Neutron Governance Proposal Manipulated, Leading to $4.4 Million Theft

An emergency governance proposal in the Cosmos ecosystem protocol Neutron was manipulated by an attacker, who bought NTRN with about 20,199 USDC and staked 31.6 million NTRN about 12 minutes before voting ended. According to ChainCatcher, the proposal ultimately passed with 82% support, after which control of 11 contracts was transferred to the attacker and migrated to malicious code, resulting in the theft of about $4.4 million in assets.To recover the funds, Cosmos Hub validators coordinated a chain halt that lasted nearly 24 hours and 48 minutes. During the restart process, about 1.23 million ATOM were moved from the attacker’s wallet to a new address, with plans to return them to the original holders later.