- NIGHT’s price crashed 45% following a $10 million exploit on the Wanchain Bridge.
- Hoskinson described the Wanchain Bridge exploit as a “case of the Mondays.”
- The exploit targeted a legacy, third-party bridge architecture built by Wanchain.
NIGHT, the native token of the Midnight ecosystem, crashed approximately 45% last Monday following a $10 million Wanchain Bridge exploit. The hack occurred on Wanchain’s Cardano-to-BNB Chain Bridge, with an attacker exploiting a flaw in Wanchain’s TreasuryCheck validator, which encoded 14 fields without separators.
The vulnerability enabled a signature-reuse attack that amplified an approved transfer of roughly 3,110 NIGHT into over 203 million NIGHT in a single transaction. Hackers used the opportunity to drain between $9 million and $13 million, depending on the price, from the Cardano side bridge treasury, dumping the funds on Cardano DEXs, and triggering a sharp decline in NIGHT’s price.
Hoskinson Faults Legacy Bridge Technology
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson described the incident as a “case of the Mondays,” stating that it highlights why the entire crypto industry must aggressively move away from legacy bridge infrastructure. Hoskinson noted that the Cardano and Midnight blockchains remained secure throughout the exploit, confirming that it was a localized stress test that ultimately proved the ecosystem’s resilience.
The Cardano executive detailed key perspectives of the security breach, highlighting that the exploit targeted a legacy, third-party bridge architecture built by Wanchain rather than any flaw in Cardano or Midnight. He also cited the rapid acceleration of AI-powered exploits, noting that they are finding vulnerabilities across all sectors, not just Web3. Additionally, Hoskinson argued that current cross-chain stacks rely too heavily on vulnerable smart contracts or multi-sig setups, making bridge hacks inevitable without structural changes.
NIGHT’s Impressive Recovery
NIGHT staged a recovery less than 24 hours after the crash, surging to $0.026 from a $0.015 local low. However, bearish pressure returned on Wednesday morning, and the cryptocurrency pulled back to trade at $0.021 at the time of writing, according to TradingView data.
It is worth noting that the earlier rebound followed a response by Cardano entities, including IOG, Midnight, and Intersect. According to Hoskinson, the group formed a centralized “War Room” to monitor and manage the unfolding events.
The collaboration enabled them to work directly with major platforms such as Binance, Kraken, and OKX to freeze attacker wallets and halt malicious deposits, preventing further market dumping. Meanwhile, Hoskinson criticized “sensational” media headlines that focused solely on the initial NIGHT crash, noting that most outlets failed to mention the rebound that followed.
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