An attacker drained roughly 515 million NIGHT tokens from Wanchain's Cardano bridge on Tuesday, stripping about 97% of the bridge's reserves in a nine-minute window. The theft sent the NIGHT token to a record low of $0.01524 before it recovered to around $0.019 — still down 27% on the day. Wanchain suspended the bridge and said it is investigating the breach.
How the attack unfolded
Between 14:46 and 14:55 UTC, the attacker emptied Wanchain's Cardano-side lock address. Reserves fell from about 527 million NIGHT to near 12 million. Only NIGHT left the contract; other bridged assets remained untouched. The attacker routed the stolen tokens through newly created wallets and sold roughly 290 million NIGHT on Cardano-based decentralized exchanges.
What was taken — and what wasn't
The haul was almost entirely NIGHT, the native token of the Midnight privacy-focused blockchain. The Midnight Foundation said the incident did not impact its own network, and core infrastructure continued to operate normally. That distinction matters: the bridge was a third-party integration, not a core protocol component. Still, the near-total depletion of the bridge's NIGHT reserves raises questions about how — or if — Wanchain will make users whole.
Market reaction
NIGHT slid to $0.01524 at the low, a record. By press time it had bounced to $0.019, but the 27% daily drop reflects the scale of the sell pressure. The 290 million tokens dumped on DEXs in a short span overwhelmed order books. Trading volumes spiked, and some Cardano-based DEXs saw temporary price dislocations.
Broader context
The attack came shortly after Allbridge Core lost $1.65 million, continuing a string of crypto-infrastructure breaches in 2026. Wanchain has not said whether it will reimburse affected users or attempt to recover the funds. The bridge remains suspended as the investigation continues.
