Berachain Launches Emergency Hard Fork to Fix Balancer Hack Vulnerabilities

The Berachain Foundation has announced a hard fork and distributed a new binary designed to fix vulnerabilities linked to the recent Balancer V2 hack. The team revealed that validators coordinated a temporary network shutdown to prevent further exploitation of a critical vulnerability in BEX, a Berachain-based decentralized exchange. Some validators have already upgraded to the latest client version, though network operations remain suspended. “Before we relaunch the network and resume block production, we want to ensure that key infrastructure partners required for the network to operate have updated their RPCs. They are therefore the primary blockers for restoring network activity at this stage,” the statement reads. White-Hat Hacker Steps Forward as Berachain Plans Relaunch The statement also noted that the current holder of the stolen funds — the operator of a MEV bot on Berachain has confirmed his willingness to return the stolen assets. Identifying himself as a white-hat (ethical) hacker, he reportedly agreed to sign the necessary transactions to return the funds once the network is restored Following the relaunch, the Berachain team plans to publish a detailed overview of new security measures across BEX, other core applications, and the broader Berachain ecosystem. The project also intends to outline its future development roadmap and assess the impact of the recent events on its long-term strategy. The Berachain team emphasized that restoring community confidence is its top priority moving forward. A Rapid Rise and a Sudden Challenge In February 2025, Berachain surpassed the Base and Arbitrum networks in total value locked (TVL), reaching $3.24 billion. However, its TVL has since dropped sharply to $393 million, reflecting the impact of recent incidents and network instability. Despite the setback, Berachain’s quick response and open communication have earned praise across parts of the DeFi community—many of whom see the event as a crucial test of resilience for the fast-growing network.