Cosmos EVM Vulnerability Attack: Attacker Inflated $50M NES, Only Made $60K Profit

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A recent vulnerability incident targeted the Cosmos EVM module, where an attacker exploited a balance flaw to inflate NES tokens by 200 times. The attacker spent $250,000 in NES, cross-chained them to the Nesa Chain, and moved $50 million in inflated tokens back to Ethereum. Funds were traced to Monero. Despite attempts to swap on DEXs and deposit on CEXs, liquidity issues resulted in significant slippage. Final sales netted $315,000, yielding a $60,000 profit. On-chain analysis reveals the full attack path.

PANews, August 26: According to on-chain analytics platform Bubblemaps on X, an investigation into the security vulnerability exploit targeting the Cosmos EVM module revealed that the primary attacker address, 0x9AE7, purchased $250,000 worth of NES tokens and bridged them to Nesa Chain, exploiting a balance vulnerability to inflate their holdings 200-fold. The attacker then bridged approximately $50 million worth of NES back to Ethereum. The initial funds for the attack originated from Monero. The attacker used multiple wallets to exchange NES for ETH on DEXs and deposited the proceeds into centralized exchanges. However, due to rapid liquidity withdrawal, most of the exchanges suffered extreme slippage, and the attacker ultimately sold only $315,000 worth, netting a realized profit of approximately $60,000 after costs.

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