Key Highlights
- Autheo issued an October 17 advisory asking users to refrain from buying, selling, or bridging THEO until further notice.
- The project said it is working with technical partners to establish what happened and promised to share verified information as it becomes available.
- The earlier October 12 exploit reportedly involved an attacker using a trusted relayer key to mint 19 million unbacked THEO tokens through the Hyperlane bridge on Base.
Autheo Network, a Layer-0 operating system, issued a community update advising users not to buy, sell, or bridge THEO while its team assesses a recent security incident.
In an X post on October 17, the project said it was working with technical partners to determine what happened and identify the appropriate next steps. It added that it would share verified information as it becomes available, emphasizing transparency and accountability during the investigation.
The advisory follows an earlier incident involving the THEO token on Base. On October 12, an attacker reportedly used a single trusted relayer key to mint 19 million unbacked THEO tokens through the project’s Hyperlane bridge and sold them into liquidity pools.
The loss was estimated at $1.7 million. Defimon Alerts, a DeFi security monitoring feed operated by Decurity, published an alert at 08:07 UTC on October 13. PeckShield separately reported that the minted THEO was swapped for 700.8 Ether, valued at approximately $1.76 million at the time, and that the ETH was then bridged from Base to the Ethereum mainnet.
What Autheo said in its latest update
In its latest statement, Autheo acknowledged community concerns and uncertainty surrounding the incident. The team said it is taking the matter seriously and remains focused on keeping the community informed as the assessment continues.
The project explicitly asked users to refrain from buying, selling, or bridging THEO until further notice.
The update did not provide additional technical details on the scope of the incident or any recovery measures under consideration. It also did not reference specific losses beyond the earlier reports tied to the October 12 minting event.
THEO price remains under pressure
According to data from GeckoTerminal (on October 18 at 19:46 UTC), THEO traded at $0.0001716 on Uniswap V4 (Base), down 4.37% on the daily timeframe. The session opened at $0.0001795, matched that level as the high, and reached a low of $0.0001716 before closing at the same figure. The net decline measured $0.0000078.
The displayed price data showed limited recovery after the decline, with the token trading near its session low. The chart also recorded a volume SMA reading of zero, although the displayed figure does not establish that trading activity had ceased.
Other security-related responses across the sector
The Autheo advisory occurs against a backdrop of other security-related actions reported across the sector in recent months.
Earlier this month, MetaMask disclosed a security incident affecting part of its infrastructure and began removing its staking unit’s Ethereum validators from Lido. The company stated it had identified no immediate threat to MetaMask wallets.
Prior to that, on August 25, Cosmos Labs advised Cosmos EVM chains in contact with it to have validators halt their networks while responding to an ongoing incident. MANTRA Chain also halted its network on August 21 after detecting an unidentified incident, temporarily freezing transactions while it investigated.
Autheo’s latest communication centers on the request to pause THEO-related activity pending further assessment. The earlier October 12 incident involved the minting and sale of unbacked tokens via the Hyperlane bridge, resulting in the reported transfer of approximately 700.8 ETH to Ethereum mainnet. The October 17 update did not provide further confirmed figures on the total impact or progress toward remediation.
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