Verus Network has temporarily paused operations, with officials confirming an attack on the Verus-Ethereum cross-chain bridge.

On May 18, the Verus Foundation announced that its Verus-Ethereum cross-chain bridge was exploited in an attack earlier that day. The attacker stole assets including ETH, USDC, and tBTC from the Ethereum-side smart contract; no other assets on the bridge remain impacted. In response to the breach, the Verus network has been fully paused, and most mining nodes went offline automatically as part of the protocol’s built-in safety features. The development team is currently investigating the attack’s root cause, assessing the full scope of losses, and developing a recovery plan. Verus is appealing directly to the attacker to return all stolen funds voluntarily. If the full amount is returned, the team will provide a bug bounty and will not pursue any further legal action. If not, the foundation will cooperate with law enforcement agencies to take formal legal measures. The team is also cautioning users against scams impersonating Verus officials who may offer fake "compensation plans." There is currently no official compensation program in place, and users are advised not to engage with any suspicious direct message accounts claiming to represent Verus.