Reports: Cosmos Hub Moves to Secure 1.23M ATOM via Emergency Upgrade
CIE News ·
Cosmos Hub validators have reportedly moved to intercept and secure roughly 1,227,121 ATOM following an apparent governance exploit originating on the Neutron network, according to developing disclosures and validator monitoring reports. Early incident reports indicate that an attacker successfully passed a malicious governance proposal on Neutron, thereby gaining unauthorized control over key smart contract permissions. Leveraging these hijacked administrative privileges, the exploiter reportedly siphoned an estimated $9.4 million to $9.5 million from decentralized finance liquidity pools connected to Astroport and Drop.
In the aftermath of the drainage on the Neutron network, the attacker reportedly transferred approximately 1.73 million ATOM across to the Cosmos Hub. To prevent the further dissemination of the compromised assets, Cosmos Hub validators coordinated an emergency network halt that reportedly lasted about 24.5 hours. During the extended downtime, validators and software engineers prepared and deployed the Gaia v28.3.0 software update, a targeted emergency release designed to isolate the illicitly bridged tokens before they could be transferred further.
Under the newly enacted Gaia v28.3.0 protocol update, network validators reportedly succeeded in intercepting 1,227,121 ATOM from the incoming transaction batch and depositing the capital into a validator-managed community multisig wallet. While investigations into the incident remain ongoing across the broader ecosystem, preliminary reports indicate that the rapid intervention curtailed further transfers on the hub. Contributors and validator teams are reportedly continuing their analysis of the event as the community monitors the status of the secured multisig reserves.