The Sandbox to Repay Users After $700K SAND Bridge Exploit

The Sandbox has promised 1:1 compensation for eligible users after a bridge exploit drained nearly $700,000 worth of SAND, putting renewed attention on security risks surrounding cross-chain crypto infrastructure.

The blockchain gaming platform said users who held legitimate bridged SAND on Base or BNB Smart Chain before the Aug. 21 attack will receive an equivalent amount of Ethereum based SAND from the project’s treasury.

What Happened in the SAND Exploit?

According to The Sandbox’s post-mortem, a configuration flaw allowed the attacker to gain control of the verification process for incoming bridge messages.

The exploit enabled the attacker to mint unbacked SAND and drain approximately 14.7 million tokens, worth around $700,000 at the time.

The affected tokens represent roughly 0.5% of SAND’s 3 billion maximum supply.

The Sandbox said Ethereum and Polygon based SAND was unaffected. The unbacked tokens minted on Base and BNB Chain have also been isolated and cannot be bridged or redeemed.

SAND Compensation Coming From Treasury

The Sandbox will fund the repayment directly from its treasury, meaning no new SAND tokens will be minted.

The claims process is expected to open within two weeks and remain available for another two weeks. More than 72% of eligible balances are held by two centralized exchanges, which will distribute compensation directly to affected users.

The compromised bridge contracts will be permanently retired with any future Base or BNB Chain bridges using newly deployed contracts.

The incident highlights a broader challenge for crypto projects expanding across multiple networks: cross-chain functionality can increase accessibility but bridge vulnerabilities can create significant security and financial risks.

SAND was trading near $0.04, down about 10.4% over the previous seven days adding further pressure to the token following the exploit.