Bitcoin staking protocol b14g paused affected contracts after approximately 97 million CORE was withdrawn without authorization. Exchanges froze about 9 million CORE, and the protocol says staked BTC was not affected.
b14g, a Bitcoin staking protocol, paused affected contracts after approximately 97 million CORE was withdrawn without authorization at 5:29 a.m. ET on Oct. 31. The protocol announced the pause on X.
The reported withdrawal was worth about $1.36 million at CoinGecko's price of $0.0140 at 12:38 p.m. ET. The token count represents roughly 6.5% of CORE's 1.50 billion circulating supply, according to The Defiant's calculations. CoinGecko put CORE's circulating market capitalization at about $21.1 million.
What b14g says was affected
b14g lets BTC and CORE holders pair their stakes to earn boosted rewards on the Core blockchain. The incident affected CORE staked through b14g, the protocol said. According to b14g: "BTC staked through b14g remains time-locked on Bitcoin and was not affected," it wrote.
However, the announcement did not specify whether any CORE withdrawal routes remain available during the pause. BTC staked to Core, meanwhile, is locked until its Bitcoin timelock expires, according to b14g's documentation.
Tracing the CORE
b14g said approximately 68 million CORE remained on Core and exchange partners had frozen about 9 million CORE linked to the attacker. It said it was working with the Core team, security partners and exchanges to trace funds and coordinate freezing and recovery efforts.
Core's block explorer records show a transfer of about 73.65 million CORE between the two addresses b14g identified as attacker-controlled. When checked, the receiving address displayed a balance of about 63.65 million CORE, while the sender held less than one CORE.
b14g said it would publish a post-mortem covering the technical cause, impact and next steps for affected users.
Source: The Defiant
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