General

Sandbox Crypto News: Upbit Lifts SAND Caution After Exploit

Upbit said The Sandbox's answers on the August bridge exploit resolved its concerns, ending a six-week caution label on SAND in Korea.

In a promotional image from The Sandbox game, a diverse group of stylized avatars runs across a dark background beneath a large text banner reading "SAND CAUTION LIFTED" in bold white letters on a purple and orange gradient.
Elara Neuralink
By Elara Neuralink, News Host, Author, Gamer
Published on October 9, 2026 · 5 min read
$SAND+2.51%

SAND rose 51.2% between the 1st and the 8th of October 2026, from $0.04443 to $0.06719. On the 2nd of October 2026, Upbit lifted its trading caution label on The Sandbox’s SAND token. It said SAND deposits would resume soon, and warned that prices may move sharply when they do, because of price gaps with exchanges outside Korea. [1] It had put the label on SAND on the 24th of August 2026, two days after an exploit on the token’s bridge. [7] After reviewing materials from The Sandbox on how the incident happened and how it was handled, it judged that the reasons for the label had been resolved. [1] According to Bloomingbit, a Korean news site, Bithumb and Coinone also lifted their labels on the 2nd of October 2026. [8]

Daily closes for The Sandbox over the 53 days to the 8th of October 2026.
  1. 1. 24 August 2026. Update regarding the recent SAND bridge incident
  2. 2. 8 September 2026. SAND compensation claims are now open
  3. 3. 21 September 2026. The Sandbox $5,000 Video Contest
  4. 4. 25 September 2026. The Sandbox CEO Robby Yung Says AI Should Drive Games, Not Replace Developers, As Sandbox Studio Heads For October
  5. 5. 28 September 2026. A vulnerability in Payment Processor V2, an old trading contract built by Limit Break and used by Magic Eden in 2024, is being exploited to take NFTs from wallets that previously listed assets on Magic Eden
  6. 6. 7 October 2026. Sandbox Halloween Game Jam gets new voxel asset packs
The Sandbox: daily closes and the levels it turned at: data table
DateThe Sandbox
2026-08-170.0393
2026-08-180.0386
2026-08-190.0409
2026-08-200.0434
2026-08-210.0474
2026-08-220.0459
2026-08-230.0459
2026-08-240.0425
2026-08-250.0413
2026-08-260.0412
2026-08-270.0414
2026-08-280.0387
2026-08-290.0392
2026-08-300.0386
2026-08-310.0378
2026-09-010.0375
2026-09-020.0388
2026-09-030.0399
2026-09-040.0390
2026-09-050.0396
2026-09-060.0398
2026-09-070.0407
2026-09-080.0403
2026-09-090.0381
2026-09-100.0354
2026-09-110.0355
2026-09-120.0361
2026-09-130.0360
2026-09-140.0361
2026-09-150.0335
2026-09-160.0337
2026-09-170.0361
2026-09-180.0389
2026-09-190.0400
2026-09-200.0404
2026-09-210.0416
2026-09-220.0428
2026-09-230.0404
2026-09-240.0427
2026-09-250.0454
2026-09-260.0444
2026-09-270.0450
2026-09-280.0427
2026-09-290.0437
2026-09-300.0432
2026-10-010.0444
2026-10-020.0622
2026-10-030.0749
2026-10-040.0742
2026-10-050.0690
2026-10-060.0661
2026-10-070.0780
2026-10-080.0672

What we have published before

What the token actually does

A pumpkin-headed voxel character from The Sandbox's Halloween asset packs
A pumpkin-headed voxel character from The Sandbox’s Halloween asset packs

SAND is the utility token in The Sandbox, used as a medium of exchange and to take part in governance.

Players can buy avatars and equipment with SAND. They can gain access to Experiences that may require a small SAND fee or ownership of a specific NFT. The Sandbox is a free-to-play virtual world. Users make its content. Its map is made up of 166,464 plots of LAND. On these plots, creators, brands and other LAND owners publish Experiences. Players visit and play them. During seasons, they level up and earn SAND and NFT rewards. Creators sell the assets they make on The Sandbox Marketplace.

What people are saying

Players

Recent posts about The Sandbox come from people playing its games and people building with it. One builder described a concept for the Sandbox Studio Companion.

Snowball battlegrounds pulled me in faster than expected and the matches heat up almost right away every single time. If the beta is this fun already then jumping in for a few rounds makes total sense right now. [9]

HyperNovaXT, on X, the 24th of September 2026

Community

Holders asked The Sandbox about the label on X while it was in place. On the 23rd of September 2026, one asked whether it had sent its explanation to the exchange, pointing out that a caution on Injective had already been lifted. Upbit’s notice of the 2nd of October 2026 says it did receive materials from The Sandbox. [1]

Are you in contact with the Korean exchange? Please answer me~ Is this really a scam? [10]

big whale, on X, the 16th of September 2026

Performance

SAND rose 39.1% in the three months to the 8th of October 2026. The wider gaming market fell 2.5% over the same period.

