Mainnet just launched and went down? Shibarium network cross-chain bridge malfunction, over $1.7 million stuck on the bridge.

As the Blockchain Futurist Conference kicks off in Canada, the development team of Shiba Inu coin, Shibtoken, announced the launch of a Layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum called Shibarium, with its mainnet now live. However, reports soon surfaced of abnormalities in the cross-chain bridge function, resulting in over $1.7 million worth of user assets being stuck and unable to be retrieved, causing the token $SHIB to plummet nearly 8% upon hearing the news.

Background: What is Shiba Inu Coin?

Shiba Inu $SHIB, similar to Dogecoin, is a cryptocurrency created based on a meme, established in 2020 by an anonymous individual known as Ryoshi, with a strong and cohesive community.

Despite a decline of 89% since its peak in October 2021, the Shiba Inu development team continues to focus on building a complete decentralized ecosystem, including the DEX ShibaSwap, metaverse blockchain games, native governance token $BONE, and utility token $LEASH.

Ethereum L2 Shibarium Mainnet Launched

The Shiba Inu development team announced at the Blockchain Futurist Conference yesterday that their Ethereum-based L2 scaling solution Shibarium has gone live on the mainnet.

Reportedly, Shibarium is built on a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism, aiming to interact with Ethereum L1 and achieve a more scalable and cost-effective secure transaction platform while expanding its metaverse and gaming ecosystem.

According to the official blog, the network utilizes the Heimdall validator based on the Tendermint consensus engine, requiring users to stake 10,000 $BONE in Shibarium to become validators and receive $BONE as validation rewards; meanwhile, the Shiba Inu ecosystem's $SHIB and $LEASH are also applicable to Shibarium.

Previously, the testnet of Shibarium, PUPPYNET, went live in March this year, attracting millions of active users and over 21 million wallet creations within the past five months.

As shown in photos from the venue, hundreds of cryptocurrency companies or development teams have joined Shibarium or used the network to build DApps.

Shiba Inu's lead developer, Shytoshi Kusama, stated:

Many are talking about "multi-service integrated applications" now, but these innovations must be approached from a community and decentralized perspective. Shibarium aims to achieve user-centered design through respecting decentralization and interoperability in the blockchain and the entire tech field.

Issues Arise Shortly After Shiba Inu Mainnet Launch

Unfortunately, shortly after the launch of the Shibarium mainnet, issues with the cross-chain bridge functionality emerged. According to the blockchain explorer, the network went offline eight hours ago, resumed block production one hour ago, but is now down again. This is particularly ironic considering the average block time of 4.3 seconds as described on its official website.

Statistics show that up to $1.7 million in $ETH and $BONE are stuck on the bridge, while Coindesk confirmed that users were immediately banned from sending messages on their official Discord after the incident, leading to backlash on Twitter.

Furthermore, following a distressing tweet by prominent KOL foobar, the crowd became even more enraged as their funds may be unrecoverable.

Evidently, with the decline of mainstream cryptocurrencies and the serious oversight of the Shibarium development team, the ecosystem token $SHIB saw a significant drop, plummeting 7.25% within the previous day.