said it has hired attorneys Keith Miller and Joseph Cutler of Perkins Coie LLP to lead a full probe into the loss and has begun withdrawing all remaining liquid assets as a precautionary step. “Until we are able to fully assess the scope and causes of the loss, all withdrawals and deposits will be temporarily suspended,” the project stated, adding that its decision to retain Perkins Coie reflected a “commitment to transparency and corporate governance.” Blockchain security firm PeckShield first flagged the issue earlier in the day, noting that XUSD had fallen by 23%, before the decline deepened to 58% within an hour. At the time of writing, the asset was trading around $0.48, a 62% drop in the last 24 hours. Its market cap sits at roughly $95.6 million, with a one-day trading volume of $1.59 million. The stablecoin’s 7-day and 30-day performances both mirror the sharp decline, showing a consistent 62% downturn, making it one of the steepest stablecoin depegs of 2025 so far. Ongoing DeFi Fragility The Stream Finance incident comes hot on the heels of an exploit on Balancer V2, one of the sector’s longest-running protocols, which led to $128 million in losses. The attack also impacted several Balancer forks, with StakeWise DAO confirming earlier today that, together with security experts from Balancer and Gnosis Chain, it had managed to recover 73.5% of its affected funds, returning more than $20 million worth of stolen assets to users. These events highlight a recurring problem in the industry. According to a recent Peckshield report, in September alone, there were more than 20 major exploits on DeFi platforms, in which over $127 million was collectively lost. Although the figure represented a 22% drop from August’s loss of $163 million, it still brought 2025’s total above $3 billion, with casualties including the Bunni decentralized exchange. The platform shut down completely after an $8.4 million hack, which left the team unable to cover the cost of new security audits. However, they announced that users would still be able to withdraw assets and that the remaining treasury funds would be distributed to token holders. The post XUSD Stablecoin Crashed 70% After $93M Stream Finance Loss appeared first on CryptoPotato.

One of Ethereum’s leading DeFi protocols, Balancer, which also functions as an established automated market maker (AMM) on the network, suffered a significant exploit today (November 3), resulting in losses exceeding $70M. On-chain data shows that multiple Balancer liquidity pools were drained in rapid succession, with the stolen tokens quickly transferred to a newly created wallet controlled by the attacker. We’re aware of a potential exploit impacting Balancer v2 pools. Our engineering and security teams are investigating with high priority. We’ll share verified updates and next steps as soon as we have more information. — Balancer (@Balancer) November 3, 2025 What we Know About the Balancer Hack So Far The attack targeted Balancer’s V2 vaults and liquidity pools, exploiting a vulnerability in smart contract interactions. Preliminary analysis from on-chain investigators points to a maliciously deployed contract that manipulated Vault calls during pool initialization. Improper authorization and callback handling allowed the attacker to bypass safeguards. This enabled unauthorized swaps or balance manipulations across interconnected pools, resulting in the rapid depletion of assets. The exploiter initiated a series of transactions starting with a key Ethereum mainnet transaction (0xd155207261712c35fa3d472ed1e51bfcd816e616dd4f517fa5959836f5b48569), which funneled assets to a new wallet under their control. Funds were then consolidated, likely for laundering via mixers or bridges. Balancer’s composable design, where pools interact heavily, amplified the flaw. Similar issues have plagued AMMs before, often tied to how they handle deflationary tokens or pool rebalancing. Full forensic details are still emerging, with auditors like PeckShield and Nansen involved. There is no evidence of a private key compromise; this was a pure smart contract exploit. The swift execution of the transfers suggests the attacker had a deep understanding of Balancer’s smart contracts, potentially exploiting a flaw in how the platform handles swaps or manages pool balances. DISCOVER: The 12+ Hottest Crypto Presales to Buy Right Now Balancer Reacts, Community on Edge At the time of writing, Balancer has posted just one update, confirming the hack and assuring the community an investigation is underway. The DeFi protocols post on X reads: “We’re aware of a potential exploit impacting Balancer v2 pools. Our engineering and security teams are investigating with high priority. We’ll share verified updates and next steps as soon as we have more information.” The lack of communication has fueled uncertainty within the DeFi community, as users scramble to understand the scope and cause of the breach. Blockchain analysts have advised traders to refrain from interacting with Balancer pools until further information is released, warning that additional vulnerabilities may still be present. Market Cap 24h 7d 30d 1y All Time Meanwhile, Balancer’s native token, BAL, has declined by over 15% in the past 24 hours, due to both shaky market conditions and investor unease with the latest eight-figure exploit. Worryingly, this is not Balancer’s first encounter with hackers. In fact, the platform has now suffered three major security incidents in five years, an unsettling record for one of DeFi’s longest-running protocols. In 2020, attackers exploited Balancer’s handling of deflationary tokens, draining roughly $500,000. Then, in 2023, another vulnerability in its “boosted pools” led to $900,000 in losses despite prior security warnings. The latest $70M attack dwarfs those previous incidents, making it Balancer’s most severe exploit to date and one of the largest DeFi hacks of 2025. DISCOVER: 15+ Upcoming Coinbase Listings to Watch in 2025 Update to the Balancer Hack: More Funds Drained Across Multiple Networks Update: @Balancer and its forks are under attack, with total losses across multiple chains reaching ~$128.64M so far. https://t.co/67XGX5RcRR pic.twitter.com/FIwx20ALSz — PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) November 3, 2025 Multiple blockchain analysts have released an update on the Balancer breach within the last hour. As of now, over $128 million has been drained by the hacker across multiple chains to which the Balancer protocol is forked. Over $99M has now been stolen from Ethereum, while $12.8M has been drained from Berachain, $6.8M from Arbitrum, $3.9M from Base, $3.4M from Sonic, $1.58M from Optimism, and $232K from Polygon. The hack on the smaller chains represents a significant percentage of the network’s TVL (Total Value Locked). For example, per DefiLlama data, Sonic has just $150M in TVL and has been drained for $3.4M, approximately 2% of the total value locked on the network. It is concerning from an optics point of view that the attack appears to be still ongoing, with more funds being lost even now, and no update from the Balancer team since 10:00 UTC. EXPLORE: Best Meme Coin ICOs to Invest in 2025 Join The 99Bitcoins News Discord Here For The Latest Market Updates The post Balancer Hack: $70M Lost in Record Ethereum DeFi Breach appeared first on 99Bitcoins.

