Berachain Achieves Full $12.8M Recovery from Balancer Exploit via White-Hat Aid

• Full recovery of $12.8 million from BEX pools via negotiator and white-hat assistance.

• Balancer hack drained over $117 million across chains including Ethereum and Berachain on November 3, 2025.

• Emergency pause and hard fork prevented further losses, with 50% of stolen funds swapped to ETH; Balancer offered 20% bounty.

Discover Berachain fund recovery details after Balancer exploit. Full $12.8M restored via white-hat help. Explore DeFi security lessons and ecosystem impact. Stay informed on crypto resilience today!

What is Berachain’s Fund Recovery After the Balancer Exploit?

Berachain fund recovery refers to the complete restitution of approximately $12.8 million drained from its BEX liquidity pools during the Balancer V2 protocol exploit on November 3, 2025. The Berachain Foundation collaborated with a white-hat hacker to retrieve the assets, which were returned to the foundation’s deployer wallet. This swift action, following an emergency network pause, highlights effective crisis management in decentralized finance, resuming normal operations like HONEY token minting shortly after.

How Did the White-Hat Hacker Assist in Berachain’s Fund Recovery?

The white-hat hacker played a pivotal role by cooperating with the Berachain team after the exploit targeted the Ethena/HONEY tripool via a precision error in Balancer’s manageUserBalance function. This vulnerability allowed the attacker to manipulate non-native assets, siphoning funds across multiple chains. According to statements from the Berachain Foundation, the ethical hacker facilitated negotiations with the MEV operator involved, leading to the full return of assets. The foundation expressed gratitude and is considering a bounty reward, underscoring the value of community-driven security in DeFi. Data from on-chain analytics shows the recovery represented 100% restitution for Berachain, contrasting with partial recoveries elsewhere. Experts like those from blockchain security firms note that such collaborations can reduce response times from days to hours, emphasizing proactive auditing and rapid forking as key defenses.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Caused the Balancer Exploit Affecting Berachain?

The Balancer exploit stemmed from a precision error in the V2 Composable Stable Pools’ manageUserBalance function, enabling the attacker to drain over $117 million from protocols on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Sonic, and Berachain. This occurred on November 3, 2025, with the attacker swapping more than 50% of funds to ETH. Berachain’s quick pause limited losses to $12.8 million from its pools.

How Has Berachain Resumed Operations Post-Fund Recovery?

Following the Berachain fund recovery, the network unpaused core functions including swaps, deposits, withdrawals, and HONEY minting and redemption. Developers implemented an emergency hard fork to secure the chain, restoring full live status. This natural response ensures seamless user experience while maintaining security protocols against similar DeFi vulnerabilities.

Key Takeaways

• Rapid Response Saves Assets: Berachain’s emergency pause and hard fork contained the exploit, recovering all $12.8 million and preventing wider damage.
• White-Hat Collaboration Key: Ethical hackers can turn exploits into recoveries, as seen with Berachain’s full restitution versus partial ones like StakeWise’s $20 million.
• Balance Security and Decentralization: Network halts spark debate but prioritize user funds; implement stronger audits and composable pool safeguards moving forward.

Conclusion

The Berachain fund recovery after the Balancer exploit exemplifies resilience in the DeFi landscape, with the full $12.8 million restoration via white-hat assistance and coordinated validator actions. This event, amid the broader $117 million hack across chains, reinforces the importance of swift interventions and ethical cooperation in blockchain security. As the ecosystem evolves, projects like Berachain demonstrate that transparent governance can rebuild trust, paving the way for more secure decentralized innovations in the coming years. Investors and users should monitor ongoing developments to navigate similar risks effectively.

Berachain confirms full fund recovery with white-hat help, resumes HONEY operations, and considers bounty after Balancer exploit.

Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain Berachain has successfully recovered the approximate $12.8 million lost in the Balancer exploit, marking one of the rare full restitution cases in DeFi history.

The recovery comes just days after the massive Balancer protocol hack that drained over $117 million across multiple blockchains.

Berachain pulls off rare full recovery

In an update posted on X, the Berachain Foundation confirmed that all funds drained from its BEX pools had been returned to the foundation’s deployer wallet.