  • Over the day to the 8th of October 2026 the token fell 13.9%. The wider gaming market fell 3.3%.
  • It ranked 16th of the 331 gaming tokens that fell over the day. The closest move to it was CHAIN, down 14.6%.
  • It trades 99.2% below its all-time high, set in November 2021. The wider gaming market sits 94% below its own.
SAND against Gaming Token Index – Composite over the 92 days to the 8th of October 2026.
The Sandbox and Gaming Token Index – Composite, day by day: data table
DateSANDGaming Token Index – Composite
2026-07-09100.0100.0
2026-07-10101.3100.6
2026-07-11102.898.3
2026-07-1299.899.0
2026-07-1397.196.8
2026-07-14100.797.7
2026-07-15100.398.5
2026-07-1699.796.3
2026-07-1799.393.7
2026-07-1897.992.6
2026-07-1996.492.8
2026-07-2098.293.6
2026-07-2199.395.6
2026-07-2299.194.5
2026-07-2395.097.0
2026-07-2492.698.0
2026-07-2593.499.7
2026-07-2693.7101.3
2026-07-2792.095.3
2026-07-2888.797.9
2026-07-2983.898.6
2026-07-3085.599.5
2026-07-3187.3102.0
2026-08-0184.7103.5
2026-08-0289.396.2
2026-08-0387.993.9
2026-08-0486.489.7
2026-08-0587.091.2
2026-08-0685.389.4
2026-08-0784.990.6
2026-08-0886.996.9
2026-08-0986.3104.9
2026-08-1085.486.9
2026-08-1182.882.2
2026-08-1280.683.1
2026-08-1379.680.5
2026-08-1482.078.1
2026-08-1582.475.4
2026-08-1681.875.4
2026-08-1781.474.6
2026-08-1880.073.4
2026-08-1984.875.6
2026-08-2089.879.0
2026-08-2198.184.7
2026-08-2295.184.6
2026-08-2395.184.5
2026-08-2488.083.7
2026-08-2585.482.1
2026-08-2685.382.1
2026-08-2785.784.0
2026-08-2880.182.9
2026-08-2981.183.2
2026-08-3079.883.0
2026-08-3178.381.9
2026-09-0177.681.6
2026-09-0280.381.5
2026-09-0382.684.5
2026-09-0480.782.7
2026-09-0582.084.4
2026-09-0682.584.4
2026-09-0784.385.5
2026-09-0883.485.5
2026-09-0979.084.3
2026-09-1073.281.1
2026-09-1173.681.8
2026-09-1274.882.6
2026-09-1374.683.8
2026-09-1474.784.1
2026-09-1569.480.6
2026-09-1669.880.0
2026-09-1774.782.9
2026-09-1880.487.4
2026-09-1982.989.1
2026-09-2083.688.4
2026-09-2186.193.8
2026-09-2288.695.3
2026-09-2383.793.0
2026-09-2488.495.3
2026-09-2594.098.1
2026-09-2692.098.6
2026-09-2793.199.9
2026-09-2888.395.4
2026-09-2990.696.8
2026-09-3089.493.3
2026-10-0192.094.9
2026-10-02128.899.9
2026-10-03155.1103.4
2026-10-04153.6106.0
2026-10-05142.8106.0
2026-10-06136.8103.7
2026-10-07161.5100.8
2026-10-08139.197.5
How far the token and Gaming Token Index – Composite moved over each window, to the 8th of October 2026.
SAND against Gaming Token Index – Composite: data table
WindowSANDGaming Token Index – Composite
1 year-74.97%-73.26%
6 months-14.55%-10.32%
3 months+39.11%-2.54%
1 month+66.89%+14.03%
SAND on the day, beside the gaming tokens that moved most in the same direction rather than the ones closest to it.
The Sandbox against the biggest movers in its group: data table
TokenReturn
SAND-13.9%
UNA-69.6%
MEMEFI-38.6%
HYBUX-31.6%
DEAD-27.4%
MF-24.0%

More on the story

The Sandbox explained the exploit on X on the 24th of August 2026. On Base and BNB Chain, the SAND token contract also worked as the bridge. The attacker used a configuration function on that contract to make themselves the only checker of incoming bridge messages. That let them mint SAND with nothing behind it on both networks. They drained 14,742,341.84 SAND from the Ethereum vault that backed the bridge, roughly 0.5% of the fixed 3 billion supply. That figure was higher than the project’s first estimate. Ethereum and Polygon were not affected, and the project advised against trading SAND on Base and BSC until further notice. [2] On the 8th of September 2026, The Sandbox opened claims for people who held bridged SAND on Base or BNB Smart Chain before the exploit. It offered full 1:1 compensation in SAND on Ethereum, and claims closed on the 22nd of September 2026. People who held through an exchange did not need to do anything, because the project handled it with the exchanges. [6] In its August notice, Upbit said it could end trading support for SAND if the reasons for the label were not fully resolved. [7]

Claiming is ONE transaction from your own wallet. No approvals, no signing, no sending funds. Anyone asking for more than that is a scammer. [6]

The Sandbox, on X, the 8th of September 2026

References

  1. ↑ (Upbit, in a notice on its website (translated from Korean), the 2nd of October 2026) Source
  2. ↑ “Update regarding the recent SAND bridge incident. As shared this past Saturday, the exploit was…” (The Sandbox on X, the 24th of August 2026) Source
  3. ↑ “Sandbox Halloween Game Jam gets new voxel asset packs” (our own coverage, the 7th of October 2026) Source
  4. ↑ “The Sandbox CEO Robby Yung Says AI Should Drive Games, Not Replace Developers, As Sandbox Studio Heads For October” (our own coverage, the 25th of September 2026) Source
  5. ↑ “The Sandbox $5,000 Video Contest” (our own coverage, the 21st of September 2026) Source
  6. ↑ (The Sandbox, on X, the 8th of September 2026) Source
  7. ↑ (Upbit, in a notice on its website (translated from Korean), the 24th of August 2026) Source
  8. ↑ (Bloomingbit, the 2nd of October 2026) Source
  9. ↑ (HyperNovaXT, on X, the 24th of September 2026) Source
  10. ↑ (big whale, on X, the 16th of September 2026) Source

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Game in this story

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