NIGHT Slumps After Wanchain Bridge Exploit Drains $13.2M
NIGHT plunged after Wanchain disabled a cross-chain bridge route following an exploit that drained 515 million NIGHT (about $13.2M). The incident was attributed to a signature-reuse flaw in the bridge’s TreasuryCheck validator on Cardano, allowing unauthorized withdrawals from the bridge treasury.
Wanchain paused the affected route while it investigates. BlockSec’s preliminary findings indicate the same signature was accepted on Cardano for a far larger withdrawal than a legitimate authorization on BNB Chain, implying attackers could potentially scale withdrawal size by reusing identifiers.
Traders repriced the bridge risk after the pause and on uncertainty around recovery and containment. NIGHT fell roughly 26%–30% in the hours after the news, and reported trading volume spiked above $140M as liquidity moved across Cardano markets.
Importantly, the report frames this as a bridge exploit—not a compromise of Cardano’s base layer or Midnight’s core infrastructure. Still, the bridge outage can disrupt cross-chain liquidity and confidence, keeping short-term volatility elevated for NIGHT.
Bearish
This is a negative, risk-led event for NIGHT because the exploit directly affected cross-chain custody and liquidity backing. The bridge was paused, but traders still need clarity on whether the stolen NIGHT can be traced, frozen/contained, and whether the affected routes remain disabled. That uncertainty typically drives fast selling and wider spreads.
Short-term, the price action is likely to stay pressured while markets reprice bridge-contagion risk and monitor on-chain movement of the drained funds. The spike in volume and the sharp drop (about 26%–30%) suggest liquidity is being routed into safer venues, not just held. Long-term, impact depends on recovery/containment speed and the quality of Wanchain’s post-incident communication; strong evidence and timely mitigations can reduce uncertainty, but until then, cross-chain exposure remains a bearish overhang for NIGHT.