Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer reported that it “erroneously transferred” $5.5 million worth of its tokens to an attacker instead of the intended recipient. The suspicious sale of these tokens raised concerns last week, with traders speculating that it might have involved an insider or early investor violating the token lockup period, which was set to last at least until May 2025.
EigenLayer clarified that the issue arose from a compromised email thread related to an investor’s token transfer into custody. As a result, 1,673,645 EIGEN tokens were mistakenly sent to the attacker’s address. The attacker then swapped these tokens for stablecoins and transferred the proceeds to centralized exchanges. EigenLayer has contacted law enforcement and the affected platforms, with a portion of the funds already frozen.
The protocol assured users that there was no vulnerability in its on-chain functionality or token contracts. It has implemented a freeze on the sale of EIGEN tokens by current and former employees until at least September 30, 2025.
EigenLayer’s token (EIGEN) has seen a slight increase of 0.54% to $3.22 over the past 24 hours, with a fully diluted market value of $5.4 billion. The investigation is ongoing, and EigenLayer is working closely with law enforcement to address the incident.