Wanchain Bridge Hack Drains $13M in NIGHT Tokens, Cardano Midnight Network Remains Secure

A major security breach struck the Wanchain-operated bridge connecting Cardano and BNB Chain on July 21, 2026, after attackers stole approximately 515 million NIGHT tokens worth around $13 million. The exploit triggered a sharp selloff, sending the NIGHT token price down more than 30% to a record low near $0.016. Wanchain has since taken the bridge offline while it investigates the incident, while the Midnight Foundation confirmed that the Midnight blockchain itself remains unaffected.

According to blockchain security firm BlockSec Phalcon, the exploit stemmed from a non-injective signed-message encoding flaw in the bridge’s TreasuryCheck validator. The bridge created signed messages by concatenating 14 variable-length redeemer fields without separators or length identifiers, allowing attackers to reuse a legitimate signature for a much larger transaction.

Using this weakness, the attacker transformed an approved transfer of roughly 3,110 NIGHT into a withdrawal exceeding 203 million NIGHT in a single transaction, effectively amplifying the authorized amount by around 65,000 times. The stolen tokens were quickly sold on decentralized exchanges, accelerating the token’s price collapse.

Despite the exploit, the Midnight Foundation emphasized that the incident was isolated to Wanchain’s third-party bridge infrastructure. Midnight’s validators, consensus mechanism, and core protocol were not compromised, and the Cardano network continues to operate normally.

Around 515 million NIGHT tokens, representing roughly 2% of the project’s estimated 24 billion total supply, were held in the bridge treasury rather than the circulating supply. Analysts note that while the price drop reflects panic selling, the underlying Midnight protocol remains fully operational.

The attack adds to a growing list of cross-chain bridge exploits in 2026. Humanity Protocol previously suffered a $31 million bridge hack after compromised multisig keys enabled unauthorized token minting, while Gnosis Pay lost $1.8 million through a Zodiac module vulnerability before fully reimbursing affected users.

Investors are now closely watching Wanchain’s post-mortem report, potential compensation plans, and the timeline for restoring the bridge. The incident also highlights the ongoing security risks surrounding cross-chain infrastructure, even as core Layer-1 networks like Cardano remain secure.