The Sandbox suffered a cross-chain bridge exploit on its Base and BNB Smart Chain deployments. Security firm PeckShield reported that an attacker minted 14.9 billion unbacked SAND tokens across two wallets, valued at approximately $718 million. The exploit compromised the project’s Omnichain Fungible Token on Base, allowing unauthorized minting. The project team confirmed the vulnerability was contained and that SAND tokens on Ethereum and Polygon were unaffected. Following the news, the SAND token price slipped 5%.
The Web3 gaming project The Sandbox experienced a cross-chain bridge exploit that affected its SAND token on Base and BNB Smart Chain. According to PeckShield, the attacker minted 14.9 billion unbacked SAND tokens across two wallet addresses, valued at approximately $718 million.
A separate security firm, Blockaid, clarified that the issue involved The Sandbox’s SAND Omnichain Fungible Token on Base. Blockaid stated that the attacker compromised the Base OFT and gained administrative permissions for minting, denying any blame against LayerZero.
The project team stated that it had identified and “contained” the vulnerability. They downplayed the minted tokens, adding, “The impact is minimal, representing less than 0.01% of the total SAND token supply. SAND tokens on Ethereum and Polygon are NOT affected. No user wallets were compromised.”
The team cautioned users against dealing with the SAND token on Base or BSC and disabled movement between those networks. Affected liquidity providers due to the illegal mint will be compensated after further review.
Following the announcement, the SAND token price slipped 5%, partly erasing over 30% of gains seen this week amid broader market recovery. This exploit adds to a year of significant crypto losses, totaling approximately $1.6 billion on a year-on-year basis. Nearly $400 million has been lost in the past 90 days alone, with attacks affecting hardware wallets and payment providers.
