CoinDesk
Ravencoin is attempting to rewrite nearly four days of blockchain history after attackers exploited a critical software flaw that allowed invalid blocks onto the network on Aug. 7. Two mining pools that together control the majority of Ravencoin's hashpower, 2Miners and RavenMiner, are now rebuilding the chain from block 4,487,775, the last block before the first invalid one at height 4,487,776 appeared at 15:44 UTC. If the rest of the network follows, every RVN transaction written since that block would be erased from the accepted record.
Why it matters
The reorg puts deposits, withdrawals and merchant payments made since Aug. 7 at risk of vanishing from Ravencoin's canonical history, with some transactions possibly being re-recorded on the replacement chain but not guaranteed to return. Ravencoin has asked the pools to restart from a more recent point and limit the damage, but the operators declined, leaving the project to share the plan as a transparency disclosure rather than an endorsement. That hands an unusual amount of control to whoever supplies the hashpower: two pool operators are now deciding which version of the past four days the rest of the network has to accept.
Market impact
RVN dropped 17% over 24 hours to about $0.0029, cutting its market cap to roughly $48 million on $10 million in trading volume, and is now down 77% over the past year. Exchanges began responding before the reorg completed: Bitvavo suspended RVN deposits and withdrawals outright, while South Korea's Upbit placed an investment warning on RVN across its won, bitcoin and tether markets and stopped deposits. Ravencoin has fixed the underlying software flaw, but patching the code does not undo what is already written. The project has been here before, in 2020, when a separate bug let attackers mint roughly 31 million RVN beyond the protocol's rules.
Frequently asked questions
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Why is Ravencoin rolling back its blockchain?
Two mining pools that control the majority of Ravencoin's hashpower are rebuilding the chain from block 4,487,775, the last block before a critical software flaw allowed invalid blocks onto the network on Aug. 7 at 15:44 UTC.
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Which mining pools are driving the Ravencoin reorg?
2Miners and RavenMiner are building the replacement chain. Ravencoin asked them to restart from a more recent block to limit the damage, but both pools declined.
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What is happening to RVN's price during the reorg?
RVN dropped 17% over 24 hours to about $0.0029, taking its market cap to roughly $48 million on $10 million of volume. The token is already down 77% over the past year.
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Which exchanges have halted RVN deposits and withdrawals?
Bitvavo suspended RVN deposits and withdrawals outright. South Korea's Upbit placed an investment warning on RVN across its won, bitcoin and tether markets and also stopped deposits.
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Has Ravencoin experienced a similar incident before?
Yes. In 2020, a separate bug let attackers mint roughly 31 million extra RVN beyond the protocol's issuance rules before it was patched.
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