TAC Protocol posted a modest recovery after an August 22 exploit forced validators to halt the chain, with the token rising roughly 53% from its recent all-time low. The move followed an incident that the team says was contained quickly, though the token remains about 97% below the record high reached on June 30.

According to TAC, the vulnerability was not in the protocol’s own codebase. The team said the issue stemmed from the Cosmos EVM precompile layer, a shared module used beyond TAC itself, raising the possibility that the implications could extend to other Cosmos EVM-based projects.

Chain halt followed minutes after exploit was detected

TAC disclosed the breach through its X account on August 22, saying it was investigating an exploited vulnerability on its Cosmos-based EVM side. The protocol said it planned a temporary halt after validators made the decision.

Two days later, the team said the attacker had drained a single account before all transactions were stopped at block 24,671,475. TAC said the impact was limited and that only the native TAC token was taken before the halt went into effect.

The quick shutdown marked a sharper containment response than in earlier incidents, which had targeted bridged user assets rather than only the network’s native token. TAC said the halt came within minutes of the exploit being identified.

Team blames shared module rather than TAC-specific code

In its post-incident explanation, TAC said the flaw appears to have been located in the Cosmos EVM precompile layer instead of TAC’s own implementation. The team added that the same code is used by several chains.

That distinction matters because the problem may not be isolated to TAC holders alone. If the vulnerability sits in shared infrastructure, any remediation process or disclosure schedule could also affect other builders and projects that rely on Cosmos EVM chains.

Token recovers from low but remains deeply down

The token’s rebound looks sharp in percentage terms because it came off a very low base. Before the attack, TAC’s all-time low stood near $0.001129, and the token has since recovered about 53% from that level.

Over the last 24 hours covered by the report, TAC traded in a range of roughly $0.001626 to $0.001894. Even with that bounce, it is still about 97% below its June 30 peak.

At the time of the report, TAC had an estimated market capitalization of $8.3 million, with about $2.46 million in 24-hour trading volume and a circulating supply near 4.8 billion tokens.

Third major scare in four months

The latest exploit is TAC’s third significant security scare in roughly four months. In May, an attacker took about $2.8 million from the TON side of TAC’s cross-chain bridge, affecting balances in USDT, BLUM, and tsTON.

That earlier event was later reclassified as white-hat activity after around 90% of the funds were recovered, while the exploiter kept 10% as a bounty. Bridge transfers between TON and TAC reopened on June 10.

For now, the next confirmed issue is the handling of the shared Cosmos EVM vulnerability identified by TAC. Because the team says the flaw sits outside its own code, any fix and any broader disclosure may carry relevance for other chains using the same module.

Source: Cryptopolitan