Zano Attacker Minted 36.9 Million ZANO and 1.8 Quadrillion…
By Abdelaziz Fathi
AI summary of the source article
Zano disclosed an exploit in its newly deployed Gateway Address system that allowed an attacker to generate roughly 36.9 million unauthorized ZANO and 1.8 quadrillion Freedom Dollar (fUSD) tokens across two incidents in August and September. Because the forged tokens were valid at the protocol level and indistinguishable from regular supply, targeted freezing was unviable. Consequently, Zano coordinated an upgrade that rolled back approximately one month of blockchain history to block 3,833,000, discarding all transactions in that period. Zano stated wallet spend keys and privacy were not breached, and it plans to restore affected balances via developer and team funds.
Why it matters
The incident demonstrates the systemic risks of protocol-level minting bugs, forcing a network to erase legitimate transaction history to prevent severe supply inflation. It leaves exchanges and services with the operational burden of reconciling divergent ledgers.
Key facts
- An attacker minted roughly 36.9 million unauthorized ZANO and 1.8 quadrillion fUSD via a verification flaw in Gateway Addresses.
- Zano rolled back about a month of blockchain history to block 3,833,000 to erase the unauthorized tokens.
- Zano plans to cover balance restorations using its developer fund, team personal funds, and other committed contributions.