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The Sandbox faces security breach as 500M SAND minted on Base network

Cryptobriefing • August 22, 2026

According to on-chain analysts, the exploit allowed attackers to create billions of unauthorized SAND tokens.

An exploit targeting The Sandbox’s SAND OFT on Base has allowed attackers to hijack LayerZero delegate permissions and mint massive amounts of unauthorized SAND tokens out of thin air, blockchain security firm Blockaid reported Saturday.

According to Blockaid, attackers exploited approveAndCall to take control of LayerZero delegate permissions, enabling them to mint SAND without legitimate backing.

🚨 Blockaid detected an ongoing exploit on @TheSandboxGame SAND OFT on Base. Attackers hijacked LayerZero delegate permissions via approveAndCall and minted unbacked SAND. ~$49B face-value SAND minted so far across ~400+ txs. Attack still ongoing. More details in 🧵

— Blockaid (@blockaid_) August 22, 2026

Blockaid said that roughly $49 billion in face-value SAND had been minted through more than 400 transactions.

The attack was still underway at the time of the alert, leaving open the possibility that the amount of unauthorized SAND could continue to increase.

The Sandbox confirmed the exploit after on-chain analysts flagged suspicious activity. In a statement, the project stated that its SAND cross-chain bridge on BSC was also affected.

According to the team, the vulnerability has now been contained, and bridging between both Base and BSC has been halted to isolate the affected tokens and prevent further transfers or redemptions. The Sandbox has advised users to avoid trading SAND on Base and BSC.

The project said the incident affected less than 0.01% of SAND’s total supply, while SAND deployed on Ethereum and Polygon was unaffected. It also said that there was no compromise of user wallets and that the Ethereum reserves backing bridged SAND remain intact.

The team is now working on a snapshot of the affected pools and a compensation plan for eligible liquidity providers, and plans to release a full incident report and technical post-mortem after completing its investigation.

The incident sent SAND to $0.052 before a sell-off drove it down to $0.044. The token has since rebounded to around $0.048.

The full story

This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

The Sandbox Exploit: 14.9B Unbacked SAND Tokens Minted on Base and BNB Chain On August 22, 2026, The Sandbox reported a security breach that allowed an attacker to mint 14.9 billion unbacked SAND tokens on the Base and BNB Smart Chain networks. The exploit involved hijacking LayerZero delegate permissions via the `approveAndCall` function, resulting in an estimated face value of $49 billion in unauthorized tokens. The Sandbox quickly disabled bridging to and from these networks, isolating the compromised tokens and preventing further transfers. The company stated that the actual impact was less than 0.01% of the total SAND supply, and no user wallets were compromised. Major South Korean exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, suspended SAND transactions as a precaution. The Sandbox is preparing a compensation plan for affected liquidity providers and plans to release a full post-mortem report. 22 sources 68

Extracted Entities

Companies (4)

Base Ethereum Polygon The Sandbox