Initia hack drove its USDC bridge reserve down to $63 as withdrawals failed
Bitquery linked failed exits to depleted backing for Initia balances as the project outlined a patch and ongoing recovery work. Read the full story on CryptoSlateUnderstand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox
USDC withdrawal attempts on Initia failed after an attacker depleted the reserves needed to cash out tokens held on the blockchain network, according to Bitquery's investigation of the October 23 exploit.
The Noble blockchain held the USDC reserve backing representations of the stablecoin on Initia. Bitquery found that this reserve fell from about $1 million before the cash-outs to an intraday low of $63 at 15:37 UTC on October 23. It reported roughly $24,000 at its later 18:52 UTC check that day.
The firm counted 55 failed ordinary USDC withdrawal attempts before the halt, most from one bot repeatedly submitting the same balance. Larger withdrawal requests from the attacker also failed as the reserve ran short.
@initia said its L1 and rollups halted at 15:41:30 UTC on October 23. Co-founder @ItsAlwaysZonny initially estimated that about $3 million had been bridged out before the pause.
Bitquery's estimate was about $3 million in real assets paid from bridge reserves, distinct from the roughly $7 million face value it assigned to unauthorized balances.
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