Arbitrum Security Council emergency action: freezing 8,425 ETH and 74,559,805.2 ARB

The Arbitrum Security Council's emergency action of 30 October 2026 froze 8,425 ETH and 74,559,805.2 ARB held on Arbitrum One by an address identified with the Binance exploit. @Arbitrum posted the notice to the Arbitrum forum on 30 October 2026, and the post carries no replies. It matters because the Security Council moved the funds through a temporary upgrade to a live Ethereum contract that let it impersonate the address holding them, and because the funds can now only be moved by an ArbitrumDAO governance vote.

What it changes

• At 8:08am HKT on 30 October 2026 the Security Council executed an emergency action that moved the funds to 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000DA0 on Arbitrum One.
• The method was a temporary change to the inbox contract on Ethereum. The post describes it as "an atomic action to upgrade the inbox contract on Ethereum, freeze the funds, and return the contract back to its original implementation."
• The upgrade added a function, sendUnsignedTransactionOverride, which imitates the structure of a standard cross-chain transaction with the ability to impersonate the transaction sender.
• Two cross-chain transactions were created to impersonate the address associated with the Binance exploit, and those transactions transferred the stolen funds to the frozen address.
• The inbox implementation was then upgraded again, back to its original implementation.
• The post says Arbitrum contributors prepared the transaction payload and that the Security Council verified it before it was signed and executed. It links the list of current Security Council members in the Arbitrum DAO governance documentation.
• The Security Council signed Ethereum transaction 0xb69c81774f507d46ce776aeaed8b4d31df96dd66ce6fd05073481011835355d6, which Etherscan shows as successful, at 00:08:35 UTC on 30 October 2026.
• The funds can only be moved by an ArbitrumDAO Governance vote, which the post says will be coordinated with relevant parties.

The case for it

The notice gives its reason and its scope in one line: "Funds associated with the Binance exploit are frozen on Arbitrum One. No other user's funds or applications were affected."

Where it stands

The action was completed on 30 October 2026, and the forum thread carries one post describing it, with no replies and no vote. The frozen balance of 8,425 ETH and 74,559,805.2 ARB sits at 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000DA0. The notice says the funds can only be moved by an ArbitrumDAO Governance vote, which will be coordinated with relevant parties, and it names no date for such a vote.

The agenda for the 3 November 2026 governance call, posted by @OpCo on 2 November 2026, lists the emergency action under quick updates. None of the on-chain or off-chain AIPs on that agenda concerns the frozen funds, so what remains open is the vote that would decide where they go.