Solflare Crypto Wallet Enhances Security After Attacks on Crypto Exchanges

The Solflare cryptocurrency wallet, operating on Solana, has tightened internal security measures: it has restricted access to infrastructure and code and frozen new changes following a series of major attacks in the crypto industry. Co-founder Vidor stated on November 2 that the team has moved into "bunker mode" and implemented several levels of approval. "After the month this industry has experienced, access to our infrastructure and code is closed, every change requires multiple approvals, and nothing new is being added," he said, acknowledging that the restrictions will slow down development: "It slows us down, and I'm fine with that."

Staking Incident

On October 27, Solflare revealed that a third-party staking service provider reported an incident with keys related to the wallet's validator. The affected validator stopped generating rewards while the provider investigated. Solflare emphasized that delegated SOL remains in personal staking accounts under the control of users' private keys: "Your SOL is safe. User funds are not affected." Ownership of the validator keys does not grant the operator the right to transfer SOL from delegated accounts.

According to Unchained, as of October 28, the affected validator had approximately 1.56 million SOL delegated; the validator stopped voting. A separate investigation by Bitquery on October 29 revealed unauthorized transfers from the keys of several Solana validators, including Solflare: analysts estimated losses at approximately $135,000 from five validators, separating operator funds from client funds in delegated accounts.

Migration and Compensation

Solflare created a replacement validator and directed affected users to transfer delegated SOL. Initially, the deadline for compensating missed rewards was November 1, but the company extended it to November 30. Solflare will compensate rewards missed from October 26 to November 1 for those who complete the migration through the wallet app. Staking will resume when the transferred SOL becomes active on the new validator; activation and deactivation in Solana occur through network epochs, so some transfers take time.

Solflare warned about scammers: migration is only through the official app, the company does not send private messages or links. Restrictions were introduced amid other incidents: on October 29, Binance lost about $6.3 billion, and Keystone faced a leak of client records after unauthorized access to the site – private keys and recovery phrases were not affected. Brazilian Mercado Bitcoin also suspended withdrawals after unauthorized activity in its systems.