The recovery was achieved with the help of a white-hat hacker who cooperated following the network’s emergency restart. The foundation said it will consider issuing a bounty reward to the ethical hacker in appreciation for returning the assets.

Berachain has since unpaused core network functions, such as HONEY minting and redemption, to normal operations following a few days of intense crisis management.

Following the exploit, Berachain temporarily halted all swaps, deposits, and withdrawals to prevent further damage. This quick action helped contain the situation as developers and validators researched the vulnerability associated with the V2 protocol of Balancer.

How Berachain’s emergency pause saved millions

Berachain’s Chief Smokey Officer, Smokey The Bera, addressed the community on X, acknowledging the gravity of the decision to pause the blockchain.

“I’m sure that some won’t be happy about this, and we recognize that this could be seen as a contentious decision,” he said. “when approximately $12m of user funds are at risk from a malicious attacker, we attempted to coordinate the validator set to protect those users.”

The network pause allowed developers to apply a deeper technical fix, as the exploit targeted the Ethena/Honey tripool through a complex transaction involving non-native assets.

Validators later issued an emergency hard fork to freeze the attacker’s wallet, ultimately leading to the recovery of the stolen funds after negotiations with the MEV operator behind the exploit.

Inside the $117 Balancer hack saga

The Balancer exploit, which occurred on November 3, targeted its V2 Composable Stable Pools, and took advantage of an error in precision in the manageUserBalance function.

The attacker emptied approximately $117 million in various blockchains such as Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon, Sonic, and Berachain.

Over 50% of stolen money was immediately exchanged to ETH, which plunged Balancer into recovery mode. The protocol provided a 20% white-hat bounty of approximately $25.6 million, and requested the attacker to provide the money back within 48 hours.

The incident has reignited debate around the security limits of composable DeFi architectures. Interestingly, StakeWise, a liquid staking platform, also managed to recover nearly $20 million from the same exploit, further highlighting how coordinated responses can mitigate large-scale DeFi losses.

Crypto community divided over blockchain halt

Although the decisive move by Berachain helped to avoid larger losses, it also led to the debate of the trade-off between decentralization and security.

Some critics believe that the idea of stopping a blockchain is contrary to the very spirit of decentralization. Nevertheless, other people think that safeguarding the users is a feasible option during an emergency.

“Decentralization isn’t really hard coded in many blockchains, it’s something we just preach & it’s implemented until there’s a big hack on-chain,” one X user noted. In contrast, Uttam Singh of Alchemy defended Berachain’s move, saying, “Yes, it goes against the ethos of crypto but prioritizing users’ funds is the right call here, imo.”

The event has reignited conversations around how decentralized systems can respond to threats without compromising trust, a challenge that continues to test the boundaries of blockchain governance.

Impact on Berachain’s ecosystem and market performance

At the time of writing, Berachain (BERA) was trading at $1.55, down 2.84% in the past 24 hours, with a 24-hour trading volume of $53.28 million and a live market cap of $202.52 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

The token had previously fallen more than 10% in the course of the exploit but it has since recovered after the fund recovery news, which indicated that investors have regained their confidence.

The timing of the attack was also sensitive to Berachain as it came two weeks after Greenlane Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: GNLN) had raised funding of $110 million that was specifically aimed at the BERA ecosystem.

The round, which was managed by Polychain Capital and sponsored by Kraken, Blockchain.com, North Rock Digital, CitizenX, and dao5, had an investment of $50 million in cash and $60 million in BERA tokens.

Berachain’s recovery sends strong message

The complete recovery of Berachain is exceptional in a year of increasing DeFi adventures and partial recoveries. The openness in communication, rapid coordination and eventual restoration of funds by the foundation has assisted in regaining confidence in the resilience of the project.

However, the event can be viewed as a wake-up call to DeFi protocols, as the developers were reminded that even a series of audits does not ensure maximum security.

With the industry expanding, the case of Berachain demonstrates the need to ensure community trust, timely response, and ethical cooperation in the protection of the decentralized ecosystems.

Also Read: Garden Finance Suffers $5.5M Hack Across Multiple Chains

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