Shibarium Team Prepares Bridge Restart With Reimbursement Plans

Shibarium developers said Thursday they are preparing to restart the platform’s Ethereum bridge and are working on a reimbursement plan for users affected by a $4 million exploit that forced an emergency shutdown earlier this month.

In a post-mortem report, the team confirmed that all validator keys have been rotated and more than 100 ecosystem contracts migrated to secure wallets. Developers also said they had recovered 4.6 million BONE tokens from the attacker’s contract in the days following the incident.

The exploit, which took place on September 12, was triggered when a hacker submitted fake data to Shibarium’s Ethereum-linked contracts, prompting the system to automatically shut down as a precaution.

At the same time, the attacker temporarily staked millions of dollars’ worth of BONE, Shibarium’s governance token, in an attempt to meet validator thresholds and gain partial control over the network.

Impact and Response

The attacker ultimately drained about $4.1 million in Ethereum (ETH), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and 15 other tokens from the bridge, according to a September 17 community update.

Following the attack, lead developer Kaal Dhairya said authorities had been contacted and extended an offer to negotiate with the attacker, including a 50 ETH bonus (around $225,000 at the time) if the stolen assets were returned. No agreement was reached, and the funds have since been moved.

🚨 Shibarium Bridge Security Update 🚨

Earlier today, a sophisticated ( probably planned for months ) attack was carried out using a flash loan to purchase 4.6M BONE. The attacker gained access to validator signing keys, achieved majority validator power, and signed a malicious…
— Kaal (@kaaldhairya) September 13, 2025

The development team has assured that a reimbursement framework is being designed to compensate users affected by the breach, though details have not yet been finalized.

The exploit has weighed heavily on Shibarium ecosystem tokens. SHIB is down about 13% since the day of the attack, trading at $0.00001269, while BONE has fallen more than 43%, trading at $0.1391, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Despite the price declines, developers emphasized that the protocol remains operational and that strengthening network security remains their top priority as the bridge relaunch approaches.