Network Status and Response
The Berachain Foundation announced late Monday that it has distributed an emergency hard fork binary to validators as part of a coordinated network response. This hard fork addresses issues stemming from an incident that affected Balancer V2 pools and forks across multiple blockchain networks.
The foundation stated that many validators have completed upgrades to the distributed binary, which implements protective measures for the network. Core infrastructure partners necessary for chain operations must update their RPCs before the network resumes block production, representing the main blocker to restoring liveness.
Incident Details and Financial Impact
Validators temporarily halted the Berachain network on November 3rd following an incident affecting BEX, the network's native decentralized exchange. The event impacted approximately $12 million primarily from BEX's Ethena/Honey tripool. The broader incident affected pools across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, and Polygon, totaling roughly $128 million.
Fund Recovery and Cooperation
Berachain Foundation revealed it is in conversation with the current holder of the affected funds, identified as an MEV bot operator who has indicated cooperative intentions. The operator has expressed willingness to pre-sign transactions for fund returns once the chain resumes operations, representing a positive development in the recovery process.
Industry Support for Network Halt
The decision to halt the network drew support from industry observers. Smokey The Bera, co-founder of Berachain, described the action as necessary to safeguard user deposits. On-chain investigator ZachXBT endorsed the pause, characterizing it as a move prioritizing users over continuous operations.
Future Safety Measures and Technical Considerations
Once the chain is live again, the foundation will provide a comprehensive rundown of safety measures implemented across BEX, other core applications, and Berachain as a whole. The foundation explained that because the incident affected non-native assets beyond just $BERA, the rollback and rollforward process involves additional technical considerations.