Saga evm reports $7 million loss and ongoing response

• Saga paused SagaEVM at block 6,593,800 after a smart contract exploit that bridged out about $7 million in assets.
• Impact limited to the SagaEVM chainlet and the Colt and Mustang environments; SSC mainnet, consensus, validators, and other chainlets were not affected.
• Cross-chain activity was restricted, safeguards added, and coordination began with exchanges and bridge operators; a technical post-mortem is planned.

Saga has paused saga evm after a smart contract exploit led to the loss of about $7 million in assets that had been bridged onto the network. The project confirmed the incident in a statement posted on X on Jan. 21 and said the chain remains offline while engineers investigate what happened and work on remediation steps.

What Saga reported about the incident

In its Jan. 21 update, Saga said the exploit occurred on the chainlet that runs saga evm, prompting the team to stop the network at block height 6,593,800. The company described the pause as part of an active response process, with investigation and fixes continuing while the system is not processing new activity.

Saga’s initial description pointed to a deliberate, multi-step attack. The project said th eattackers deployed contracts and then carried out cross-chain transactions in a coordinated sequence. After that, they withdrew liquidity and routed the proceeds to the Ethereum mainnet. Saga said it is analyzing archive data and execution traces to understand the full scope of the incident, and it has kept the chain paused during that work.

SAGA evm losses, affected environments, and what was not impacted

Saga reported that nearly $7 million in bridged assets were taken and later converted. The assets listed by the team included USDC, yUSD, ETH, and tBTC. Saga also said it is coordinating with exchanges and bridge operators in an effort to blacklist the address involved and reduce the ability to move the funds further.

The company emphasized that the damage was contained to specific parts of its ecosystem. According to Saga, the impact was limited to the SagaEVM chainlet, as well as the Colt and Mustang environments. It also stated that its SSC mainnet, protocol consensus, validators, and other chainlets were not affected by the incident.

Saga added several explicit points about what it did not observe during the event. The team said there was no consensus failure, no validator compromise, and no signer key leakage. Those assertions were presented as part of its effort to distinguish the exploit from broader failures that could have affected other components beyond saga evm.

Mitigation steps and what comes next for saga evm

Saga said the chain pause was intended to prevent any additional impact while mitigation actions are implemented. Since halting the network, the team has restricted related cross-chain activity and introduced safeguards aimed at blocking similar attack patterns. Saga also said it is continuing forensic analysis with security partners, alongside the internal engineering work.

The project has not provided a time to resume activity. Instead, Saga said saga evm will remain offline until remediation is complete and the team is confident no added risk remains. After the investigation findings are finalized and verified, Saga plans to publish a comprehensive technical post-mortem describing what happened and what changes are being made.

Saga framed the exploit as part of a wider pattern, noting that hackers have continued targeting smart contracts and cross-chain systems. The company said it will keep sharing updates as additional details are confirmed, while the investigation and remediation process continues.

Conclusion

Saga has kept the chain paused following an exploit that bridged out and converted nearly $7 million in assets. The incident was described as limited to the SagaEVM chainlet and the Colt and Mustang environments, with Saga saying its SSC mainnet and validator systems were unaffected. The network will stay offline until mitigation is finished, and a technical post-mortem is planned after the findings are verified.

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