The Sandbox bridge exploit prompts South Korean exchanges to caution SAND trading
first published 2026-08-24T06:58:56Z
An attacker exploited The Sandbox’s SAND omnichain token on Base by abusing approveAndCall to hijack LayerZero delegate permissions, minting 329.24 trillion unbacked SAND across 703 events. The apparent $49 billion face value was not realized; about 14.75 million SAND was actually drained from the Ethereum OFT Adapter, worth roughly 80 ETH or $675,000. The Sandbox shut down bridging on Base and BNB Smart Chain, removed LayerZero peers, and said Ethereum and Polygon SAND were unaffected while exchanges and Coinbase took precautionary actions.
AI Analysis
The summary describes a bridge exploit that minted unbacked tokens, drained funds, and forced The Sandbox to shut down bridging and remove peers, with exchanges taking precautionary actions. These are concrete negative security and liquidity events that can trigger short-term selling pressure.
Expected Investor Sentiment: Very Bearish
Potential Market Impact: High
