The Shido blockchain, a layer-1 proof-of-stake project, has been hit by an exploit that saw billions of its native token, Shido, siphoned away.

This incident led to the Shido token plummeting by 94% in value within just 30 minutes.

Over 4.3 Billion Tokens Lost in Exploit

According to reports from blockchain security firm PeckShield, the attack resulted in the loss of over 4.3 billion Shido tokens. This accounted for nearly half of its circulating supply, which had a value of approximately $35 million before the price collapse.

Hi @ShidoGlobal There is a sudden owner transfer to 0x1982. The new owner immediately upgrades the StakingV4Proxy contract with a hidden withdrawToken() function. This hidden function is then called to withdraw all 4,353,473,223.864904 $SHIDO.

Here are related txs:
– owner… https://t.co/TZ6oMDGwMG pic.twitter.com/VGZtyg9PEf

— PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) February 29, 2024

The exploit was first brought to light by PeckShield, who alerted its followers in a Feb. 29 X post detailing how an attacker managed to gain control of Shido’s Ethereum staking contract. Subsequently, the exploiter transferred the contract to another address, where it was then upgraded with a hidden function enabling the withdrawal of staked tokens.

According to its website, Shido, an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token, offers investors the opportunity to stake their coins on the project’s decentralized exchange (DEX) and earn an 8% annual yield. It had been gearing up for its mainnet launch, with an announ