Berachain’s Big Oopsie: $117M Hack Forces Network Nap Time 😴🐻⛓️

by

Oh, look who’s having a midlife crisis! Berachain, the Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, just hit pause on its network after a massive Balancer exploit drained $117 million like it was a Black Friday sale.Validators decided, “Oopsie! Let’s all take a nap while devs fix this!” 🛑💤

Berachain validators coordinated to “halt” the network (read: press panic button) as the core team scrambled to hard fork their way out of a Balancer V2 mess. The halt? “Purposeful,” they said. The network? “Operational shortly.” Meanwhile, we’re all just here sipping tea and rolling our eyes. 🍵👀

– Berachain Foundation 🐻⛓ (@berachain) November 3, 2025

The exploit targeted the Ethena/Honey tripool with a smart contract transaction so complicated it could’ve won an Oscar. Since it involved non-native assets (not just BERA), the fix required more than a slapdash hard fork. The foundation reassured everyone the pause was “intentional” and temporary-because nothing says “trust us” like halting a blockchain mid-sentence. 🙃

Emergency Response and Validator Coordination

Berachain’s Chief Smokey Officer, Smokey The Bera, addressed the community on X with the grace of a man explaining why he’s 30 minutes late to a Zoom meeting. “We know you’ll be unhappy about this contentious decision,” he said, as if asking users to trust a network halt is like asking your ex to return your calls. 💔

“Berachain isn’t as decentralized as Ethereum daily,” Smokey admitted, “but hey, when $12m of user funds are at risk, we’ll play dictator for a day!” Because nothing screams “decentralized ethos” like validators holding hands and stopping the blockchain cold turkey. 🤝❄️

The exploit hit the Ethena/Honey tripool with a transaction so fancy it could’ve been a TikTok trend. Since it affected non-native assets, the fix needed more than a hard fork-hence the full-on network snooze. But hey, at least they’re not pretending to be more decentralized than they are! 🙌

– Berachain Foundation 🐻⛓ (@berachain) November 3, 2025

While Berachain’s drama unfolded, the Balancer exploit also crashed Ethereum, Base, Optimism, and Polygon like a rogue party guest. The thief walked off with 7,838 WETH ($29.1M), 6,841 osETH ($26.8M), and enough LST tokens to fund a lifetime supply of avocado toast. And yes, they converted it all to ETH live, because crypto theft is basically a Netflix show now. 🎬💸

This chaos came just two weeks after Greenlane raised $110M for BERA, Berachain’s native token. Polychain Capital and Kraken, among others, threw cash and tokens at the project like it was a crypto version of Shark Tank. Now, though, they’re probably wondering if they should’ve invested in a life raft instead. 🛶

Is Blockchain Halt Viable on Decentralized Ethos?

Berachain’s emergency halt shows how tough it is to balance security and decentralization. Critics are thrilled to point out that halting a network goes against the “decentralized ethos”-which is now clearly just a marketing buzzword. One X user snarked, “Decentralization isn’t hard-coded; it’s just a lie we tell ourselves until a hack happens.” 💬🔥

Uttam Singh of Alchemy, meanwhile, shrugged and said, “Sure, it goes against crypto ethos, but saving users’ money is the right call.” Because nothing says “ethos” like prioritizing money over principles. 🤷♂️💰

@berachain halted their network to de-risk Balancer forks. The team probably lost sleep over this decision, but at least they’re not pretending to be more decentralized than they are. Yes, it’s a bit of a betrayal… but hey, who needs ideals when you’ve got ETH? 🚨

– Uttam (@uttam_singhk) November 3, 2025

Berachain’s network pause proves that even in crypto, sometimes you have to fake it till you make it. The real question is: Will users trust them again once the dust settles? Spoiler: Probably not. But hey, at least they’re not on fire. 🔥

Read More

2025-11-03 16:11