CryptoSlate
An attacker drained roughly 515 million NIGHT tokens from infrastructure operated by Wanchain on July 20, suspending the Cardano-to-BNB Chain bridge after the exploit left only a fraction of reserves backing the bridged asset. At prices around the sell-off, the stolen tokens were worth roughly $9 million to $10 million; NIGHT subsequently fell more than 30% to a record low near $0.015 before recovering part of the move.
Why it matters
BlockSec's preliminary analysis pointed to a flaw in the TreasuryCheck validator's signed-message encoding that could have allowed a previously valid signature to be reused with different transaction data, though the firm stressed the investigation remains early. The Midnight Foundation said the breach was confined to third-party bridge infrastructure and did not disrupt Midnight's protocol, validator network or core systems. Binance, Kraken, KuCoin, Bybit, OKX, Gate and MEXC joined the response by freezing or restricting accounts associated with the incident, blacklisting attacker-linked wallets and suspending NIGHT deposits and withdrawals.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson framed bridges as the most vulnerable layer in the crypto stack, noting that cross-chain systems typically depend on sources of verification or trust outside the networks they connect. He pointed to future designs that incorporate recursive or folded zero-knowledge proofs, combined with trusted execution environments and multisignature controls, as potential mitigations rather than relying solely on an underlying chain's security properties.
Market impact
Despite the security scare, ADA climbed nearly 8% to roughly $0.175, extending its weekly gain to about 11% and putting $0.20 back in view. The move came three days after the van Rossem hard fork activated protocol version 11, expanding Plutus smart-contract functionality and tightening ledger rules via Cardano's on-chain governance process.
Santiment noted ADA's 30-day market-value-to-realized-value ratio has flipped back above zero alongside Bitcoin, ETH and XRP, a marked change from June when recent buyers sat roughly 18% underwater. The improvement introduces a fresh source of selling pressure: holders who bought during the decline now have an exit at a profit if the broader recovery loses steam. NIGHT, meanwhile, has recovered about 30% from its record low to trade near $0.022.
Frequently asked questions
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What happened in the Wanchain bridge exploit on July 20?
An attacker drained roughly 515 million NIGHT tokens from a Cardano-side lock address backing bridged NIGHT on BNB Chain, operated by Wanchain, which suspended the bridge. At the time of the sell-off the stolen tokens were worth roughly $9 million to $10 million.
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How much did NIGHT fall after the exploit?
NIGHT dropped more than 30% during the fallout and hit a record low near $0.015. It has since recovered roughly 30% to about $0.022, up around 19% over 24 hours as of press time.
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What caused the Wanchain bridge to be exploited?
BlockSec said its preliminary analysis pointed to a possible flaw in the TreasuryCheck validator's signed-message encoding that could have allowed a previously valid signature to be reused with different transaction data. The firm stressed the investigation remained preliminary.
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Why did ADA rise while NIGHT fell after the exploit?
ADA climbed nearly 8% to about $0.175 on the tailwind from the van Rossem hard fork and a broader crypto rebound, with Bitcoin back above $66,000. Traders appear to have priced the breach as a bridge-specific event rather than a risk to Cardano's underlying network.
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What is Cardano doing to respond to the bridge exploit?
Hoskinson said ecosystem groups formed a war room to monitor the situation, and seven exchanges including Binance, Kraken, KuCoin, Bybit, OKX, Gate and MEXC moved to freeze attacker-linked accounts and suspend NIGHT deposits and withdrawals. Audits are underway to establish ground truth and responsibility.
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