Exchanges freeze NIGHT transfers after hackers drain $13M from Wanchain bridge

Major exchanges have started to freeze deposits and withdrawals of NIGHT token after approximately 515 million tokens (worth ~$13 million) were stolen by an attacker from the Wanchain-operated bridge linking Cardano and BNB Chain on July 21, 2026.

The NIGHT has since lost around 30% of its value since the theft was reported, hitting a record low of $0.016.

Wanchain released a security notice on X, stating it was looking into the matter and had pulled the bridge offline. KuCoin, Kraken, Binance, Bybit, OKX, and MEXC are all working with the Midnight Foundation on a coordinated response to mitigate the impact of the attack.

What went wrong with Wanchain?

According to an on-chain forensics firm, BlockSec Phalcon, the attack could be traced to how the bridge built the message that its validators sign. The flaw was in the TreasuryCheck validator, a component that linked 14 variable-length data fields into a single message without any delimiters or length markers between them.

The design enabled different combinations of field values to produce the same bytes and the same hash, thereby allowing signature reuse.

The effect was enormous. A valid signature had authorized the transfer of 3,110 NIGHT. The same signature was reused by the attacker to steal over 203 million NIGHT in one transaction.

Wanchain hasn’t experienced a breach like this in over eight years of the company running cross-chain bridges across dozens of blockchains in that period.

Midnight’s network remains unaffected

The Midnight Foundation looked to quickly dispel any rumors about its own infrastructure. In a post on X, it claimed the bridge failure was an isolated incident and did not involve the Midnight network.

The distinction is important, as holders are instinctively gauging their exposure after such an event. The theft affected bridged NIGHT traded on the Cardano and BNB Chain, without affecting tokens on Midnight’s infrastructure. 

The question on everyone’s mind is recovery. Every trader is anticipating Wanchain’s explanation on how the flaw can be fixed and if, at all, any money can be recovered. NIGHT has already seen its trading volume plummet as the market awaits a firm response from the company.

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