Ethereum Restaking Protocol EigenLayer Addresses $5.5 Million Token Sale

EigenLayer, an Ethereum restaking protocol, has responded to the suspicious sale of $5.5 million worth of EIGEN tokens, stating that the tokens were “erroneously transferred” to an attacker instead of the intended recipient.

The sale raised concerns among traders, who speculated that an insider might have breached the token lockup period by selling early. EigenLayer has pledged to investigate this “unapproved selling activity.”

According to EigenLayer’s statement on X, the incident occurred when an email thread regarding an investor’s token transfer was compromised by a malicious attacker. It resulted in the transfer of 1,673,645 EIGEN tokens to the attacker’s address, who then swapped the tokens for stablecoins and moved the funds to centralized exchanges. EigenLayer is in contact with these platforms and law enforcement, with some funds already frozen.

The protocol emphasized that there are no known vulnerabilities in its contracts, and this incident was unrelated to any on-chain issues. To prevent further issues, current and former employees are barred from staking any EIGEN tokens received from Eigen Labs until at least September 30, 2025, and sales have been frozen until next year.

According to The Block, the price of EIGEN has risen by 0.54% to $3.22 over the past 24 hours, resulting in a fully diluted market value of $5.4 billion. EigenLayer was not immediately available for comment.