Crypto28 September, 20263 min read
Zano Restarts Blockchain At Block 3,833,000 After Gateway Addresses Vulnerability
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Zano restarted the blockchain at block 3,833,000 after the Gateway Address exploit. The exploit allowed unauthorized ZANO and Freedom Dollar to enter circulation.
Rollback After Gateway Exploit
Zano restarted its blockchain at block 3,833,000, erasing roughly one month of transactions after a Gateway Addresses vulnerability allowed unauthorized ZANO and fUSD into circulation. Zano said the restart removed the bad activity but also canceled legitimate transactions, and the project said it could not recover assets already settled on other networks. Zano said the emergency recovery required participating nodes, miners, stakers, exchanges and other services to adopt the update, and it urged participants to install emergency software version 2.2.3.600 and verify its published checksums.
Zano said its investigation found wallet spend keys were not compromised, and it described the reported failure as asset issuance through Gateway Addresses that could place native ZANO and fUSD into circulation without authority. Zano told users to retain transaction IDs and trading records, then check earlier transfers before sending funds again, while MEXC temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals for ZANO and fUSD at the project’s request.
Cost, Claims, and Migration
Zano’s core team said the rollback invalidated a month of legitimate transactions along with the unauthorized tokens, and it said transactions made during that period would no longer appear on the recovered chain.
Zano said the recovery could not reverse payments already settled on other blockchains, and it told users to keep transaction IDs and trading records while checking the status of earlier transfers before sending payments again.
Zano said it was working to account for any losses and would publish a reimbursement and claims process, while it also said a formal reimbursement and claims process had yet to be published.
Quinten van Welzen said, “Doing nothing meant unauthorized ZANO and fUSD in circulation without limit, diluting every holder and breaking the most basic promise a currency makes: a fixed supply,” and he added, “It would also tell every future attacker that exploited coins get to keep their value. No project survives that.”
Zano rejected unilateral rollback claims, with van Welzen saying, “The team can’t roll back Zano,” and he explained that developers can release software and ask network operators to adopt it.
Hard Fork Context and Stakes
Zano said the chosen block sat immediately before Hard Fork 6, which introduced Gateway Addresses at block 3,833,000, and it said the recovery placed the restarted chain immediately before the upgrade that introduced the affected feature. Zano said Gateway Addresses were intended to simplify how exchanges and other service operators manage funds through a single account-style balance, while preserving Zano’s transaction privacy. Zano said the design change did not prevent the issuance flaw, and it said it had not yet published a technical post-mortem explaining how the vulnerability produced unauthorized assets.
Zano said it planned reimbursement from its development fund, team holdings and commitments from large holders without issuing additional ZANO tokens, and it said it was restoring its mobile wallet node and wrapping service separately while third-party platforms updated on their own timelines. Zano warned users to confirm whether an exchange, wallet, bridge or payment provider had migrated before sending funds through those services, and it said the recovery depended on network participants accepting the new software.