BNB Chain's major hard fork, which would reduce the block interval by 40%, among other improvements, is moving closer to reality as developers announce the date for the testnet's release.

Augur, one of the earliest decentralized prediction market protocols, is set to undergo what it is calling “crypto’s first algorithmic fork,” following a community effort to test the protocol's built-in dispute system.Ethereum ecosystem developer and Augur contributor Micah Zoltu has collected 200,000 REP — Augur’s governance token — to fund the Augur v2 fork through a crowdsourcing contract, according to an Oct. 24 X post from Augur’s official account. In Zoltu’s blog post describing the initiative, published in June, the collected REP will be used to trigger a fork of the Ethereum-based prediction market platform. The process mimics an attack on the protocol, which costs approximately 200,000 REP, with the end goal of filtering out passive REP holders, the post explains. Zoltu also notes that participants will lose their deposited REP in the process.To continue reading this as well as other DeFi and Web3 news, visit us at thedefiant.io

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has announced a change to the upcoming Fusaka hard fork that will introduce a per-transaction gas limit cap.The EF unveiled the change via its blog today, with the update, also known as EIP-7825, already live on the Holesky and Sepolia testnet networks. EIP-7825 is expected to launch on the Ethereum mainnet when Fusaka goes live in December.Currently, a single transaction can fill an entire block's 45 million gas limit, which could inhibit parallel execution and open the door to Denial of Service (DOS) attacks. The change will set a per-transaction gas limit of 16.78 million to mitigate potential issues.To continue reading this as well as other DeFi and Web3 news, visit us at thedefiant.io

Ethereum’s biggest threat might actually be what most see as its next milestone — institutional adoption. At least that’s what pcaversaccio, a pseudonymous analyst at blockchain security firm Seal 911, suggested recently on X, warning that traditional finance could tame the network’s open, cypherpunk spirit.In a late September post, pcaversaccio argued that as bigger finance players enter the ecosystem, the more “influence they wanna have on future hard fork decisions,” treating compliance as a feature rather than a constraint.“Look, you can go all mainstream, but we should actually celebrate it when Ethereum isn't chosen by tradfi clowns. That means we're doing something right. I won't let Ethereum be tamed, neutered, or turned into just another corporate playground. Never,” pcaversaccio wrote.To continue reading this as well as other DeFi and Web3 news, visit us at thedefiant.io