Initia Halts Its Blockchain and Rollups After Infinimint Exploit Drains About $2.6 Million
Published October 23, 2026, 10:15 PM PKT. Based on the Initia team statement of October 23, 2026, 15:41 UTC (primary source, quoted by CoinEdition), and reporting by CoinEdition, Bitcoin Sistemi, The Defiant, Crypto Briefing, PANews, KuCoin and Odaily on October 23, 2026 (secondary sources).
Initia halted its layer 1 blockchain and its connected rollups on October 23, 2026 after a security incident, the project confirmed in a statement timed at 15:41 UTC, or 08:41 PM PKT. The halt followed reports from blockchain researcher Spreek that an attacker had exploited an unlimited token minting flaw, an infinimint, to create tokens with no cap and convert them into assets with real value, cashing out about $2.6 million by the time of the first reports, with additional funds still in transit, according to Spreek. Initia said its team is investigating the incident with security teams, validators and exchanges to establish the full scope of any impact, and warned users to rely only on official channels and to be wary of fake links and messages circulating during the incident. The project has not confirmed the technical cause of the incident or a final loss figure, and the $2.6 million figure remains a researcher estimate, not an official total.
The halt: Initia stops its L1 and rollups at 15:41 UTC
Initia's statement was short and unambiguous. As of October 23, 2026, 3:41:30 PM UTC, the Initia L1 and rollups have been halted due to a security incident, the team posted, according to CoinEdition, which quoted the statement in full. The team said it is actively investigating the situation and working to establish the full scope of any impact with security teams, validators and exchanges, and promised further information through official channels. Bitcoin Sistemi, reporting the shutdown at 16:35 UTC, confirmed the same picture: the mainnet and rollup networks were shut down, and the team was working with security organizations, validators and cryptocurrency exchanges to determine the impact. The Defiant also reported the halt on October 23, updating its story at 16:51 UTC, and noted Ethereum records showing stablecoin swaps and a later transfer of 1,135.5 ETH. A halted chain is a drastic step, and it is also the containment measure: with the network stopped, no further unauthorized minting or movement can happen on Initia itself while investigators trace what already left.
How the mint worked, according to the tracers
The clearest reconstruction so far comes from D2 Finance, whose analysis was reported by CoinEdition. D2 Finance traced the exploit to a transaction at 14:59:26 UTC that allegedly created 2 million AUSD tokens without sufficient backing. About 153 seconds later, a LayerZero message triggered the release of 1.4 million AUSD from an adapter on Ethereum, according to the same analysis. The attacker also obtained approximately 1.08 million USDC through the unauthorized minting of tokens, D2 Finance said, and then swapped the stablecoins for Ether through the aggregators 1inch and 0x, draining assets from several bridge adapters in the process. D2 Finance said the attacker subsequently consolidated 1,135.52 ETH, worth approximately $2.73 million, in a newly created wallet, a figure that represents the assets traced to that wallet rather than a confirmed final loss for Initia, CoinEdition stressed. A separate KuCoin flash report, citing Spreek, added that the attacker's Ethereum address, beginning with 0xDD9, held about 1,102 ETH worth approximately $2.65 million, with its initial funding traced to Tornado Cash, and that the attacker's address on the Initia chain still held assets worth approximately $4.54 million, including 3 million iUSD, 920,000 USDC, 400,000 AUSD and 95 ETH. The figures differ because they were captured at different times while funds were still moving, which is exactly why Initia's final accounting matters more than any single snapshot.
Upbit halts INIT transfers and warns traders
South Korea's largest exchange moved first among trading venues. Upbit announced it had temporarily suspended deposit and withdrawal services for INIT, citing indications of a security incident on the Initia network, according to Bitcoin Sistemi, and linked the reopening of transfers to verifying the security of deposit and withdrawal transactions, with no restart time announced. Upbit also issued a separate statement warning INIT investors of potential increased price volatility, Bitcoin Sistemi reported, and that warning does not mean a delisting or a suspension of trading: the announced restrictions cover deposits and withdrawals only. Odaily's flash feed added that Bithumb also issued a warning on Initia, and that INIT deposits and withdrawals were suspended at the Korean exchanges, while Upbit separately placed INIT on a trading risk notice. For holders, the practical effect is narrow but real: INIT can still trade on Upbit, but it cannot be moved in or out until the exchange is satisfied the network is safe again, which leaves traders exposed to price moves they cannot hedge by transferring coins elsewhere.
What is still unknown, and what Initia has not confirmed
Three questions remain open, and readers should treat any answer to them as unconfirmed until Initia or an auditor states it. First, the technical cause: Initia has not confirmed how the attacker gained unlimited minting ability, and one early flash report raising a possible MoveVM vulnerability remains speculation, not a finding. Second, the final loss: the $2.6 million cashed out figure, the $2.73 million traced wallet figure and the $4.54 million still sitting on the Initia chain address are all researcher snapshots taken while funds were moving, and none of them is Initia's official total. Third, the restart: neither Initia nor Upbit has given a date for resuming the chain or transfers, and both have tied resumption to completing their security checks. What is confirmed is the sequence that matters most to users: unauthorized minting happened, value left through bridges, the chain is halted, and the exchanges that list INIT have restricted movement. Until the restart criteria are met, anyone holding INIT or tokens on Initia rollups should assume their funds are frozen in place and should not trust unofficial links promising recovery or migration.
What Initia is, and why a minting flaw hits bridges hardest
Initia is a modular layer 1 blockchain built around interwoven rollups, according to Crypto Briefing, with its mainnet and native token INIT launching in 2025. INIT has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, Crypto Briefing reported, and the project raised about $24 million from investors including Binance Labs and Delphi Digital, and has gone through multiple security audits. The project is not new to operational trouble: it previously ran into a significant configuration error involving INIT staking rewards, Crypto Briefing noted, an incident that was not an exploit and was resolved in 2025 through governance actions. The October 23 incident is different in kind, because it strikes at the trust assumption bridges depend on. A bridge adapter releases real assets on one chain when it is told tokens were locked or minted legitimately on another, so an attacker who can mint unbacked tokens on Initia can present them to adapters on Ethereum and walk away with real stablecoins and Ether, which is what D2 Finance's trace describes. CoinEdition drew the parallel with a September incident involving unbacked L-BTC, where a software bug reportedly enabled the creation of unbacked tokens and withdrawals of real bitcoin. The lesson for users is structural, not specific to Initia: any chain whose minting controls fail can turn its bridges into exits, and a halted chain is the only reliable way to stop that exit once it starts.
This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.
Sources
- Initia, team statement on the L1 and rollup halt (October 23, 2026, 15:41 UTC), primary source, quoted by CoinEdition
- CoinEdition, Initia Halts Blockchain and Rollups After Exploit Puts (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- Bitcoin Sistemi, Attack Alert for This Altcoin: Network Shut Down, Added to Upbit Warning List (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- The Defiant, Initia Halts L1 and Rollups After Reported Mint Exploit (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- Crypto Briefing, Hacker Mints Tokens on Initia Chain, Cashes Out About $2.6 Million (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- PANews, Initia Chain Reportedly Attacked; Hacker Has Cashed Out About $2.6 Million With Funds Still Moving (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- KuCoin, Initia Chain Suspected of Being Hacked; Attacker Withdraws $2.6M (October 23, 2026), secondary source
- Odaily, Initia Suspends L1 and Rollup Operations Due to Security Incident (October 23, 2026), secondary source
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