The Sandbox halts SAND bridging to Base and BNB Chain after exploit

The Defiant reported that The Sandbox said no user wallets were compromised, SAND on Ethereum and Polygon was unaffected, and the tokens locked on Ethereum backing bridged SAND remained intact. The affected networks are isolated while the bridge is off.

The reported mint is not the same as a $49 billion loss

Security researchers reported that the attacker used a cross-chain permission weakness to mint a very large amount of SAND. TokenPost reported Blockaid's estimate of about 14.9 billion unbacked SAND across more than 400 transactions, with a face value near $49 billion at quoted prices.

That face-value number should not be read as the amount stolen. Unbacked tokens are not equivalent to liquid assets at the quoted market price, and the accessible reporting does not establish a $49 billion extraction. The reported loss figure and the final affected supply remain subject to the project's technical report.

What users should verify

The immediate access change is specific to SAND on Base and BNB Smart Chain. The project said Ethereum and Polygon SAND were not affected, while South Korean exchanges separately paused some SAND transfers as they assessed the incident.

The Sandbox said it was preparing a compensation plan for eligible liquidity providers and would publish an incident report and technical analysis. Until that material is available, the confirmed facts are the bridge shutdown, the affected networks and the project's warning against trading the affected SAND.