Metaverse platform The Sandbox confirmed recently that an exploited bridge let an attacker mint unbacked SAND on Base and BNB Smart Chain, prompting an immediate shutdown.
Key Takeaways
Peckshield flagged roughly 14.9 billion unbacked SAND minted across two addresses on August 21.The Sandbox disabled Base and BSC bridging subsequently, shielding Ethereum and Polygon-based SAND holders.The Sandbox is preparing LP compensation as Coinbase plans to delist SAND futures on August 26.In each case, the fabricated tokens carried no real value and could be neutralized once the affected chain froze the exploited contract.
The Sandbox said the incident affected less than 0.01% of SAND’s total supply in terms of genuine backing at risk. SAND held on Ethereum and Polygon, user wallets across the ecosystem, and the Ethereum-locked assets that back the token remained untouched throughout the exploit, the company said.
The platform is now preparing a compensation plan for eligible liquidity providers who held positions affected by the unbacked minting, and it has advised users not to trade SAND on Base or BSC until the bridges are restored.
Open positions will be settled automatically at that point, adding a second source of near-term volatility on top of the bridge incident.
The next step for The Sandbox is a post-mortem on how the bridge’s minting controls failed and a security audit before Base and BSC bridging is switched back on.
