Initia halts blockchain after $615,000 exploit as INIT jumps 61%

The team said it coordinated the shutdown with validators to prevent further transfers. Its preliminary investigation found that compromised rollup infrastructure keys were used to fabricate Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) transfers. Before the halt, about $605,000 in USDC and another $10,000 in other tokens had left the network through Noble. Initia said most of the other assets moved from affected escrow accounts remained on the halted chain.

Blockchain security firm CertiK reported roughly $636,000 in suspicious outflows across 16 successful IBC transfers from an Initia address to Noble. That estimate exceeds Initia’s preliminary figure; neither amount establishes the final unrecoverable loss. Initia said it was working with security specialists, validators and exchanges to assess the incident. It has not disclosed how the keys were obtained, when block production will resume or whether affected users will be reimbursed.

The shutdown is Initia’s second security-related halt in less than three weeks. On October 23, the team suspended the network after an attacker exploited a vulnerability in its MoveVM script-caching system, enabling malicious code to bypass checks and create unbacked WETH, iUSD and USDC balances. Initia said about $2.7 million was bridged out before validators stopped the chain, including 105 WETH, approximately 1.4 million AUSD0 and roughly 1.08 million USDC. The attacker exchanged the assets for 1,135.52 ETH on Ethereum. Initia said no INIT tokens were minted in that incident. Operations resumed on November 2 after security work and a MoveVM patch.

On November 9, Initia disclosed another issue affecting rollup infrastructure and said it had coordinated temporary pauses to rollups while the main chain remained active. The team then said it had identified no impact to user funds. A subsequent investigation uncovered the escrow transfers that led to the November 10 halt. Initia has not said whether the two incidents involved the same attacker or identified the affected rollups.

CoinGecko data put INIT near $0.2057 after it moved from about $0.12 to above $0.23 during the trading period. Its 24-hour trading volume was approximately $84.81 million, and its market capitalization was near $46.37 million. CoinGecko listed about 220 million INIT in circulation and a 54.22% gain over seven days. Initia warned users to avoid unofficial links, messages and recovery claims while the investigation continues.